He was called upon by the cutter’s mate to come out, and instantly obeyed, fearing no doubt that the cutlass would assail him again if he didn’t.  As he emerged he was followed by another man, and another, and yet another; in fact from that dark hole there came out a procession of seven, all of whom were found to be Englishmen.  It was noticeable that most, if not all, were dressed in short jackets and petticoat trousers.  They were clearly sailors, and not landsmen—­passengers or anything else.  In plain language they were out-and-out smugglers.  What was especially to be noted was the fact that their trousers were quite wet right up to their middles.  In some cases their jackets were also wet up to their elbows.  All this clearly pointed to the fact that they had not long since put off from the shore, where they had succeeded in landing a contraband cargo by wading from the lugger to the beach; and such a thick atmosphere as there was on the previous night must have made it highly convenient for them.  Nevertheless, even for these weather-hardened seamen, it cannot have been altogether pleasant penned up in sopping clothes in a dark forepeak with an unseen cutlass waving about in their midst and seizure pending.

These men also Gray ordered to go aft, and put them together so that he might see how many altogether were English and how many French.  It was found that there were nine of them English and five French.  Taking possession of the helm, Gray let the sails draw and ran down to the Eagle, telling his prisoners he was going to get further instructions from his commander.  There were no tubs found on the lugger, which was as might be expected, but there was a solitary hoop which had evidently come off whilst these tubs were being hauled out, and there were also found two pairs of slings which were universally employed for getting the half-ankers ashore.  These slings were made of small line, and were passed round the circumference of the cask at its “bow” and “stern,” sufficient line being left so that there were two lines, one to pass over each of a man’s shoulders.  These two lines could be joined to other two on another cask, and so each smuggler could land with one tub on his back and another on his chest, in much the same way as you see a sandwich-man carrying boards in the street.

On examining this lugger there was no bilge-water found in the forepeak, so those seven shivering men could not have made the excuse that the vessel was damp in that portion.  To cut a long story short, the lugger was eventually taken into Harwich, having been discovered seventeen miles from the French coast and eleven from the English shore.  Assuming the lugger had travelled at about four knots an hour, this would mean that she had started off from the English beach on her return journey about 5 A.M., the previous hours of the night having doubtless been spent in unloading the tubs somewhere between Folkestone and Dungeness or perhaps Rye.  Thus Hugnet, having at last been caught, had to stand his trial for both this and the occurrence of the previous month.  And a verdict in each case having been returned against him, his activities in running backwards and forwards across the English Channel were, for a time at least, considerably modified.