Followed by five hundred picked men, he set forth, and for
three days, beaten and drenched by the pitiless storm, he wandered
through over-flowed swamps and tangled forests. He had compelled
several of the Seloy Indians to go with him and act as guides; but
finally, believing that they were purposely leading him astray, he put
them to death with great cruelty, and trusted to his own knowledge to
lead him to the great river. At length he reached it, and following
its course, came during the night to a high bluff, from which he looked
down upon the few twinkling lights of Fort Caroline beneath him.
Meantime the raging of the elements had caused the greatest anxiety to
those who remained within the fort, for they were fearful of its effect
upon the ships of Admiral Ribault; and though they of course knew
nothing of their fate, they were already beginning to regard them as
lost.
Under Simon, the armorer, as captain of the guard, Rene de Veaux had
done duty with the few old men and invalids who were pressed into
service as sentinels, and he had manfully shouldered his cross-bow, and
paced the walls through many long hours of storm, rain, and darkness.
Although, in his pride at thus performing the duties of a real soldier,
the boy allowed no word of complaint to escape him, he felt what the
others expressed openly--that this guard duty, now that the Spaniards
and savages had departed, and in the midst of a storm so terrible that
it did not seem possible for mortals to face it, was an unnecessary
hardship.
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