ger's crew, and showed that after rowing away that night they had
not fetched across to the French coast, but having the good luck to
find a French fishing-craft only a quarter of a mile away, they were
taken aboard her and thus returned to France.

It was also brought out very clearly by the other side that when first
seen the _Iris_ was within nine miles of the English coast, and
afterwards the _Badger_ steered N.W. by W. towards the south of
Dungeness, and after five and a half miles saw the Dungeness light and
the South Foreland light, took cross-bearings of these, and having
marked them off on the chart, fixed their position as about three
miles from the coast. Thus when the lugger was first encountered the
latter was about nine miles from the land.

The date of that incident, then, was the 12th of November, and Hugnet
was not then captured. We may now pass over the next four weeks till
we come to the 10th of December in that same year. At eight o'clock in
the morning the Revenue cutter _Eagle_ was cruising off the coast of
Kent when she observed a lugger bearing about N.W. by N. from them.
The lugger was under all sail and heading S.E. for Boulogne, having
come out from East Dungeness Bay. The weather was thick, it was
snowing, and no land was in sight, Dungeness being the nearest portion
of the English coast.

It did not take long for the _Eagle's_ commander to guess what was
happening, especially when that bay was so notorious, and the cutter
began to give chase, the wind being roughly N.W. But as the _Eagle_
pursued, the lugger, as was the approved custom, hauled up and came on
a wind, hoping to get away and outpace the cutter. But in this the
smugglers were not successful, and eventually the _Eagle_ overhauled
her. The cutter's galley was now launched, and after having been for
three-quarters of an hour rowed quickly by the aid of her eight men,
the lugger was reached and hailed. The usual warning signal was fired
from a musket in the boat and colours shown. The lugger, however,
declined to heave-to as requested.

"If you don't heave-to," roared the chief mate of the _Eagle_, as he
looked towards the helmsman, "we'll fire right into you." On this the
lugger lowered her sails, the galley bumped alongside, and the chief
mate and crew, pistols in hand, leapt aboard. "Where are you from?"
asked the chief mate. The answer came in French, which the latter did
not understand, but he thought they said they were bo