, rushing like a madman
towards the boat?"

A form came leaping through the darkness; nor was it known, until it
stood within two feet of Bluewater, it was that of Wycherly. He had
heard the guns and seen the signals. Guessing at the reasons, he dashed
from the park, which he was pacing to cool his agitation, and which now
owned him for a master, and ran the whole distance to the shore, in
order not to be left. His arrival was most opportune; for, in another
minute, the barge left the rock.

CHAPTER XIX.

"O'er the glad waters of the dark-blue sea.
Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free.
Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam,
Survey our empire and behold our home."

THE CORSAIR.

One is never fully aware of the extent of the movement that agitates the
bosom of the ocean until fairly subject to its action himself, when
indeed we all feel its power and reason closely on its dangers. The
first pitch of his boat told Bluewater that the night threatened to be
serious. As the lusty oarsmen bent to their stroke, the barge rose on a
swell, dividing the foam that glanced past it like a marine Aurora
Borealis, and then plunged into the trough as if descending to the
bottom. It required several united and vigorous efforts to force the
little craft from its dangerous vicinity to the rocks, and to get it in
perfect command. This once done, however, the well-practised crew urged
the barge slowly but steadily ahead.

"A dirty night!--a dirty night!" muttered Bluewater, unconsciously to
himself; "we should have had a wild berth, had we rode out this blow, at
anchor. Oakes will have a heavy time of it out yonder in the very chops
of the channel, with a westerly swell heaving in against this ebb."

"Yes, sir," answered Wycherly; "the vice-admiral will be looking out for
us all, anxiously enough, in the morning."

Not another syllable did Bluewater utter until his boat had touched the
side of the Caesar. He reflected deeply on his situation, and those who
know his feelings will easily understand that his reflections were not
altogether free from pain. Such as they were, he kept them to himself,
however, and in a man-of-war's boat, when a flag-officer chooses to be
silent, it is a matter of course for his inferiors to imitate his
example.

The barge was about a quarter of a mile from the landing, when the heavy
flap of the Caesar's main-top-sail was heard, as, close-reefed, it