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fury; but a swell setting in steadily for shore, with long sweep and sullen
burst replaced the roar of the breakers. Yet we derived hope from the
change, and we did not doubt that after the interval of a few days the sea
would resume its tranquillity. The sunset of the fourth day favoured this
idea; it was clear and golden. As we gazed on the purple sea, radiant
beneath, we were attracted by a novel spectacle; a dark speck--as it
neared, visibly a boat--rode on the top of the waves, every now and then
lost in the steep vallies between. We marked its course with eager
questionings; and, when we saw that it evidently made for shore, we
descended to the only practicable landing place, and hoisted a signal to
direct them. By the help of glasses we distinguished her crew; it consisted
of nine men, Englishmen, belonging in truth to the two divisions of our
people, who had preceded us, and had been for several weeks at Paris. As
countryman was wont to meet countryman in distant lands, did we greet our
visitors on their landing, with outstretched hands and gladsome welcome.
They were slow to reciprocate our gratulations. They looked angry and
resentful; not less than the chafed sea which they had traversed with
imminent peril, though apparently more displeased with each other than with
us. It was strange to see these human beings, who appeared to be given
forth by the earth like rare and inestimable plants, full of towering
passion, and the spirit of angry contest. Their first demand was to be
conducted to the Lord Protector of England, so they called Adrian, though
he had long discarded the empty title, as a bitter mockery of the shadow to
which the Protectorship was now reduced. They were speedily led to Dover
Castle, from whose keep Adrian had watched the movements of the boat. He
received them with the interest and wonder so strange a visitation created.
In the confusion occasioned by their angry demands for precedence, it was
long before we could discover the secret meaning of this strange scene. By
degrees, from the furious declamations of one, the fierce interruptions of
another, and the bitter scoffs of a third, we found that they were deputies
from our colony at Paris, from three parties there formed, who, each with
angry rivalry, tried to attain a superiority over the other two. These
deputies had been dispatched by them to Adrian, who had been selected
arbiter; and they had journied from Paris to Calais, through the v