184 FISHES AND FISHING. 



cast anchor in Calais Roads. I had been three hours 

 and a-half thus compressed, I suffered dreadfully from 

 cramp, but dared not breathe too hard. My friend 

 on board, who had the key, fearing I should be suffo 

 cated, let me out; I washed, dressed myself, and 

 came upon deck. There was another Englishman, 

 who had been brought off by a Frenchman in a sail 

 ing boat, which proved the total ruin of the latter, 

 and he was obliged to fly over to England. Thankful 

 to the great [Supreme Being who had listened to my 

 supplications, and assisted me so far, and entertaining 

 the opinion that were I taken, my life would not be 

 very safe if I were in the power of the Commandant, I 

 induced the passengers to believe that the vessel would 

 speedily, by the efflux of the tide, be aground ; and as 

 several on board knew I was well acquainted with that 

 partof the coast, and all were most anxious to get under 

 weigh for their native land, we made a determined at 

 tack on the skipper by gesticulations, for we did not 

 know Danish, or he English, and very little French ; I 

 seized an axe, and made signs I would cut away the 

 cable, when he allowed his men to weigh anchor, and 

 trim the sails, and to our great joy got under weigh for 

 Dover, where we safely arrived. As we departed from 

 the French coast, we saw an English man-of-war brig 

 attacking three or four gun-boats, which had crept 

 out of Boulogne, and endeavoured to get into Calais ; 



