With the rapid, stealthy rush of so many tigers, Montgomery’s company followed the flying figure to the fort, swarmed in at the postern, took the sentries on the ramparts without firing a shot, and in ten minutes were in full possession.
Then, with his own hand, Clark fired a six-pound shot over the town, a signal answered by loud yells from the opposite side of the river, as Bowman’s men rushed in like a tempest through the deserted streets.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SURPRISE.
Governor Rocheblave was roused from a dream, in which he was being decorated with the Grand Cross of the Bath for eminent services to his Britannic majesty, by the sound of whoops, yells, and rifle-shots under his very house. Then came the crash of glass and plaster, as several bullets came through his window, and sent pieces of ceiling spattering over the floor.
The Governor jumped out of bed, scared out of his wits, and madame began to scream at the top of her voice, a scream echoed from every quarter of the “palace,” as the maid-servants heard the racket in the streets.
Then came the boom of four or five cannon, and a louder crash than before, as the big chimney of the government house, struck by a six-pound shot, toppled down over the roof in a mass of ruins.
Then a stillness perfectly awful succeeded for several minutes, followed by the banging of opening windows, as the terrified inhabitants began to look out.
As for Governor Rocheblave, he remembered the bullets too well to dare go to his own windows; and presently came the clatter of hoofs on the pavement below, as a horseman pulled up from full speed. Then a stentorian voice bellowed, in horribly bad French: