The blockade was not more
successful. Haco had provided ample stores for the small garrison which
he had considered sufficient to protect the promontory of Lihou,
naturally almost impregnable; and the force defending the Vale, camped
chiefly on Lancresse Common, was only nominally blockaded. The sallies,
made from time to time, were ordered more with a view of keeping up the
martial spirit of the men than with that of providing for wants, for the
friendly inhabitants of the eastern side of the island, emboldened by
recent proofs that the dreaded Voizins were not invincible, ran their
boats almost with impunity into the little creeks into which the heavier
craft of the enemy could not follow them.
Judith hardly noticed these details. Her attention was fixed upon the
key of the position. She knew that a resistance of this description was
altogether contrary to the unwarlike character of the natives; she was
convinced that they were actuated by some abnormal spirit, and that if
the motive power were removed the machine would collapse. She made it
her business to ascertain what the spring was that guided them.
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