d on the excitement of flying over ditches
and hedges, while apparently he looked upon blockade-running and its
petty risks with sublime contempt. Soon after we crossed the bar on our
way out a gentle breeze and swell began to lift the vessel up and down,
and this motion he described as 'very like hunting.'

Just after he had ventured this remark, a Yankee gun-boat favoured us
with a broadside and made a dash to cut us off. This part of the fun,
however, my friend did not seem to think at all 'like hunting,' and
after having strongly urged me to return to the anchorage under the
protecting guns of the fort, he disappeared below, and never talked, to
me at least, about hunting again.

But to return to my story, there was, as I said before, a considerable
swell running outside, which was fortunate for us, as we ran almost into
a gunboat lying watching unusually close to the bar. It would have been
useless to turn round and endeavour to escape by going back, as, if we
had done so, we should inevitably have been driven on to the beach, and
either captured or destroyed. In such a predicament there was nothing
for it but to make a dash past and take the gun-boat's fire and its
consequences. I knew we had the legs of her, and therefore felt more at
ease in thus running the gauntlet than I otherwise should have done, so
on we went at full speed. She fired her broadside at about fifty yards
distance, but the shot all passed over us, except one that went through
our funnel. The marines on board of her kept up a heavy fire of musketry
as long as we were visible, but only slightly wounded one of our men.
Rockets were then thrown up as signals to her consorts, two of which
came down on us, but luckily made a bad guess at our position, and
closed with us on our quarter instead of our bow. They also opened fire,
but did us no injury. At the moment there was no vessel in sight ahead;
and as we were going at a splendid pace, we soon reduced our dangerous
companions to three or four shadowy forms struggling astern without a
hope of catching us. The signalising and firing had, however, brought
several other blockaders down to dispute our passage, and we found
ourselves at one moment with a cruiser on each side within a pistol shot
of us; our position being that of the meat in a sandwich. So near were
the cruisers, that they seemed afraid to fire from the danger of hitting
each other, and, thanks to our superior speed, we shot ahead and le