The terror which haunted the future of every Huguenot in France now
menaced the New World.
Ribault gave his counsel for an immediate attack by sea, before Menendez
completed his defense or received reinforcements. Laudonniere was ill in
bed. The fleet sailed as soon as it could be made ready, and with it
nearly every able fighting man in the settlement. Pierre, nearly crying
with wrath and disappointment, was left among the non-combatants at the
fort. In vain did old Challeux the carpenter try to console him. It
might be, as Challeux said, that there would be plenty of chances to
fight after his beard was grown, but now he was missing everything.
That night a terrible storm arose and continued for days. The marshes
became a boundless sea; the forests were whipped like weeds in the wind.
Where had the fleet found refuge? or had it been hurled to destruction
by the rage of wind and sea? Laudonniere, in the driving rain, came from
his sick-bed to direct the work on the defenses, which were broken down
in three or four places. Besides the four dog-boys, the cook, the
brewer, an old cross-bow maker, and the old carpenter, there were two
shoemakers, a musician, four valets, fourscore camp-followers who did
not know the use of arms, and the crowd of women and children.
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