Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/205

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VICTORY.
199

than enough to last three hours. The whole stock, at the outset, was but twelve pounds. "Great God! it was then, in our moment of need, that thou didst discourage our enemies, and make them to turn their backs upon us in flight."

Claude Bonnet, a French soldier, discovered that one of them was running away, so he went forward to fire upon him, and at that very moment a ball from the enemy struck against the house, rebounded, and entered the fleshy part of his arm, without touching the bone. This showed us that we were not invulnerable, and that if we had been spared, it was to God that we owed our preservation, and to Him we ought to return thanks.

My dear wife was the surgeon; she had him laid upon a bed without any noise, and applied the first dressing to his wound with her own hands. The engagement lasted from eight o'clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, and during the whole time there had never been the least cessation in the firing, except for a very few minutes after the first man was killed. We had no one wounded but Claude Bonnet, with the exception of a slight hurt one of the children received from a piece of slate striking against his thumb. The loss sustained by the enemy was three killed and seven wounded, as we afterwards ascertained from the Irishmen who were on board. When the assailants had returned to their vessel, we inspected the stations they had occupied on shore, and we found a quantity of blood which they had evidently tried to hide by treading earth and leaves into it.

The privateer remained at anchor for some time, and we feared they might be preparing for a second attack, for which we were in very poor condition, being so near the end of our powder. We determined, however, that if they should land