ould bring the whole fleet of
boats from Treport on her. No, no; they know better than that: the
faintest glimmer of a fishing-craft is all they 'll dare to show. But
see how steadily it burns now! we must make the signal seawards."

"Halloo, Joseph! a light there."

A boy's voice answered from the upper part of the tower,--the same
figure who made the signal towards the shore, and whose presence there I
had altogether forgotten; and in a few minutes a red glare on the rocks
below showed that the old man's command was obeyed, and the beacon
lighted.

"Ah! they see it already," cried he, triumphantly, pointing seawards;
"they've extinguished the light now, but will show it again, from time
to time."

"But tell me, friend, how happens it that the marines of the Guard, who
line this coast, do not perceive these signals?"

"And who tells thee that they do not? They may be looking, as we are
now, at that same craft, and watching Her as she beats in shore; but
they know better than to betray us. Ah, _ma foi!_ the 'contrebande'
is better than the Government. Enough for them if they catch some poor
English prisoner now and then, and have him shot; that contents the
Emperor, as they call him, and he thinks the service all that is brave
and vigilant. But as to us, it is our own fault if we fall in with them;
it would need the rocket you spoke of a while ago to shame them into it.
There, look again,--thou seest how far in shore they've made already;
the cutter is stealing fast along the water. Answer the signal, Joseph."

The boy replenished the fire with some dry wood, and it blazed up
brilliantly, illuminating the gray cliffs and dark rocks, on which the
night was fast falling, but leaving all beyond its immediate sphere in
deepest blackness.

"I see not, friend, by what means I am to discover this sloping cliff,
much less guide my way along it," said I, as I gazed over the precipice,
and tried to penetrate the gloomy abyss below me.

"Thou 'lt have the moon at full in less than two hours; and if thou 'lt
take a friend's counsel, thou 'lt have a sleep ere that time. Lay thee
down yonder on those rushes; I 'll awake thee when time comes for it."

The rather that I resolved to obey my old guide in his every direction,
than from any desire for slumber at such a time, I followed his advice,
and threw myself full length in a corner of the tower. In the perfect
stillness of the hour, the sea alone was heard, surging in slow,