to add highway robbery, house-breaking, and even murder-to his lawless pursuit of smuggling, and woe betided the poor wretch who should dare to give any information of his doings.
Not unfrequently did smugglers escape . A friend of mine witnessed the escape of a smuggler from a hulk at Rye Harbour. This man had been confined on board the hulk preparatory to his being sent to sea. Watching his opportunity, he made his exit from his temporary prison ; and, notwithstanding his being hotly pursued, he made his escape. There were, in the smuggling times of the present century, many curious and daring incidents connected with the escape of smugglers. A man, a native of Bexhill, a great part of whose life had been spent in smuggling, made two daring escapes -on one occasion he and others were taken prisoners, and were taken before the Mayor of Winchelsea. The Town Hall of Winchelsea stands in the N.W. angle of one of the rectangular blocks of buildings of which that town is composed. The ground floor is occupied by the lockup, and the floor above comprises the Hall. The door of the Hall does not communicate with the street, but is at the top of a flight of steps which are in a sort of court. The town-clerk, a wise man in his day and generation, thinking to make all sure, as soon as the prisoners, the witnesses, and the public were in the Hall, and the mayor and other magistrates had taken -
