the _tuum_ for the _meum_ had been exhibited, there were among us
sufficient of the stamp of my old friend "who had served with Rodney,"
to have flung the culprit where men pilfer no more; whatever may be done
by porpoises.

But as I had no wish to be a party to what, with all its gaiety and
gallantry, I felt to be a rough infraction of the law; I now begged
permission to make my way homewards. It was given at once, with even
some expressions of gratitude for my having, as it was termed, stood by
them to the last; and a guide was ordered for me as an additional
civility. "You will have five miles to walk," said the captain, as he
shook hands with me; "but Grapnel here will take you the shortest way
and it will be light in an hour. You need say nothing of this business
to Mordecai, who makes a point of being deaf and dumb when ever it suits
him; though, between ourselves."--The captain's prudence here checked
his overflow of confidence. "I merely mean to say, that if you drink any
particularly fine claret, in a day or two, at his table, you will have
to thank the lugger, La Belle Jeannette, for it. _Au revoir_."

My guide and I pushed on into the darkness. He was a bluff, open-hearted
fellow, with all the smuggler's hatred of the magistracy, and taking
great delight in telling how often they failed in their attempts to stop
the "free trade," which he clearly regarded as the only trade worthy of
a man. His account of the feats of his comrades; their escapes from the
claws of the customs; their facetious tricks on the too vigilant among
the magistrates; and the real luxury in which, with all their life of
hardship, they found opportunities of indulging, would have edified a
modern tour writer, and possibly relieved even the dreariness of a
county historian. Among other matters too, he let out, that he paid me a
prodigious compliment in accompanying me, as this night's smuggling was
one of the grand exploits of the year; and casting a "longing, lingering
look, behind," where a distant glimmer marked the scene of operations,
he evidently halted between the two opinions, whether to go on, or
return. "What a glorious night!" he exclaimed, as he turned his bald
forehead to a sky black as Erebus, and roaring with whirlwind. "Talk of
sunshine, or moonshine, compared with that!" Another burst of rain, or
flash of lightning, would evidently have rendered the scene too
captivating. Both came, and I must have lost my guide, when he s