Barthelemy gazed scornfully around, and quietly folded his arms.
"They are only Portuguese," he said contemptuously.
The corsairs burst into a loud roar of laughter and pressed closer to the ship, whose defenders, terrified by the sight of the fierce, laughing faces, discharged their guns without taking correct aim, not even doing the rigging of the Sea Devil the slightest damage. The grappling irons of the latter were already flung on her foe, and the next instant the savage pirates sprang on deck, so overwhelming the crew by their furious onslaught that, unheeding their officers' commands, they flung down their weapons and leaped into the sea.
The battle continued on the deck of the merchantman, whose firing had alarmed the other forty-one vessels, which now also began to discharge their guns right and left, but without coming nearer, for they had no desire to mingle in the fray, and, in the very midst of the fleet, the pirates killed one half the Portuguese sailors, while losing only two of their own number.
Barthelemy became master of the ship, and lashing it to the Sea Devil, sailed off with both vessels at a wonderful rate of speed.
The two men-of-war that were guarding the fleet now appeared and gave chase to the pirate craft.
Barthelemy fled for a time and, after drawing the two ships far enough away, he suddenly turned, divided his crew between his own vessel and the prize, and sailed toward the pursuers.
The latter seemed startled by this audacity, signalled to each other, and while the pirates were wondering what was to be the outcome of their clumsy manœuvres, they stopped the chase and returned to the fleet, leaving the Sea Devil to sail joyously over the high seas with her booty.
The pirates landed on the coast of Guiana in a very merry mood. They had plenty of money; for they had found in the captured ship eight thousand gold coins, strings of oriental pearls sent by the Emperor of Brazil as a gift to the Queen of Portugal, and whole chests of valuable goods.