The shot was returned, and a quarter of an hour
later, while the fleet was under full sail, the Kent flew the signal for
a general action. One by one the vessels anchored at various points
opposite the fortifications, and soon a hundred and fifty guns were
blazing away at the massive bastions and curtains, answered vigorously by
Angria's two hundred and fifty.
Desmond was all excitement. The deafening roar of the guns, the huge
columns of smoke that floated heavily over the fort, and sometimes
enveloped the vessels, the bray of trumpets, the beating of tom toms, the
shouts of men, set his blood tingling: and though he afterwards witnessed
other stirring scenes, he never forgot the vivid impression of the fight
at Gheria.
About three o'clock a shell set fire to one of the Pirate's grabs--one
that had formerly been taken by him from the Company. Leaving its
moorings, it drifted among the main pirate fleet of grabs which still lay
lashed together where Desmond had last seen them by the blaze of the
burning gallivats. They were soon alight. The fire spread rapidly to the
dockyard, caught the unfinished grabs on the stocks, and before long the
whole of Angria's shipping was a mass of flame.
Meanwhile the bombardment had made little impression on the
fortifications, and it appeared to the admiral that time was being
wasted. Accordingly he gave orders to elevate the guns and fire over the
walls into the interior of the fort. A shell from one of the bomb ketches
fell plump into one of the outhouses of the palace and set it on fire.
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