204 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



" The Spaniards were still some sixty yards off, but 

 \ve were sure of our mark at a hundred and sixty, 

 and that if they had been squirrels instead of men. 

 We fired : the captain and lieutenant, the third 

 officer, two sergeants, and another man writhed for 

 an instant upon the grass. The next moment they 

 stretched themselves out dead. 



"All was now confusion among the musketeers, 

 who ran in every direction. Most of them took to the 

 wood, but about a dozen remained and lifted up their 

 officers to see if there was any spark of life left in 

 them. 



" ' Load again, quick ! ' said Asa in a low voice. 

 We did so, and six more Spaniards tumbled over. 

 Those who still kept their legs now ran off as if the 

 soles of their shoes had been of red-hot iron. 



" We set to work to pick out our touch-holes and 

 clean our rifles, knowing that we might not have 

 time later, and that a single miss-fire might cost us 

 all our lives. We then loaded, and began to cal- 

 culate what the Spaniards would do next. It is true 

 they had lost their officers ; but there were five 

 Acadians with them, and those were the men we 

 had most cause to fear. Meantime the vultures and 

 turkey-buzzards had already begun to assemble, and 

 presently hundreds of them were circling and hover- 

 ing over the carcasses, which they as yet, however, 

 feared to touch. 



"Just then Eighteous, who had the sharpest eye 



