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But whose is the
fault of that delay? We have been a month in doing what should have
been done, and what but for your blundering would have been done,
inside of a week."
"Ah ca! Nom de Dieu! Was it my fault that...."
"Was it any one else's fault that you ran your ship La Foudre
aground on the shoal in the middle of the lake? You would not be
piloted. You knew your way. You took no soundings even. The
result was that we lost three precious days in getting canoes to
bring off your men and your gear. Those three days gave the folk
at Gibraltar not only time to hear of our coming, but time in which
to get away. After that, and because of it, we had to follow the
Governor to his infernal island fortress, and a fortnight and best
part of a hundred lives were lost in reducing it. That's how we
come to have delayed until this Spanish fleet is fetched round from
La Guayra by a guarda-costa; and if ye hadn't lost La Foudre, and
so reduced our fleet from three ships to two, we should even now be
able to fight our way through with a reasonable hope of succeeding.


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