“By Heaven, you are right!” exclaimed Lord Wilmot. “Rebels swarm upon the waters as they do on the land. These shores are so jealously watched, that escape seems barely possible. See! a gun is fired by the frigate as a signal to the brig to stay her course.”
As he spoke, a flash was visible from the side of the more distant vessel, followed soon afterwards by a loud report. The sloop instantly lowered her sails in obedience to the summons to stay, and floated listlessly upon the waves.
“I hope no Royalist is on board that little bark,” exclaimed Colonel Gunter. “If so, he will soon be in the hands of the enemy, for see! a boat is lowered from the frigate.”
The Royalists paused to look on. In another minute the boat was manned, and propelled with lusty strokes by a dozen well-armed seamen, accompanied by an officer seated in the stern.
“There they go, in evident expectation of making a prize,” cried Lord Wilmot. “Let us hope the rascals may be disappointed. But as we can render no assistance to the good cause, but may jeopardize our own safety by needless delay, we had best move on.”
“We have here a proof of the great hazard his Majesty will incur by attempting this means of escape,” Clavering observed to Lord Wilmot. “Does not the incident excite your lordship’s apprehensions?”
“The risk will be great, undoubtedly,” Lord Wilmot replied; “but it must be run. The king is exposed to greater perils on shore. A fast-sailing sloop and a good captain are what we need; and these requisites are to be found, according to your father, in the Swiftsure, commanded by Captain Nicholas Tattersall, of Shoreham.”
“I know Captain Tattersall. He is a good seaman, and a trusty fellow,” exclaimed Clavering.
“Unluckily, he is absent just now,” Lord Wilmot replied; “but if circumstances comple us to wait, we will have recourse to him.”
Having mounted two or three eminences, and descended into as many hollows, the party now reached a flat upland covered with gorse and brambles, and soon afterwards the road, instead of continuing along the summits of the cliffs, turned off on the left in a rapid descent towards Newhaven, which was only about a mile distant. From this point, had there been light enough, the greater part of the Lewes levels, with the noble downs beyond them, would have been visible, but the distant landscape was buried in obscurity, increased by vapours arising from the broad swampy tract below. About half a mile off, on a headland overlooking the quay of New-haven, and known as the Castle Hill, stood another fire-beacon. Rising rapidly down the hill, and passing the old church, amidst its trees, on the right, the fugitives dashed through the town to the ferry.
Though of no great width, the Ouse has a channel of considerable depth, and the tide, which runs up higher than Lewes, being confined within narrow banks, rises with great rapidity, and ebbs with equal speed. At the present day the river is crossed by a drawbridge, but at the time of our story the only means of transit was by the ferry in question. When the cavalcade reached the bank, they easily discovered the large flat-bottomed, punt-shaped boat, used for the conveyance of men and cattle across the stream, with its huge oars and poles inside it. But it was chained fast to a post on the hard, and no ferryman was there to set it free or undertake its conduct across the river. Our Royalists, however, were not men to be easily checked. With the aid of a stone, John Habergeon soon broke off the staple that held the chain, and he and Eustace Saxby undertook to perform the part of ferrymen. Three of the horses—all that the boat would hold at a time securely—were embarked; and these, with the three Cavaliers, having been transported to the other side, the self-constituted boatmen returned for the rest of the horses, which had been left in charge of Ninian. These also, together with the young falconer, were safely ferried across the Ouse. This done, and horses and men being landed, the boat was turned adrift, and borne rapidly by the ebbing current towards the sea, John Habergeon observing, with a laugh, “If those rascally Roundheads should pursue us, they will be brought to a stop here, for there is not another ferry-boat or a bridge betwixt Newhaven and Lewes.”