Here barricades of stones were heaped up on the path, which at this point was some three yards wide.

Six of the steadiest and most courageous negroes were placed here, with muskets and pikes.
Two of them were to lie with their guns pointed at the protecting angle so that, the instant anyone showed himself round the corner, they could open fire upon him.

The others were lying in readiness to assist, or to relieve those on guard.

Either Gerald or Ned remained with them, always.
A few stones were thrown up on the outside edge of the path, to protect the defenders from the shots of those in the valley below; not indeed that the danger from this source was very great, for the face of the precipice was some eight hundred feet high, and the path ran along some four hundred from the bottom.

With the clumsy arms in use, in those days, the fear of any one being struck from below was by no means great.
A similar barricade was erected behind, and the negroes were, in case of extreme necessity, to fall back from their first position.
At the second point an equal number of men were placed.
Lastly, where the path ended at the amphitheater, strong barricades had been erected in a sort of semicircle; so that anyone, after having forced the first defenses, would, as he showed himself at the entrance to the amphitheater, be exposed to the fire of the whole of its defenders.
The position was so strong that Ned and Gerald had no fear, whatever, of its being forced.