been thrown over by the smugglers.[1] Be this as it might, some time after, an officer, much disliked for his activity, having fallen into an ambuscade of smugglers, they seized, blindfolded him, and tied his feet together, crying out, Throw him over the cliff! throw him over the cliff! Disregarding his entreaties for mercy, they bore him to the edge, and pushed him gradually over, feet foremost, till his arms and chin only remained above the brink, to which he clung by digging his finger-nails into the grass, and in this cruel position they left him. He remained thus for above an hour, in agonies of terror, screaming for help, and straining every sinew to maintain his hold, till at length the blood seemed to stagnate in his arms ; his strength failed, his brain reeled at the thought of the depth beneath, and he was upon the point of letting go in despair, when, as a last effort, he released one hand, tore the bandage from his eyes, turned his head with horror, and beheld the bottom within a yard of his feet! the smugglers having selected a shallow chalkpit for their purpose, upon the brink of which he had been so tormentingly suspended."
- ↑ I should have been disposed to doubt the truth of this, had I not heard lately of the death of a man, formerly a smuggler, who boasted that he had been employed in a similar manner ; and further that he had the inhumanity to stamp on the fingers of the poor fellow who clung with his hands to the edge of the cliff.
