sting on the wheel. This danger past, there was one more to be met.
A large monitor lay anchored up the harbor, and the "Hattie" was
running so close to her that the commands of the officers in the
turret could be clearly heard. One after the other the two great guns
were fired, both shots missing; and the "Hattie," safely past the
gauntlet, sailed up to the dock in triumph. But by that time it was
clear that the last days of the war were near at hand, and accordingly
the work of unloading and reloading the vessel for her outward trip
was pressed with the greatest vigor. All the time she lay at her dock,
Charleston was being vigorously bombarded by the Federal men-of-war
lying outside the harbor. The bay fairly swarmed with blockading
cruisers; yet a week later the little steamer slipped out through a
fleet of twenty-six cruisers without being hailed, and carried her
cotton safely to market. When the news of Lee's surrender was
received, she was lying safe at her dock in Nassau.

The "Princess Royal," to which we have alluded, was a large iron screw
steamer, freighted with drugs, army supplies, guns, and two engines
and boilers for two iron-clads in Charleston Harbor,--a most valuable
and important cargo for the Confederates. She made the run from Nassau
to a point near the coast without adventure, and in the early gray of
the morning was stealing up the coast towards the harbor, when a
blockader caught sight of her, and started in pursuit. The later began
firing when a mile and a half away; and, though there was hardly a
chance of the shots taking effect, the cannonade gave the captain of
the runner the cold shakes. His boat was one of the fastest on the
ocean, and he needed only to put on steam to escape all the blockaders
on the coast. But he was a thorough paced coward; and, thinking only
of his own safety, he headed the craft for the beach, and with his
crew fled into the woods. The valuable ship and her cargo fell into
the hands of the Federals.

Sometimes runners were captured through apparently the most trivial
accidents. One ship, heavily laden with army supplies, and carrying a
large number of passengers, was running through the blockading-fleet,
and seemed sure of escape. All lights were out, the passengers were in
the cabin, not a word was to be heard on deck, even the commands of
the officers being delivered in whispers. Suddenly a prolonged
cock-crow rent the air, and, with the silence of every thing
sur