A moment later a heavy volley rang out, and numbers of the convicts fell.
Their two leaders, however, and some twenty of their followers, keeping in a close body, rushed at the line of soldiers with clubbed muskets, and with the suddenness and fury of the rush burst their way through the line, and then scattering, fled across the country, pursued by a dropping fire of musketry.
The officers in command, seeing that but a fraction had escaped, ordered one company to pursue, and marched the rest into the prison yard.

It was already deserted; the convicts had scattered to their huts, those who had arms throwing them away.

Dotted here and there over the square were the bodies of eight or ten convicts and as many warders, whose skulls had been smashed in by their infuriated assailants as soon as they had obtained possession of their muskets.

Close to the gate lay the six soldiers who had furnished the guard; these were all dead or mortally wounded.
The Governor and the officials issued from the house as soon as the soldiers entered the yard.

The first step to do was to turn all the convicts out of the huts and to iron them.