Ye may be shure of that." Seeing that the pirates were now mustering round their guns, and that the ships were ranging up for action, Charlie thought it prudent to retire.

Hitherto no attention had been paid to them, but 'twas probable enough that, when the pirates' blood became heated by the fight, they would vent their fury upon their captives.

He therefore advised not only the native officers, but the sailors, to retire to their casemates; which, as the guns placed in them did not command the position taken up by the ships, were at presented untenanted by any of the garrison.
Presently the noise of guns proclaimed that the engagement had begun.
The boom of the cannon of the ships was answered by an incessant fire from the far more numerous artillery of the fortress, while now and then a heavy explosion, close at hand, told of the bursting of the bombs from the mortar vessels, in the fortress.
Charlie had been thinking of the best measures to be taken, to aid his friends, ever since the squadron came in sight; and, after sitting quietly for half an hour, he called his officers around him.
"I am convinced," he said, "that if unaided from within, the ships will have no chance whatever of taking this fortress; but I think that we may help them.

The upper fort, which contains the magazine, commands the whole of the interior.

But its guns do not bear upon the ships where they are anchored.