RALEGH AND GI-AVANA LA VIEJA 47 



So died, in an obscure ambush laid by foemen who 

 were far from being 'worthy of his steel,' all that was 

 mortal of young Kalegh. He had shown, more than 

 once before, his fierj'' temper and his utter contempt of 

 personal danger. He had also shown not a little of firm 

 endurance and persistency. Whatever seed of still finer 

 qualities to come may have laid within him had lacked 

 time to grow. A few incidents of youthful turbulence and 

 of soldierly valour, and an anecdote or two which show that 

 he had before him the prospect of a somewhat ambitious 

 alliance, make up the story of his short life. He had 

 barely reached twenty-three years of age when he fell at 

 St. Thomas under the musket of the Spaniard Erinetta. 



* Young Ealegh had fallen in the moment of apparent 

 victory, when the Spaniards were rapidly retreating 

 before the vigorous onset of the Englishmen. Erinetta, 

 by whose hand he died, fell almost instantly. Part of 

 the defeated troops took refuge in a convent called the 

 monastery of St. Francis, at the opposite end of the 

 village. But the soldiers under George Kalegh and 

 Keymis quickly stormed it. Their surviving enemies 

 took flight : first towards the nearest forest, and eventu- 

 ally to the place to which the women, the invalids, and 

 children had been already taken ; for all these had left 

 St. Thomas before the attack made by the Spaniards on 

 the Enghsh camp. That the Spanish Governor had 

 fallen in the onset at the entrance of the village the 

 Englishmen learnt from the Spanish priest at St. Thomas, 

 too ill to join in the retreat, who identified his body. Two 

 other Spanish officers had fallen. The priest was pro- 

 tected and cared for, but it was his ill-fortune to be 

 forgotten in the hurry of the English departure. 



