could descry a thick dark canopy of smoke that hung hazily over one spot
in the horizon, as if marking out the scene of the struggle. With what
aching, torturing anxiety I burned to know what had happened, and with
which side rested the victory!

Well habituated to hear of the English as victors in every naval
engagement, I yet went on hoping against hope itself, that Fortune might
for once have favoured us; nor was it till the falling night prevented
my being able to trace out distant objects, that I could leave the spot
and turn homewards. With wishes so directly opposed to theirs, I did not
venture to tell my two friends what I had witnessed, nor trust myself
to speak on a subject where my feelings might have betrayed me into
unseemly expressions of my hopes. I was glad to find that they knew
nothing of the matter, and talked away indifferently of other subjects.
By daybreak the next morning I was at my post, a sharp nor'-wester
blowing, and a heavy sea rolling in from the Atlantic. Instinctively
carrying my eyes to the spot where I had heard the cannonade, I could
distinctly see the tops of spars, as if the upper rigging of some
vessels beyond the horizon.

Gradually they rose higher and higher, till I could detect the yard-arms
and cross-trees, and finally the great hulls of five vessels that were
bearing towards me.

For above an hour I could see their every movement, as with all canvas
spread they held on majestically towards the land, when at length a
lofty promontory of the bay intervened, and they were lost to my view.
I jumped to my legs at once, and set off down the cliff to reach the
headland, from whence an uninterrupted prospect extended. The distance
was greater than I had supposed, and in my eagerness to take a direct
line to it, I got entangled in difficult gorges among the hills, and
impeded by mountain torrents which often compelled me to go back a
considerable distance; it was already late in the afternoon as I gained
the crest of a ridge over the bay of Lough Swilly. Beneath me lay the
calm surface of the lough, landlocked and still; but farther out seaward
there was a sight that made my very limbs tremble, and sickened my heart
as I beheld it. There was a large frigate, that, with studding-sails
set, stood boldly up the bay, followed by a dismasted three-decker, at
whose mizzen floated the ensign of England over the French tricolour.
Several other vessels were grouped about the offing, all of t