fetching and carrying for a master who despised them; as mercenaries who
coined their blood for gold, and were employed by tyrants for the basest
uses. If stung by these mocking voices, they turned in the darkness to
chastise their unseen tormentors, they were certain to be trampled upon
by their comrades, and to be pushed from their narrow pathway into the
depths of the sea. Thus many perished.

The night wore on, and the adventurers still fought it out manfully, but
very slowly, the main body of Spaniards, Germans, and Walloons, soon
after daylight, reaching the opposite shore, having sustained
considerable losses, but in perfect order. The pioneers were not so
fortunate. The tide rose over them before they could effect their
passage, and swept nearly every one away. The rearguard, under Peralta,
not surprised, like the pioneers, in the middle of their passage, by the
rising tide, but prevented, before it was too late; from advancing far
beyond the shore from which they had departed were fortunately enabled to
retrace their steps.

Don Osorio, at the head of the successful adventurers, now effected his
landing upon Duiveland. Reposing themselves but for an instant after
this unparalleled march through the water, of more than six hours, they
took a slight refreshment, prayed to the Virgin Mary and to Saint James,
and then prepared to meet their new enemies on land. Ten companies of
French, Scotch, and English auxiliaries lay in Duiveland, under the
command of Charles Van Boisot. Strange to relate, by an inexplicable
accident, or by treason, that general was slain by his own soldiers, at
the moment when the royal troops landed. The panic created by this event
became intense, as the enemy rose suddenly, as it were, out of the depths
of the ocean to attack them. They magnified the numbers of their
assailants, and fled terror-stricken in every direction. Same swam to