And then, just as Captain Blood accounted the victory
won, and that his way out of that trap to the open
sea beyond lay clear, the fort suddenly revealed its
formidable and utterly unsuspected strength.
With a roar the cannons-royal proclaimed themselves,
and the Arabella staggered under a blow that smashed
her bulwarks at the waist and scattered death and
confusion among the seamen gathered there.
Had not Pitt, her master, himself seized the whipstaff
and put the helm hard over to swing her sharply off
to starboard, she must have suffered still worse from
the second volley that followed fast upon the first.
Meanwhile it had fared even worse with the frailer
Infanta. Although hit by one shot only, this
had crushed her larboard timbers on the waterline,
starting a leak that must presently have filled her,
but for the prompt action of the experienced Yberville
in ordering her larboard guns to be flung overboard.
Thus lightened, and listing now to starboard, he
fetched her about, and went staggering after the retreating
Arabella, followed by the fire of the fort, which
did them, however, little further damage.
Out of range, at last, they lay to, joined by the
Elizabeth and the San Felipe, to consider their position.
THE DUPES
It was a crestfallen Captain Blood who presided over
that hastily summoned council held on the poop-deck
of the Arabella in the brilliant morning sunshine.
It was, he declared afterwards, one of the bitterest
moments in his career. He was compelled to digest
the fact that having conducted the engagement with
a skill of which he might justly be proud, having
destroyed a force so superior in ships and guns and
men that Don Miguel de Espinosa had justifiably deemed
it overwhelming, his victory was rendered barren by
three lucky shots from an unsuspected battery by which
they had been surprised. And barren must their
victory remain until they could reduce the fort that
still remained to defend the passage.
At first Captain Blood was for putting his ships in
order and making the attempt there and then.
But the others dissuaded him from betraying an impetuosity
usually foreign to him, and born entirely of chagrin
and mortification, emotions which will render unreasonable
the most reasonable of men. With returning calm,
he surveyed the situation. The Arabella was
no longer in case to put to sea; the Infanta was merely
kept afloat by artifice, and the San Felipe was almost
as sorely damaged by the fire she had sustained from
the buccaneers before surrendering.
Clearly, then, he was compelled to admit in the end
that nothing remained but to return to Maracaybo,
there to refit the ships before attempting to force
the passage.
And so, back to Maracaybo came those defeated victors
of that short, terrible fight. And if anything
had been wanting further to exasperate their leader,
he had it in the pessimism of which Cahusac did not
economize expressions. Transported at first to
heights of dizzy satisfaction by the swift and easy
victory of their inferior force that morning, the
Frenchman was now plunged back and more deeply than
ever into the abyss of hopelessness. And his
mood infected at least the main body of his own followers.
