THE SMUGGLER. 171 



three or four custom-house officers coming down to launch a 

 galley which they had upon the beach for the purpose of cut- 

 ting off the free-traders. But Giily Ray instantly sprang in, 

 and with the boat-hook set them all at defiance, till they 

 threatened to launch her into the sea, boat and all. 



It is true, she was reported to have been drunk at the time; 

 but her daring saved the smugglers, and conveyed her for two 

 months to jail, whence, as may be supposed, she returned not 

 much improved in her morals/ One of those whom she had 

 befriended in the time of need, bestowed on her the name of 

 Galley, by an easy transition from her original pramomen, and 

 it remained by her to the last day of her life. 



The reader has doubtless remarked, that amongst the law- 

 less arid the rash, there is a certain fondness for figures of 

 speech, and that tropes and metaphors, simile and synecdoche, 

 are far more prevalent amongst them than amongst the more 

 orderly classes of society. Whether it is or not, that they 

 wish to get rid of a precise apprehension of their own acts, I 

 cannot say, but certain it is, that they do indulge in such 

 ilowers of rhetoric, and sometimes, in the midst of humour, 

 quaintness, and even absurdity, reach the point of wit, and at 

 times soar into the sublime. Galley Ray had, as we have 

 seen, one daughter, whose fate has been related; and that 

 daughter left one son, who, after his reputed father, one Mark 

 Nightingale, was baptized Nightingale Ray. His mother, and 

 after her death, his grandmother, used to call him Little Nighty 

 and Little Night; but following their fanciful habits, tho 

 smugglers, who used to frequent the house, found out an asso- 

 ciation between "Night Ray" and the beams of the bright and 

 mystical orbs that shine upon us from afar; and some one 

 gave him the name of Little Starlight, which remained with 

 him, as that of Galley had adhered to his grandmother. 



The cottage or hut of the latter, then beamed with an un- 

 wonted blaze upon the night I have spoken of, till long after 

 the hour when Mowle had left the inn where his conference 

 with the young officer had taken place. But let not tho 

 reader suppose that this illumination proceeded from any great 

 expense of wax or oil. Only one small tallow candle, stuck 

 into a long-necked, square-sided Dutch bottle, spread its rays 

 through the interior of the hovel, and that was a luxury; but 

 in the fire-place blazed an immense pile of mingled wood and 



