they were found almost in a state of
stupefaction. There was great difficulty in getting them off the rock,
for the surf was too high to enable the boat to effect a landing; but
the men themselves becoming conscious of their perilous situation, and
of the efforts that were being made to save them, adopted the only
means of escape which now remained. By great efforts, a small boat had
been got near enough to throw a coil of rope upon a projection of the
rock, and the sufferers had sufficient remaining energy to lay hold of
it, and one by one to fasten it round their bodies and jump into the
sea. Thus they were towed into the small boat, and thence delivered to
the large one, which returned with them to Plymouth. No sooner,
however, were they set on shore than one of them made off, and was
never afterwards heard of. This suspicious circumstance would
naturally induce the idea that the man had himself originated the
conflagration; but the fact of its being a lighthouse with no means
of retreat for the inmates, and every reason to believe that they must
perish with the building, is much opposed to this idea. In giving an
account of this circumstance, Smeaton says, 'I would rather impute his
sudden flight to that kind of panic which sometimes, on important
occasions, seizes weak minds; making them act without reason, and in
so doing commit actions whose tendency is the very reverse of what
they desire.'

Of the other two light-keepers, one, named Henry Hall, had received
injuries of a most serious nature; and his case is not a little
extraordinary. At the time of the fire, there was, according to the
usual custom, a tub of water standing in the lantern of the
lighthouse; and when this man perceived the flames, he immediately
exerted himself to the utmost in throwing buckets of water up into the
roof of the cupola. As he was doing this, and looking upwards to see
the effect of his endeavours, a quantity of lead, dissolved by the
heat of the flames, suddenly rushed from the roof, and fell upon his
head, face, and shoulders, burning him in a severe manner. At this
moment his mouth happened to be open, and he persisted in declaring
that some lead had gone down his throat, and was the cause of violent
internal pain. When removed to his cottage at Stonehouse, he
invariably told Dr. Spry, the medical man who attended him, and who
constantly administered the proper remedies for the burns and injuries
he had received, that if he wo