New-York tribune., 1906-02-25
SIR NIGEL
CorhKae9 fIom pare 10


stone discharged from an engine, and
her men also were struggling in the waves,
none having leisure to lend them a hand
4 n second English ship was caught between
two OF the Spanish vessels and over
whelmed by a rush of boarders so that
not man of her was left alive On the
other hand, Mowbray and Audlev had
each taken the carracks which were
opposed to them, and the battle in the
center, after swaying this way and that,
was turning now in favor of the Islanders
The Black Prince, with the Lion, the
4 Grace Marie and four other ships. had
swept round to turn the Spanish flank;
/ but the movement was seen, and the
! Spanlards had ten ships with which to
meet 1t, one of them their great carrack
the Saint Iago di Compostella. To this
ship the Prince had attached his little
! cog and strove desperately to board her;
but her side was SO high and the defense
so desperate that his men could never
get beyond her bulwarks, but were
hurled down again and again with
Clang and clash to the deck beneath.
Her side bristled with CrOSSbOwmen, who
shot straight down on the packed waist
of the Lion, SO that the dead Law there
in heaps. But the most dangerous of all
was a swarthy blaCk-bearded giant in the
tops, who Crouched so that none could
see him, but rising every now and then
with a huge lump of iron between his
hands, hurled it down with such force
that nothing would stop it. Again and
again these ponderous bolts crashed
through the deck and hurtled down into
the bottom OF the ship. starting the planks
and shattering all that came in their way.
The Prince, clad in that dark armor
which gave him his name, was directing
the attack from the poop when the ship
man rushed wildly up to him with fear
on his face.
Sirel" he cried, THE ship may not
stand against these blowsi \ few more
viii sink herl Already the water floods
inboardr
The Prince looked up, and as he did so
the shaggy beard showed once more and
two brawny arms swept downward. \
great slug, whizzing down, beat a gaping
hole in the deck, and fell rending and
irving into the hold below
The master-mariner tore his grizzled
hair. Another leak" he cried. " | pray
TO Saint Leonard to bear us up this dayi
Twenty of my shipmen are baling with
buckets; but the water rises on them fast
The vessel may not float another hour.
The Prince had snatched a crossbow
from one of his attendants and leveled it
at the Spaniard's 5 tops. AT the very
instant when the seaman stood erect
with a fresh bar in his hands, the bolt
took him full in the face, and his body
fell forward over the parapet, hanging
there head downward. A howl of exulta-
ton burst from the English at the sight
answered by wild roar of anger from the
Spaniards.
A seaman had run from the Lions hold
and whispered in the ear of the shipman.
He turned an ashen face upon the Prince.
" 1t is even as ! say, sire. The ship is
sinking beneath our feetl" he cried.
The more need that we should gain
another, said he ." Sir Henry Stokes, Sir
Thomas Stourton, William, John Of Clifton
here lies our road! Advance my banner,
Thomas de Mohun! On, and the day is
ours!"
BY a desperate scramble a dozen men,
II u. I, ! Z