The rope was soon fixed, and the last man had scarcely mounted when the daring band were hurrying across the ridgy interior of the island toward the spot whence the cannonade still boomed upon the evening air. And there it was at last, as they crowned the farthest ridge, the tall masts standing up through billowy smoke, and the batteries marked out amid the gathering darkness by the flashes of their own cannon. A deadly volley of English musketry cracked along the cliff, and several of the Dutch were seen to fall while dismay and confusion spread fast among the survivors. Thus, caught between two fires, with the British ships thundering upon them from below, and the British marksmen shooting them down from above, the defenders had no chance; and at length brave old Van Gebhardt, with a look of bitter grief on his iron face, slowly hauled down the Dutch flag in token of surrender.
“Mynheer,” said he to the English captain, as the latter came marching into the fort at the head of his men, “my followers have done all that men could do; but yours have done more.”
“And if we had not done more, we could never have beaten the gallant Dutchmen,” answered the captain, taking off his battered cocked hat with a polite bow.
Thus it was that the English regained St. Helena, over which the British flag flies to this day. Nor has the brave fellow who led that daring attack been forgotten, for the crag which he scaled (and a very grim-looking crag it is) still goes by the name of “Hold-Fast Tom.”
Nils and the Bear[29]
[Nils Holgarsson, a young boy, has been traveling high over the country in company with a wild goose. He is blown from her back during a hard wind, and alights among the iron mines. He is discovered by bears and taken to their cave.]
Father Bear pushed Mother Bear aside.
“Don’t meddle with what you don’t understand!” he roared. “Can’t you scent that human odor about him from afar? I shall eat him at once, or he will play us some mean trick.”
He opened his jaws again; but meanwhile Nils had had time to think, and, quick as a flash, he dug into his knapsack and brought forth some matches—his sole weapon of defense—struck one on his leather breeches, and stuck the burning match into the bear’s open mouth.