Then for the first time the silence in the wood beyond them was broken, the flashes of firearms darted out from the brushwood, and then with a shout a number of men armed with pikes and axes sprang forward to the attack.
A few only of the marauders were in a position to offer any resistance whatever.

The greater portion were buried under the mass of foliage.
Many had been struck down by the trunks or heavy arms of the trees.
All were hampered and confused by the situation in which they found themselves.

Under such circumstances it was a massacre rather than a fight.

Malcolm, seeing the inability of the freebooters to oppose any formidable resistance, sheathed his sword, and left it to the peasants to avenge the countless murders which the band had committed, and the ruin and misery which they had inflicted upon the country.
In a few minutes all was over.

The brigands were shot down, piked, or slain by the heavy axes through the openings in their leafy prison.
Quarter was neither asked for nor given.