Then suddenly
the silence of the dawn was broken with fierce war cries.
"At them," shouted the Spaniards, "God is with us!"
The sleeping Frenchmen started from their beds in terror. Half
naked they sprang to arms. On every side the Spaniards poured in.
The dim light of dawn showed the dark cruel faces, and the gleam
of drawn swords. Then clash of steel, screams of frightened women
and children, curses, prayers, all mingled together in terrible
confusion.
At the first alarm Laudonni?re sprang from his bed, and seizing his
sword called his men to follow him. But the Spaniards surrounded
him, his men were slain and scattered, and he himself was forced
back into the yard of his house. Here there was a tent. This
stopped his pursuers, for they stumbled over the cordage and became
entangled with it. The confusion gave Laudonni?re a few minutes'
respite in which he escaped through a breach in the ramparts, and
took refuge in the forest. A few others fleeing this way and that
escaped likewise. But some, the first moment of terror past, resolved
to return and throw themselves on the mercy of the Spaniards rather
than face starvation in the woods.
"They are men" said one; "it may be when their fury is spent they
will spare our lives. Even if they slay us what of that? It is but
a moment's pain. Better that than to starve here in the woods or
be torn to pieces by wild beasts.
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