e helmsman.

"By this, time the brig was slackening sail, and still his fire was
maintained as hotly as ever. The distance between us increased at each
moment, and, had we sea-room, it was possible for us yet to escape.

"Our long gun was worked without ceasing, and we could see from time to
time, that a bustle on the deck, denoted the destruction it was dealing;
when suddenly a wild shout burst from one of our men--'the man-of-war's
aground, her topsails are aback,' A mad cheer--the frantic cry of rage
and desperation--broke from us; when, at the instant, a reeling shock
shook us from stem to stern. The little vessel trembled like a living
thing; and then, with a crash like thunder, the hatchways sprang from
their fastenings, and the white sea leaped up, and swept along the deck.
One drowning cry, one last mad yell burst forth.

"'Three cheers, my boys!' cried the skipper, raising his cap above his
head.

"Already, she was settling in the sea--the death notes rang out high
over the storm; a wave swept me overboard at the minute, and my latest
consciousness was seeing the old skipper clinging to the bow-sprit,
while his long grey hair was floating wildly behind: but the swooping
sea rolled over and over me. A kind of despairing energy nerved me, and
after being above an hour in the water, I was taken up, still swimming,
by one of the shore boats, which, as the storm abated, had ventured out
to the assistance of the sloop; and thus was I shipwrecked, within a few
hundred yards of the spot, where first I had ventured on the sea--the
only one saved of all the crew. Of the 'Dart,' not a spar reached shore;
the breaking sea tore her to atoms.

"The 'Hornet' scarcely fared better. She landed eight of her crew, badly
wounded; one man was killed, and she herself was floated only after
months of labour, and never, I believe, went to sea afterwards.

"The sympathy which in Ireland is never refused to misfortune, no matter
how incurred, stood me in stead now; for although every effort was made
by the authorities to discover if any of the smuggler's crew had reached
shore alive, and large rewards were offered, no one would betray me;
and I lay as safely concealed beneath the thatch of an humble cabin,
as though the proud walls of a baronial castle afforded me their
protection.

"From day to day I used to hear of the hot and eager inquiry going
forward to trace out, by any means, something of the wrecked vessel;
and, at last