the lugger to
the cruiser's fire. "She will be raked; she will lose her masts," was
the general groan. As they neared the shore, the effect of every shot
was visible. "There goes the mainsail all to ribands; the yards are shot
in the slings." Then public opinion would change. "Fine fellow that! The
Shark's main-top shakes like a whip." In this way all went on for nearly
an hour, which, however, I scarcely felt to be more than a few minutes.
"The skipper in command of that boat," said the captain at my side, "is
one of the best seamen on the coast, as bold as a bull, and will fight
any thing; but he is as leaky as a sieve; and when the wine gets into
him, in a tavern at Calais or Dunkirk, if he had the secrets of the
Privy Council, they would all be at the mercy of the first scoundrel who
takes a bottle with him."

"But he fights his vessel well," I observed.

"So he does," was the reply; "but if he should have that lugger captured
before a keg touches the sand, and if the whole goes into the
custom-house before it reaches the cellars of the owners, it will be all
his fault."

They were at length so near us that we could easily see the splinters
flying from the sides of both, and the havoc made among the rigging was
fearful; yet, except for the anxiety, nothing could be more beautiful
than the manoeuvres of both. The doublings of the hare before the
greyhound, the flight of the pigeon before the hawk, all the common
images of pursuit and evasion were trifling to the doublings and
turnings, the attempts to make fight, and the escape at the moment when
capture seemed inevitable. The cruiser was gallantly commanded, and her
masterly management upon a lee shore, often forced involuntary
admiration even from the captain.

"A clever lad that revenue man, I must own," said he, "it is well worth
his while, for if he catch that lugger he will have laid hold of twenty
thousand pounds' worth of as hard-earned money as ever crossed the
Channel. I myself have a thousand in silk on board."

"Then all is not brandy that she brings over?"

"Brandy!" said the captain, with a bitter smile. "They would be welcome
to all the brandy she carries to-night, or to double the freight, if
that were all. She has a cargo of French silks, French claret, ay, and
French gold, that she must fight for while she has a stick standing."

At this moment, the sky, dark as it was before, grew tenfold darker, and
a cloud, that gave me the exact image of