vouring to do, but there was
no one found willing or able to swim back to the wreck. The danger of
making the attempt was, indeed, far greater than at first.

Ben was regaining his consciousness; but even had he been uninjured,
after the exertions he had gone through, he would have been unfit to
repeat the dangerous exploit.

Captain Turgot offered to try; but when he saw the intermediate space
through which he would have to pass covered with masses of wreck, he
acknowledged that it would be impossible to succeed.

The final catastrophe came at last. A tremendous wave, higher than its
predecessors, rolled in, apparently lifting the wreck, which, coming
down again with fearful force upon the rocks, split into a thousand
fragments.

As the wave, after dashing furiously on the shore, rolled back again, a
few shattered timbers could alone be perceived, with not a human being
clinging to them.

Shrieks of despair, heard above the howling tempest, rose from the
surging water, but they were speedily hushed, and of the struggling
wretches two men alone, almost exhausted, were thrown by a succeeding
wave on the shingly beach, together with the bodies of several already
numbered among the dead.

When Captain Martin came to muster the shipwrecked men saved by his
exertions, he found that upwards of three hundred of the crew of his
late antagonist had perished, seventy alone having landed in safety.
Leaving a party on the beach to watch lest any more should be washed on
shore, he and the magistrate led the way up the cliff. The Frenchmen
followed with downcast hearts, fully believing that they were to be
treated as prisoners of war. Some of them, aided by the British seamen,
carried those who had been too much injured to walk.

After they had arrived at a spot where some shelter was found from the
fury of the wind, Captain Martin, calling a halt, sent for Rayner, and
told him to assure the Frenchmen that he did not look upon them as
enemies or prisoners of war, but rather as unfortunate strangers who,
having been driven on the English coast by the elements, had a right to
expect assistance and kind treatment from the inhabitants, and that such
it was his wish to afford them.

Expressions of gratitude rose from the lips of the Frenchmen when Rayner
had translated what Captain Martin had said. The magistrate then
offered to receive as many as his own house could accommodate, as did
two gentlemen who had accompanied him