ed with England's thunder,
And plough the distant main.

But Kempenfeldt is gone,
His victories are o'er;
And he and his eight hundred
Shall plough the wave no more.

COWPER.

[Note: _The Royal George_. A ship of war, which went down with Admiral
Kempenfeldt and her crew off Spithead in 1782, while undergoing a
partial careening.]

* * * * *

AN ESCAPE.

After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we
reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us,
and plainly bade us expect our end. In a word, it took us with such a
fury that it overset the boat at once; and, separating us as well from
the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say, "O God!"
for we were all swallowed up in a moment.

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sunk
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves, so as to draw breath, till that wave having
driven me, or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and
having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry,
but half dead from the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind
as well as breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the mainland than I
expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the
land as fast as I could, before another wave should return, and take me
up again. But I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the
sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy,
which I had no means or strength to contend with; my business was to
hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could: and so by
swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore,
if possible; my greatest concern now being, that the sea, as it would
carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry
me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.

The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty
feet deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a mighty
force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising
up, so, to my immedia