e brought her upon a wind, and though, when
we again got broadside-to, she threatened to go over once more with us,
we managed by careful manipulation of the sheets to avoid such a
catastrophe; and when we had got her once fairly jammed close upon a
wind, some former experience of mine in cutter sailing enabled me to
keep her right side uppermost. But it was perilous work for a good hour
after the squall struck us. I have occasionally seen in my later days
some bold and even reckless match-sailing, but I have never yet seen a
craft so desperately overdriven as was, perforce, the little "Mouette"
on that memorable night. While the first strength of the gale lasted we
were literally under water the whole time, the sea boiling and foaming
in over our bows, and sweeping away aft and out over the taffrail in a
continuous flood.

I believe we should have sailed faster, and we should assuredly have
made much better weather of it, had we been able to get a close reef
down in the mainsail; but under the circumstances this was impossible,
since, being so short-handed, it would have delayed us long enough to
allow the "Vigilant" to get alongside us before we had got through with
the work. There was, therefore, nothing for it, but to keep on as we
were, the cutter heeling over to an angle of quite 500, so that we were
really standing upon the inside of the lee bulwark, with our backs
resting against the steeply-inclined deck, up above our knees in the
sea, beneath which the little craft's lee-rail was deeply buried; while,
owing to our great speed, we rushed _through_ instead of riding over the
sea which was rapidly getting up, so that, when an unusually heavy
"comber" met us, we were literally _buried_ for the moment, while it
swept over us.

Luckily the first mad fury of the blast lasted only for two or three
minutes, or our mast could never have resisted the tremendous strain
upon it; as it was, stout though the spar--absurdly disproportionate to
the size of the craft, I then considered it--it swayed and bent like a
fishing-rod, causing the lee-rigging to blow out quite in bights, while
that to windward was strained as taut as harp-strings, the resemblance
to which was increased by the weird sound of the wind as it shrieked
through it.

Scarcely had the tempest burst upon us before the veil of cloud which
had obscured the heavens was rent to shreds by its fury, the sky was
cleared as if by magic, the moon and stars reappe