106 THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMERICA 



prise ; aud that in the letter which he had received from 

 my Lord Admiral, there was a postscript, which he 

 showed me, written in these words : ' ' Captain John 

 Ribault, as I was enclosing of this letter, I received a 

 certain advice, that Don Pedro Melendez departeth from 

 Spain, to go to the coast of New France. See that you 

 suffer him not to encroach upon you, no more than he 

 would that you should encroach upon him." 



''You see," quoth he, "the charge that I have; and 

 I leave it unto youi-self to judge if you could do any less 

 in this case, considering the certain advertisement that 

 we have, that they are already on land, and will invade 

 us." . . . 



The night between the 19th and 20th of September, 

 La eigne kept watch with his company, wherein he used 

 Taken by all cudcavour, althougli it rained without ceasing. When 



the day was, therefore, come, and that he saw that it still 

 rained worse than it did before, he pitied the sentinels so 

 moiled and wet, and thinking the Spaniards would not 

 have come in such a strange time, he let them depart, 

 and, to say the truth, he went himself unto his lodging. 

 In the meanwhile, one which had something to do with- 

 out the fort, and my trumpeter, which went up unto the 

 rampart, perceived a troop of Spaniards which came 

 down from a little knapiie, where, incontinently, they 

 began to cry alarm, and the trumpeter also, which, as 

 soon as ever I understood, forthwith I issued out, with 

 my target and sword in my hand, and got me into the 

 midst of the court, where I began to cry upon my sol- 

 diers. ... As I went to succour them which were 

 defending the breach on the southwest side, I encountered, 

 by chance, a great company of Spaniards, which had 

 already repulsed our men, and were now entered, which 

 drove me back unto the court of the fort . . . and, 

 in the meanwhile, I saved myself by the breach, which 

 was on the west side, near unto my lieutenant's lodging 

 and gateway, into the woods, where I found certain of 



