Page 87 - A Knight of the White Cross

"I never heard a more welcome shout, Piccolomini, than that which you
gave when you fell upon the Moslems, for in truth the issue of the conflict

was doubtful. I was delighted when this morning at daybreak Santoval's
galley rowed in. We had all kept watch during the night, thinking the

pirates might obtain boats and make an attack upon us; and, with but
twenty of us fit to wield a sword, our position would have been a bad one,
and at any rate they might have recaptured the prizes. We agreed that

Santoval and his knights should land at once. This they did. Sir John
Boswell had of course told me how his boat had been chased by a fishing

craft, manned by a large number of the pirates, and that he feared the rest
might similarly have escaped, and might have gone to bring some more of
Hassan Ali's ships upon us.

"As soon as Santoval landed, some of the natives came down and told him

that there was not a pirate remaining there, the rest having started in
another boat a few minutes after the one that had chased Boswell. Santoval
left two of his men with orders to ascend to the highest spot on the island,

and to keep watch, and then brought the rest off to his galley. Our first step
was, of course, to send all the women and children ashore. Then we

consulted as to what had best be done if the pirates should come back in
force. We hoped, at any rate, that this would not happen until you arrived.
We expected that you would be here before noon; but we decided that,

should they get here before you, we from our galley would embark on
Santoval's, as it was better to fight in one strongly manned boat than to

divide our forces.

"It was scarce half an hour after Santoval came down before the men left on

the lookout appeared on the beach. On fetching them off, they told us that
as soon as they reached the top of the hill they saw five vessels approaching

with sails and oars, and that they would be here in half an hour at the
outside. We at once abandoned my galley, brought the rowers and the
wounded here, and prepared for the fight. As you saw, they ran their two

biggest ships alongside us, and for two hours the fight went on. They were
crowded with men, who in vain strove to get a footing on our decks. Had

we only had these two to deal with, we should have had nothing to fear,
heavily manned though they were; but the other three kept sailing