phire," but to obtain the eggs of sea-birds, or to rob the falcon of its young-the smugglers, unobserved, dug a platform in the face of the cliff, immediately under Beachy Head. Two of them laboured for seven successive days in excavating and levelling this spot, at a height of three hundred feet above the level of the sea ; and as this operation was carried on by day, without any attempt at concealment, and there were no means of approaching, or even of getting a view of the place, except by being lowered two or three hundred feet over the precipice, it was supposed they were engaged in collecting eggs, and no further notice was taken of the matter. Having, therefore, completed the work, three or four of the gang descended unobserved, to the platform, where they remained perched till dark ; and, at high water, when the blockade sentinels left the beach, a boat rowed to the foot of the precipice, immediately under the platform, to which her cargo was leisurely transferred by pulleys ; and the smugglers, lowering each other by the same means into the boat, went off to Eastbourne with their comrades, leaving their contraband goods securely stowed upon the platform.
"During the whole of this proceeding, the Preventive-men were unconsciously pacing the edge of the cliff above, at too great a distance to hear what was doing, even if they had entertained suspicion of the stratagem ; and when the tide receded sufficiently to admit of their descending to the beach, the boat, with -
