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In this order they moved on over broken and difficult ground till two in the afternoon, when they came upon a valley, or hollow, scarcely a musket-shot wide, which ran across their line of march, and, like all the rest of the country, was buried in thick woods.
They killed with musket-shot, and if the fallen gave signs of life they reloaded their arms in the sight of the people and the soldiers and fired them afresh, or else put an end to their victims with their knives. They hunted men down like wild beasts, entered their houses, and dragged them forth to slaughter.
However, it was only two months before that we had become, according to Captain Nemo, "passengers on board the Nautilus," but, in reality, prisoners of its commander. In a few minutes we were within musket-shot of the coast. The whole horizon was hidden behind a beautiful curtain of forests.
In the meantime several of the women leaped overboard and swam on shore, and the men in the boats were so busy in preventing the others from following, that they could give no assistance to the party in the wood, although they were within musket-shot.
Only one boat now remained belonging to the Bermuda, that of the Biscaina having been lost in the affray, so that we had only one boat among three ships. Hearing of this bold proposal among the seamen, the admiral agreed that it should be attempted, and the boat carried them within a musket-shot of the land, not being able to go any nearer on account of the heavy waves that broke on it.
Half an hour passed without any sign that the frigate was aware that the ships were leaving the harbor; then Ralph heard the sound of a distant musket-shot, followed by several others, and had no doubt that one of the frigate's boats on watch near the channel had discovered them.
In that time there occurred four political assassinations; those of Foulon and of Berthier de Sauvigny, his son-in-law, at the Hôtel de Ville; that of M. Durocher, a respectable officer of the gendarmerie, killed at Chaillot, by a musket-shot, in August, 1789; and that of a baker massacred in a riot in the month of October of the same year.
The pirates were too fatigued to follow, but they picked them off as they ran till they were out of musket-shot. The buccaneers apparently then cleared away the stragglers, by pistolling them wherever they could find them. In this employment they beat through the shrubs by the sea, where many poor citizens had hidden themselves after the final routing of the troops.
I do not mean to insinuate that a country is never so much at peace as when at open war; but I do say that a soldier can no where sleep so soundly, nor is he any where so secure from surprise, as when within musket-shot of his enemy. We lay four months in this situation, divided only by a rivulet, without once exchanging shots. Every evening, at the hour
Two volleys assailed the barricade, one after the other. The barricade answered with animation. Then the fire ceased. There was a pause. "Now they are coming at us with the bayonet! They are coming at the double!" said a voice in the barricade. The other voice said, "Let us be off." A last musket-shot was fired. Then a violent blow which we interpreted as a warning shook our wooden wall.
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