In the meanwhile the boatmen, having left the American ship, row steadily toward Ramsgate. They see a lugger making for the harbour; this proves to be the Champion. The lugger takes the men on board, and the boat in tow, her crew rejoicing over their friends whom they had supposed to be drowned. They hoist the lugger's flag in token that they are bearers of good news, and speed towards Ramsgate. The lugger's approach with her flag flying excites the curiosity of the men on the harbour, and a crowd hurries down the pier to watch her arrival. And, as soon as the men missing from the Princess Alice are recognised, the cheers and excitement are wild in the extreme, and men speed off at their hardest to bear the good news. One poor woman in the midst of her agony and mourning for her husband, and surrounded by her weeping friends, is surprised by her door being burst violently open, and at seeing a boatman almost dropping with breathlessness, gasping, and gesticulating, and nodding, but trying in vain to speak; and it is some seconds before he can stammer out "All right! all right! your husband is safe, coming now!"
A little subscription was got up by the men and their friends, in order to give to the captain of the American ship and the pilot a small testimonial of the appreciation of their skill and hospitality. The men took the borrowed oars back and presented their thankofferings, in the shape of a silver cigar case each, to the captain and pilot.
And as the men told the story of the despair and grief that had existed among the wives and children at home—of the tears of sorrow that were turned into tears of gladness—of the rejoicings that took place upon their return, the brave and feeling American captain shared the emotion of the men as they told their tale, and was much overcome as he thanked them for their present, saying,—he should value it as long as he lived, and ever be deeply grateful that he had in any way been the instrument of saving such honest and brave fellows, and of restoring them to their wives and families.
CHAPTER XX. THE SAVING OF "LA MARGUERITE"—(A HOVEL).
"The spirit of the storm pursued
Their long and toilsome way;
At length, in ocean solitude,
He sprang upon his prey.