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Sir Mortimer by Mary Johnston
page 99 of 226 (43%)
tunal was reached, and they in the van, freed from hindrance and delay,
sprang forward over open ground, marked here and there by low bushes and
some trailing growth, sweeping around the fortress to the rear of the
battery, and apparently of a solidity with the universal frame
of things.

Suddenly, beneath the footing of the foremost, the earth gave way and a
line of men stumbled, and pitched forward into a trench which had been
digged, which had been planted with pointed stakes, which had been
cunningly covered over by a leafy roof so thin that a child had broken
through. Not until towards the sunset of that day had Don Luiz de
Guardiola received information which enabled him to lay snares, but
since that hour he had worked with frantic haste. Now he knew the moment
when his springe would be trodden upon, the number of them who would
come stealthily through the tunal to that gin, the nature of Nevil's
attack upon the front, what guard had been left in the town, what upon
the ships. His information was minute and accurate, and, hawk and
serpent, he acted upon it with fierceness and with guile.

The onward rush of the English had been impetuous. They in the rear of
the first upon that frail bridge, unable to stay their steps, plunged
also into the trench; those who were latest to clear the tunal surged
forward in consternation and confusion. Suddenly, from a low earthwork
hastily raised in the shadow of the fortress wall, and masked by bushes,
burst a withering fire of chain-shot from cannon and culverin, of
slighter missiles from falcon and bastard and saker, caliver and
harquebus. The trench, dug in a half-circle, either end touching the
tunal, made with the space it enclosed, and which was now crowded by
the English, an iron trap, into which with thunder and flame the Spanish
ordnance was pouring death.
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