A fusillade of pistol shots rattled through the rigging, but did no serious damage.
The privateersmen crouched below the bulwarks of their taut little schooner until her bow passed over the waist of the brig.
Then, with a ringing cheer, these daring men sprang up and made a simultaneous leap into the Caroline's rigging.
They swarmed to her deck like a crowd of wasps, bent on stinging their victims to death.
Cutlasses were vigorously used.
The sharp clang of steel was drowned at times by the groans of the wounded, the quick crack of the pistols only seemed like an accompaniment to the clashing of the cutlasses.
The Englishmen were driven back, not by weight of numbers, but partly because they were taken unawares, and most of them aroused from slumber.
But in prowess the crew of the privateer had also the advantage.
They were born fighters, and every blow was given with intent to kill.