"Forward, gentlemen!" he cried, and instantly the whole mass closed in on the pirates. Such a fight as Teach and his men made was marvellous. For each life the Spaniards took the pirates exacted a high price, but the odds were too great for any human valor, however splendid, to withstand, and in a brief space the last of the buccaneers lay dying on the hill.
Teach was game to the last. Pierced with a dozen wounds, his sword broken to pieces, he lifted himself on his elbow, and with a smile of defiance gasped out the brave chorus of the song of the poet of London town:
"Though life now is pleasant and sweet to the sense,
We'll be damnably mouldy a hundred years hence."
"Tell Morgan," he faltered, "we did not betray—faithful to the end——"
And so he died as he had lived.
"A brave man!" exclaimed de Tobar with some feeling in his voice.
"But a black-hearted scoundrel, nevertheless," answered Alvarado sternly. "Had you seen him last night——"
"Ye have been successful, I see, gentlemen," cried the Viceroy, riding up with the main body. "Where is Alvarado?"
"I am here, your Excellency."
"You are yet alive, señor?"