boats, led by the flashes of light, had joined each other, and were rowing
fast towards the ship, before the pulses of the actors beat with
sufficient calmness to allow of serious reflection; nor was it until the
adventurers were below, and in their hammocks, that they found suitable
occasion to relate what had occurred to a wondering auditory. Robert Yarn,
the fore-top-man who had felt the locks of the sea-green lady blowing in
his face during the squall, took advantage of the circumstance to dilate
on his experiences; and, after having advanced certain positions that
particularly favored his own theories, he produced one of the crew of the
barge, who stood ready to affirm, in any court in Christendom, that he
actually saw the process of changing the beautiful and graceful lines that
distinguished the hull of the smuggler, into the coarser and more clumsy
model of the coaster.

"There are know-nothings," continued Robert, after he had fortified his
position by the testimony in question, "who would deny that the water of
the ocean is blue, because the stream that turns the parish-mill happens
to be muddy. But your real mariner, who has lived much in foreign parts,
is a man who understands the philosophy of life, and knows when to believe
a truth and when to scorn a lie. As for a vessel changing her character
when hard pushed in a chase, there are many instances; though having one
so near us, there is less necessity to be roving over distant seas, in
search of a case to prove it. My own opinion concerning this here
brigantine, is much as follows;--that is to say, I do suppose there was
once a real living hermaphrodite of her build and rig, and that she might
be employed in some such trade as this craft is thought to be in; and
that, in some unlucky hour, she and her people met with a mishap, that has
condemned her ever since to appear on this coast at stated times. She has,
however, a natural dislike to a royal cruiser; and no doubt the thing is
now sailed by those who have little need of compass or observation! All