off.  But such a passage I had never before witnessed.  The wind was furious.  The waves ran high.  I could see nothing but white foam.  The boat, also, was tossed up and down in such a manner that it was with great difficulty I could keep my seat.  The rain, too, poured down in such torrents that we were all of us presently wet through.  We had been, I apprehend, more than an hour in this situation, when the boatmen began to complain of cold and weariness.  I saw, also, that they began to be uneasy, for they did not know where they were.  They had no way of forming any judgment about their course, but by knowing the point from whence the wind blew, and by keeping the boat in a relative position towards it.  I encouraged them as well as I could, though I was beginning to be uneasy myself, and also sick.  In about a quarter of an hour they began to complain again.  They said they could pull no longer.  They acknowledged, however, that they were getting nearer to the shore, though on what part of it they could not tell.  I could do nothing but bid them hope.  They then began to reproach themselves for having come out with me.  I told them I had not forced them, but that it was a matter of their own choice.  In the midst of this conversation I informed them that I thought I saw either a star or a light straight forward.  They both looked at it and pronounced it to be a light, and added with great joy that it must be a light in the Passage-house; and so we found it; for in about ten minutes afterwards we landed, and, on reaching the house, learnt that a servant maid had been accidentally talking to some other person on the stair-case, near a window, with a candle in her hand, and that the light had appeared to us from that circumstance.

It was now near eleven o’clock.  My messenger, it appeared, had arrived safe about five in the evening, and had proceeded on his route.  I was very cold on my arrival, and sick also.  There seemed to be a chilliness all over me, both within and without.  Indeed I had not a dry thread about me.  I took some hot brandy and water, and went to bed; but desired, as soon as my clothes were thoroughly dried, to be called up, that I might go forward.  This happened at about two in the morning, when I got up.  I took my breakfast by the fire-side.  I then desired the post-boy, if he should meet any persons on the road, to stop and inform me, as I did not know whether the witnesses might not be coming up by themselves, and whether they might not have passed my messenger without knowing his errand.  Having taken these precautions, I departed.  I travelled on, but we met no one.  I traced, however, my messenger through Newport, Cardiff, and Cowbridge.  I was assured, also, that he had not passed me on his return; nor had any of those passed me whom he was seeking.  At length, when I was within about two miles of Neath I met him.  He had both the witnesses under his care.  This was a matter of great joy to me.  I determined to return with them.  It was now nearly two in the afternoon.  I accordingly went back, but we did not reach the Passage-house again till nearly two the next morning.