The shot fell short; they did not the slightest damage.
Paul's men laughed aloud, and fired their pistols in the air.
Not a splinter was made, not a drop of blood spilled throughout the affair.

The intentional harmlessness of the result, as to human life, was only equalled by the desperate courage of the deed.

It formed, doubtless, one feature of the compassionate contempt of Paul towards the town, that he took such paternal care of their lives and limbs.
Had it been possible to have landed a few hours earlier not a ship nor a house could have escaped.

But it was the lesson, not the loss, that told.

As it was, enough damage had been done to demonstrate--as Paul had declared to the wise man of Paris--that the disasters caused by the wanton fires and assaults on the American coasts, could be easily brought home to the enemy's doors.