Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/177

Rh the hands of the same enemy. On the night of September tenth, the city was startled  by loud cannonading to the southwest, and  the sky grew lurid with the flames of burning farmhouses and villages. Boisot had made the first bold move. Finding that the great dyke was but insufficiently guarded, he  attacked it in the dead of night, at the same  time setting fire to and ruining several adjacent strongholds of the enemy.

When morning dawned he was in possession of the coveted Land-scheiding, without the loss of a single man. The discomfited Spaniards had but too late discovered their  mistake in underestimating the courage of  their assailants. A dove flew in on the morning of the eleventh, sent by Boisot, telling of the victory. Jacqueline carried it to the statehouse with the first feeling of enthusiasm she had experienced in many a  long day. Perhaps the city really would be relieved, and perhaps Gysbert might be restored to them after all!