spray
was now bursting over us at every swell--I laid hold of his hand to drag
him higher up the cliff after me. As if the grasp had given him a
renewed life, he sprang on his feet, and saying, in a distracted tone,
which I alone could hear, "Better be drowned than ruined!" he cried out
with the voice of a maniac, "Boys, sink or swim, here I go! Five guineas
for every man who gets on board." Tearing off his heavy coat, he rushed
forward at the words, and plunged headlong into the billow. There was a
general rush after him; some were thrown back on the sand, but about
half the number were enabled to reach the lugger. We quickly saw the
effect of even this reinforcement. At the very point of time when the
cruiser was about to lay her on board, she came sharply round by the
head, and discharged her broadside within pistol-shot. I could see the
remaining mast of the cruiser stagger; it made two or three heaves, like
a drunkard trying to recover his steps, then came a crash, and it went
over the side. The vessel recoiled, and being now evidently unable to
steer, the storm had her at its mercy; and the last we saw of her was a
hull, rolling and staggering away down the Channel, firing guns of
distress, and going headforemost toward the Bay of Biscay.

Need I say in what triumph the lugger was hauled up the sand, or how
her bold commander and hardy crew were received? But while a carouse was
preparing for them--and, it must be owned that if sailing and fighting
were claims, they had earned their suppers--the business portion of the
firm was in full activity. From the waggon down to the wheelbarrow,
every country means of carriage was in motion without delay. I had been
hitherto by no means aware of what Johnson would probably have called
"the vehicular opulence" of the Sussex shore. Nor had I ever a more
striking illustration of the proverbial lightness of the work of many
hands; a process, which in his solemn lips would probably have been,
"Sir, congregated thousands laugh at individual difficulty; delay
vanishes before united labour; and time is an element of toil no more."

The clearance of the cargo would have put all the machinery of a royal
dockyard to shame. As for the activity of the custom-house, it would
have been the movement of a tortoise, to the rapidity of whatever is
most rapid in unpacking or pilfering. But pilfering here we had none; we
were all "men of honour;" and, undoubtedly, if any propensity to mistake