the soldiers, and no fire could be lighted for fear of revealing their presence to the French. Inside Fort Caroline, La Vigne was keeping watch with his company, but taking pity on his sentinels, wet and fatigued with the heavy rain, he let them leave their stations with the approach of day, and finally he himself retired to his own quarters. With the break of day on September 20, the feast of St. Matthew, Menéndez was already alert. Before dawn he held a consultation with his captains, after which the entire party knelt down and prayed for a victory over their enemies. Then he set out for the fort over the narrow path which led to it from the woods. A French prisoner, Jean Francois, led the way, his hands bound behind him, and the end of the rope held by Menéndez himself. Menéndez's attack In the darkness the Spaniards soon lost the path in crossing a marsh with water up to their knees, and were compelled to wait until daybreak in order to find the way again. When morning came, Menéndez set out in the direction of the fort, and on reaching a slight elevation Francois announced that Fort Caroline lay just beyond, down on the river's edge. Then the camp master, Pedro Valdez y Menéndez, son-in-law of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, and the Asturian, Ochoa, went forward to reconnoitre. They were hailed by a man they took to be a sentinel. "Who goes there?" he cried. "Frenchmen," they answered, and, closing upon him, Ochoa struck him in the face with his knife, which he had not unsheathed. The Frenchman warded off the blow with his sword, but in stepping back to avoid a thrust from Valdez he tripped, fell backwards, and began shouting. Then Ochoa stabbed him and killed him. Menéndez, hearing the shouting, thought that Valdez and Ochoa were being slain, and cried out "Santiago, at them! God is helping! Victory! the French are killed! The camp master is inside the fort and has taken it," and the entire force rushed down the path. On the way two Frenchmen whom they met were killed. Some of the Frenchmen living in the outbuildings set up a shout on seeing two of their number killed, at which a man within the fort opened the wicket of the main entrance to admit the fugitives. The camp master closed with him