volley of English musketry cracked along the cliff, and several of the Dutch were seen to fall while dismay and confusion spread fast among the survivors. Thus, caught between two fires, with the British ships thundering upon them from below, and the British marksmen shooting them down from above, the defenders had no chance; and at length brave old Van Gebhardt, with a look of bitter grief on his iron face, slowly hauled down the Dutch flag in token of surrender.
"Mynheer," said he to the English captain, as the latter came marching into the fort at the head of his men, "my followers have done all that men could do; but yours have done more."
"And if we had not done more, we could never have beaten the gallant Dutchmen," answered the captain, taking off his battered cocked hat with a polite bow.
Thus it was that the English regained St. Helena, over which the British flag flies to this day. Nor has the brave fellow who led that daring attack been forgotten, for the crag which he scaled (and a very grim-looking crag it is) still goes by the name of "Holdfast Tom."
