pang of bereavement, but alas! for 'the _comfortless_ troubles of the
needy, and because of the deep sighing of the poor.' And yet the brave
fellows never hang back and never falter. There ought to be, there is
amongst them, a trust in the living God.

They apparently think little of their own splendid deeds, and seldom
speak of them, especially to strangers; yet they are part, and not the
least glorious part, of our 'rough island story.' The recital of them
makes our hearts thrill, and revives in us the memories of our youth
and our early worship of heroic daring in a righteous cause. God speed
the lifeboat and her crew!

[1] The names of the crew who on this occasion manned the lifeboat were
Robert Wilds (coxswain 1st), R. Roberts (coxswain 2nd), Thos. Cribben,
Thos. Parsons, G. Pain, Chas. Hall, Thomas Roberts, Will Baker, John
Holbourn, Ed. Pain, George Philpot, R. Williams, W. Adams, H. Foster,
Robt. Redsull. Of these men, poor Tom Cribben never recovered
[Transcriber's note: from] the exposure and the strain.

CHAPTER XII

THE D'ARTAGNAN AND THE HEDVIG SOPHIA

Loud roared the dreadful thunder,
The rain a deluge poured.

There was a gale from the S.W. blowing over the southern part of
England, on November 11, 1877. The barometer had been low, but the
'centre of depression' was still advancing, and was probably over the
Straits of Dover about the middle of the day. Perhaps more is known
now than formerly of the path of the storm and the date of its arrival
on these coasts, and more is also known of the pleasanter but rarer
anti-cyclonic systems. Nevertheless, we are still in the dark as to
the cause which originates those two different phenomena, and brings
them from the east and the west. The secrets of Nature belong to Him
who holds the winds in His fist and the sea in the hollow of His hand.
In the seaboard towns of the S.E. coast the houses shook before the
blast, and now and then the tiles crashed to the pavement, and the
fierce rain squalls swept through the deserted streets, as the gale
'whistled aloft his tempest tune.' To read of this makes every
fireside seem more comfortable, but somehow it also brings the thought
to many a heart 'God help those at sea to-night!'

In the great roadstead of the Downs, among the pilots and the captains,
there were anxious hearts that day. There were hundreds of ships at
anchor, of many nations, all outward bound, and taking refuge in the