“And ’tis no good firing again,” I said.  “We can’t depress the gun enough to hull her or hit the men, and the shot will only cut holes in the rigging.  Would we had tried round shot and brought down her mast.”

“’Tis all hands to repel boarders now,” returned Joe, “and there’ll be a few broken heads afore we are done.”

Runnles meanwhile had had the good sense and the ready wit to load three muskets apiece from the ship’s armory.  We each of us took one, having the other two in reserve at our feet.  The smack came on bravely, and I could now see that her deck was swarming with men.  She had deflected somewhat from her straight course, and was coming up on our larboard quarter, whither we hastened to meet the attempt to board us.  In another minute the vessels touched, and a few shots were fired from the smack, but without damage to us, for the impact had set her rocking, so that ’twas impossible for the Frenchmen to take good aim.  Next moment they threw grapnels into our rigging, and the vessels were locked together.

The whole of our company, save Dilly at the wheel, was spread along the bulwarks, and at my word twelve muskets sped their slugs among the men endeavoring to swarm up our side.  There were cries and groans enough now, and not merely from the enemy, for while the foremost of them was attempting to board, others beyond fired at us, and I knew from the bosun’s bellow of rage that he for one had been hit.  We snatched up a second musket each, but before we could turn to fire them, three of the Frenchmen had gained a footing on our deck.

Making a rush for these, we shoved them by main force back over the side, only just in time to meet another group who had scrambled up.  It was no longer possible to fire.  We clubbed our muskets and dealt about us lustily, cheers and yells and groans mingling in a babel the like of which I had never heard before.  I reckoned that there were at least three Frenchmen to every one of us, and Duguay-Trouin was with them; I heard his voice shouting encouragement.  ’Twas lucky that their deck was lower than ours, for if we had been level I doubt not we had soon been overpowered by the weight of numbers.  But they, being below us, and crowded to boot, could not use their superiority to advantage, and though they did what mortal men might to get at us, we beat them back time after time.

Joe, beside me, was a host in himself.  ’Twas clear fighting and not coopering was the trade he was born to; he cut and thrust and jabbed and smote with his musket, and more than once drove a Frenchman backward by mere shoving with his mighty shoulders, breathing hard, shouting loving farewells to the men he heaved into the smack or the sea, some of them, I fear, never to fight again.  But in truth we all fought with might and main; we knew how much depended on the issue.

And let no Englishman ever despise the French as an enemy, as ’tis the fashion with some vainglorious folk to do.  I have fought them, and I know, and I say they are gallant fighters, and as brave as men can be.