moon was on it, and I could see the rope
coiled twice around it, and knotted carefully. What would I have given
in that terrible minute for one tuft of grass, one slender bough, even
enough to have sustained my weight for a second or two, until I should
grasp the cord! But none was there.

A louder cry from the cutter now rang in my ears, and the dreadful
thought of destruction now flashed on me. I fixed my eyes on the rock to
measure the place; and then, turning with my face towards the cliff, I
suffered myself to slip downwards. At first I went slowly; then faster
and faster. At last my legs passed over the brow of the precipice. I
was falling! My head reeled. I uttered a cry, and in an agony of despair
threw out my hands. They caught the rope. Knot after knot slipped past
my fingers in the descent ere my senses became sufficiently clear to
know what was occurring. But even then the instinct of self-preservation
was stronger than reason; for I afterwards learned from the boat's crew
with what skill I guided myself along the face of the cliff, avoiding
every difficulty of the jagged rocks, and tracking my way like the most
experienced climber.

I stood upon a broad fiat rock, over which white sheets of foam were
dashing. Oh, how I loved to see them curling on my feet t I could have
kissed the bright water on which the moonbeams sported, for the moment
of danger was passed; the shadow of a dreadful death had moved from
my soul. What cared I now for the boiling surf that toiled and fretted
about me? The dangers of the deep were as nothing to that I escaped
from; and when the cutter's boat came bounding towards me, I minded
not the oft-repeated warnings of the sailors, but plunging in, I dashed
towards her on a retreating wave, and was dragged on board almost
lifeless from my struggles.

The red glare of the signal-fire was blazing from the old tower as we
got under weigh. I felt my eyes riveted on it as I lay on the deck of
the little vessel, which now stood out to sea in gallant style. It was
my last look of France, and so I felt it.

CHAPTER XXXIII. THE LANDING

With the crew of the cutter I had little intercourse. They were
Jerseymen,--that hybrid race, neither French nor English,--who followed
the trade of spies and smugglers, and were true to nothing save their
own interests. The skipper, a coarse, ill-featured fellow, in no respect
superior to the others, leisurely perused the letter De Beauvais gave
me