The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into the Rose’s waist, but only to their destruction.  Between the poop and forecastle (as was then the fashion) the upper-deck beams were left open and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on either side; and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by those behind, fell headlong between the beams to the main-deck below, to be slaughtered helpless in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the bulkheads fore and aft; while the few who kept their footing on the gangway, after vain attempts to force the stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped overboard again amid a shower of shot and arrows.  The fire of the English was as steady as it was quick; and though three-fourths of the crew had never smelt powder before, they proved well the truth of the old chronicler’s saying (since proved again more gloriously than ever, at Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman), that “the English never fight better than in their first battle.”

Thrice the Spaniards clambered on board, and thrice surged back before that deadly hail.  The decks on both sides were very shambles; and Jack Brimblecombe, who had fought as long as his conscience would allow him, found, when he turned to a more clerical occupation, enough to do in carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, without giving that spiritual consolation which he longed to give, and they to receive.  At last there was a lull in that wild storm.  No shot was heard from the Spaniard’s upper-deck.

Amyas leaped into the mizzen rigging, and looked through the smoke.  Dead men he could descry through the blinding veil, rolled in heaps, laid flat; dead men and dying:  but no man upon his feet.  The last volley had swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to escape that fiery shower:  and alone at the helm, grinding his teeth with rage, his mustachios curling up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain.

Now was the moment for a counter-stroke.  Amyas shouted for the boarders, and in two minutes more he was over the side, and clutching at the Spaniard’s mizzen rigging.

What was this?  The distance between him and the enemy’s side was widening.  Was she sheering off?  Yes—­and rising too, growing bodily higher every moment, as if by magic.  Amyas looked up in astonishment and saw what it was.  The Spaniard was heeling fast over to leeward away from him.  Her masts were all sloping forward, swifter and swifter—­the end was come, then!

“Back! in God’s name back, men!  She is sinking by the head!” And with much ado some were dragged back, some leaped back—­all but old Michael Heard.

With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure, like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand.

“Come back, Michael!  Leap while you may!” shouted a dozen voices.  Michael turned—­