“Thanks, Piccolomini, for arriving so opportunely,” Santoval, who was seated on the deck leaning against the bulwarks, said, as his fellow commander leapt on board, and came towards him.

“Would that I had arrived sooner, Santoval, for I see that you have been grievously wounded!”

“Ay.  One of the paynims’ cannonballs has carried off both my legs below the knee.  The leech has been searing the wounds with a hot iron, and says that he thinks I shall get over it; but if so I fear that my fighting days are past, unless, indeed, I fight seated on a chair.  However, I ought not to grumble.  I have lost many brave comrades, and others are wounded more sorely than I am.”

Sir Louis Ricord now joined them.  He embraced Piccolomini warmly.

“I never heard a more welcome shout, Piccolomini, than that which you gave when you fell upon the Moslems, for in truth the issue of the conflict was doubtful.  I was delighted when this morning at daybreak Santoval’s galley rowed in.  We had all kept watch during the night, thinking the pirates might obtain boats and make an attack upon us; and, with but twenty of us fit to wield a sword, our position would have been a bad one, and at any rate they might have recaptured the prizes.  We agreed that Santoval and his knights should land at once.  This they did.  Sir John Boswell had of course told me how his boat had been chased by a fishing craft, manned by a large number of the pirates, and that he feared the rest might similarly have escaped, and might have gone to bring some more of Hassan Ali’s ships upon us.

“As soon as Santoval landed, some of the natives came down and told him that there was not a pirate remaining there, the rest having started in another boat a few minutes after the one that had chased Boswell.  Santoval left two of his men with orders to ascend to the highest spot on the island, and to keep watch, and then brought the rest off to his galley.  Our first step was, of course, to send all the women and children ashore.  Then we consulted as to what had best be done if the pirates should come back in force.  We hoped, at any rate, that this would not happen until you arrived.  We expected that you would be here before noon; but we decided that, should they get here before you, we from our galley would embark on Santoval’s, as it was better to fight in one strongly manned boat than to divide our forces.

“It was scarce half an hour after Santoval came down before the men left on the lookout appeared on the beach.  On fetching them off, they told us that as soon as they reached the top of the hill they saw five vessels approaching with sails and oars, and that they would be here in half an hour at the outside.  We at once abandoned my galley, brought the rowers and the wounded here, and prepared for the fight.  As you saw, they ran their two biggest ships alongside us, and for two hours the fight went on.  They were crowded with men, who in vain strove to get a footing on our decks.  Had we only had these two to deal with, we should have had nothing to fear, heavily manned though they were; but the other three kept sailing backwards and forwards, discharging their guns into us as they passed, firing not only shot, but bags of bullets.