170 THE SMUGGLER, 



the brook; and on the other side there was a constant petty 

 warfare between the farmer and the inhabitant of the hovel as 

 to the possession of the border-land; and like a great and 

 small state contending, the more powerful always gained some 

 advantage in despite of right, but lost perhaps as much by the 

 spiteful incursions of the foe, as if he had yielded the contested 

 territory. 



On the night of which I speak, the same on which Mowle 

 visited the commanding officer of the dragoons at Hythe, the 

 cottage itself, the garden, and all the squalid-looking things 

 about the place, were hidden in the deep darkness which had 

 again fallen over the earth as soon as night had fallen. The 

 morning, it may be remembered, was the same on which Sir 

 Edward Digby had been fired at by the smugglers, had been 

 somewhat cold and foggy; but about eleven, the day had 

 brightened, and the evening had been sultry. No sooner, how- 

 ever, did the sun reach the horizon than mists begun to rise, 

 and before seven o'clock the whole sky was under cloud and 

 the air filled with fog. He must have been well acquainted 

 with every step of the country who could find his way from 

 town to town. Nevertheless, any one who approached Galley 

 Kay's cottage, as it was cajied, would, at the distance of at 

 least a hundred yards, have perceived something to lead him 

 on ; for a light, red as that of a baleful meteor, was streaming 

 through the two glazed squares of the window into the misty 

 air, making them look like the eyes of some wild animal in a 

 dark forest. 



We must pause here, however, for a moment, to explain to 

 the reader who Galley Ray was, and how she acquired the first 

 of her two appellations, which certainly was not that which she 

 had received at her baptism. Galley Ray, then, was the old 

 woman of whom Mr. Mowle had given that favourable account, 

 which may be seen in the last chapter; and, to say the truth, 

 he had but done her justice. Her name was originally Gillian 

 Ray ; but, amongst a number of corrupt associates, with whom 

 her early life was spent, the first of the two appellations was 

 speedily transformed to Gilly or Gill. Some time afterwards, 

 when youth began to wane, and whatever youthful graces she 

 possessed were deviating into the virago qualities of the middle 

 age, while watching one night the approach of a party of 

 smugglers, with whom she had some intimacy, she perceived 



