particular occasion " he couldn't run fast enough to catch him" (my father), " though he had some tubs on his back, and that from vexation at his failure he threw his cutlass after him."
A different state of things sprung up under the Coast-blockade : then it was running a blockade, and no mistake ; the smuggler, in his swiftly-sailing craft, had to elude the vigilance of the cruisers in the Channel-this he generally could do - and then to approach the shore and land his goods ;-this was no easy matter ; and such was the state of things at last, that frequently lives were lost on both sides : desperate and bloody encounters were frequent, and many a middle-aged and old man in this, as well as in other towns along the coast, can recollect the groups of people eagerly, but sorrowfully, devouring the news on the morning following an encounter ; how " So-and so " had been shot, how " So-and-so " were taken prisoners, how so many of the tubs had been worked, at an immense labour to the workers, and how so many had been captured by the Coast-blockade men, and how the boat had been taken ; they can recollect how this latter part of the news was subsequently confirmed by waggon-loads of tubs and boat's gear being seen wending their way, strongly guarded, to the Custom-house ; and also how it not unfrequently happened that the men taken prisoners were, if mariners, sent for three, five, or seven years to serve -
