by the western breach. Meanwhile, the trumpeters were announcing a victory from their stations on the ramparts beside the flags. At this the Frenchmen who remained alive entirely lost heart, and while the main body of the Spaniards were going through the quarters, killing the old, the sick, and the infirm, quite a number of the French succeeded in getting over the palisade and escaping. Some of the fugitives made their way into the forest. Jacques Ribault with his ship the Pearl, and another vessel with a cargo of wine and supplies, were anchored in the river but a very short distance from the fort and rescued others who rowed out in a couple of boats; and some even swam the distance to the ships. By this time the fort was virtually won, and Menéndez turned his attention to the vessels anchored in the neighborhood. A number of women and children had been spared and his thoughts turned to how he could rid himself of them. His decision was promptly reached. A trumpeter with a flag of truce was sent to summon someone to come ashore from the ships to treat of conditions of surrender. Receiving no response, he sent Jean Francois to the Pearl with the proposal that the French should have a safe-conduct to return to France with the women and children in any one vessel they should select, provided they would surrender their remaining ships and all of their armament. But Jacques Ribault would listen to no such terms, and on his refusal, Menéndez turned the guns of the captured fort against Ribault and succeeded in sinking one of the vessels in shallow water, where it could be recovered without damage to the cargo. Jacques Ribault received the crew of the sinking ship into the Pearl, and then dropped a league down the river to where stood two more of the ships which had arrived from France, and which had not even been unloaded. Hearing from the carpenter, Jean de Hais, who had escaped in a small boat, of the taking of the fort, Jacques Ribault decided to remain a little longer in the river to see if he might save any of his compatriots. Massacre of the French garrison at Fort Caroline So successful had been the attack that the victory was won within an hour without loss to the Spaniards of a single man, and