and still is, coal.
The town is surrounded by mines; the town is built on mines; the ships
moor over mines. The mines honeycomb the land in all directions, and
extend in galleries of grottoes for two miles under the sea. By the
falling in of the more ancient collieries numerous houses have been
swallowed, as if by an earthquake, and a consternation spread, like that
of Lisbon, in 1755. So insecure and treacherous was the site of the
place now about to be assailed by a desperado, nursed, like the coal, in
its vitals.

Now, sailing on the Thames, nigh its mouth, of fair days, when the wind
is favorable for inward-bound craft, the stranger will sometimes see
processions of vessels, all of similar size and rig, stretching for
miles and miles, like a long string of horses tied two and two to a rope
and driven to market. These are colliers going to London with coal.

About three hundred of these vessels now lay, all crowded together, in
one dense mob, at Whitehaven. The tide was out. They lay completely
helpless, clear of water, and grounded. They were sooty in hue. Their
black yards were deeply canted, like spears, to avoid collision. The
three hundred grimy hulls lay wallowing in the mud, like a herd of
hippopotami asleep in the alluvium of the Nile. Their sailless, raking
masts, and canted yards, resembled a forest of fish-spears thrust into
those same hippopotamus hides. Partly flanking one side of the grounded
fleet was a fort, whose batteries were raised from the beach. On a
little strip of this beach, at the base of the fort, lay a number of
small rusty guns, dismounted, heaped together in disorder, as a litter
of dogs. Above them projected the mounted cannon.

Paul landed in his own boat at the foot of this fort. He dispatched the
other boat to the north side of the haven, with orders to fire the
shipping there. Leaving two men at the beach, he then proceeded to get
possession of the fort.

"Hold on to the bucket, and give me your shoulder," said he to Israel.

Using Israel for a ladder, in a trice he scaled the wall. The bucket and
the men followed. He led the way softly to the guard-house, burst in,
and bound the sentinels in their sleep. Then arranging his force,
ordered four men to spike the cannon there.

"Now, Israel, your bucket, and follow me to the other fort."

The two went alone about a quarter of a mile.

"Captain Paul," said Israel, on the way, "can we two manage the
sentinels?"

"There are no