e other supporting themselves by the
gunnels of the boats hauled up, the capstans, or perhaps an anchor with
its fluke buried in the shingle, were looking on with dismay and with
beating hearts, awaiting the result of the venturous attempt, and I
soon discovered the form of Bessy, who was in advance of all the
others.

[Illustration: WRECK OF THE GALLEY.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 407.]

After a careful watching for perhaps two minutes on the part of Bramble,
he gave the word, and on dashed the galley toward the strand, keeping
pace with the wild surges, and although buried in the foam, not shipping
one drop of water.

"Now, my men, give way--for your lives, give way," cried Bramble, as a
cresting wave came towering on, as if in angry pursuit of us. The men
obeyed, but, in their exertions, the stroke oar snapped in two, the man
fell back, and prevented the one behind him from pulling. Our fate was
sealed; the surge poured over, and throwing us broadside to the beach,
we were rolled over and over in the boiling surf. A cry was heard--a cry
of terror and despair--on the part of the women. I heard it as I was
swept away by the undertow, and the next wave poured over me; but all
was activity and energy on the part of the men who were on the beach:
the next wave that run in, they recovered me and two more by linking
their arms and allowing the surf to break over them. We were so much
bruised that we could not stand; they dragged us up, and left us to the
women. Bramble and four others were still struggling for life; again two
were saved--but the men on the beach were exhausted by their strenuous
exertions.

[Illustration: WE FOUND BOTH BRAMBLE AND BESSY CLINGING TO THE
ROPE.--Marryat, Vol. X., p. 409.]

I had just recovered myself so as to sit up, when I perceived that they
were not acting in concert as before; indeed, in the last attempt,
several of them had narrowly escaped with their own lives. Bessy was now
down among them wildly gesticulating; Bramble still floated on the
boiling surf, but no chain was again formed; the wave poured in bearing
him on its crest; it broke, and he was swept away again by the
undertow, which dragged him back with a confused heap of singles
clattering one over the other as they descended. I saw him again, just
as another wave several feet in height was breaking over him--I felt
that he was lost; when Bessy, with a hook rope in her hand, darted
toward him right under the wave as it turned ove