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sible only by the most difficult process of clambering up the face of the rock, which inclined very little from a perpendicular; and as the officers judged if the smugglers were concealed there, a desperate resistance would be made before a footing could be secured, the besiegers were divided into three parties; two parties were to ascend, one on either side of the projecting rock, another party was to cover their ascent from the pathway; and the excisemen, by a circuitous route, were to get above the cave, and roll down stones on the smugglers, who should offer to come out to dispute the entrance to their retreat.

This disposition of the forces having been made, the party who were to begin the attack waited some time for the officers making their appearance on the brow of the cliff; but being galled by two shots from the fellow on the

table rock, who was now joined by some of his companions from within. the cave, the covering party also commenced operations with their pistols; and the two divisions, who were to ascend, commenced their escalade. The roots of the trees, and the bushes which were thinly scattered on the rock, were seized by one hand, whilst the men defended themselves with the other; and though several of them got some Justy thumps from the besieged, five of them at last succeeded in establishing themselves on the rock. The smugglers were not willing to stand to be shot at from beneath, but retired into their hiding-place, prepared to dispute with death-fraught resistance the passage of the mouth of the cavern.

The position on the rock having been gained, the entrance was next to be forced; but this was truly hazar dous. The entrance to the cavern was

by a cleft in the rock, inclined to the horizontal platform, in an angle of about seventy degrees, and so narrow that but one man at a time could get in with any thing like ease. And as it was not known what depth the sides of this opening might be, before sufficient room might be gained for two men to engage those within, the besiegers were puzzled how to act. None would volunteer to go in, and the excisemen were gone to the top of the cliff. Their orders, if they had been present, would not have obliged any one to enter. One of the people within the cavern interrupted delay, by calling out from the womb of the rock, that " they had better draw lots who should go in first, as he intended to send that man's head out to the others as a sample of his method of creating sailors Knights of the Glen,""

After waiting a long time for the

excisemen, the sailors commenced firing into the cave; and the same voice again humorously asked them, "If they were commanded by Saxons? Did they think King Robert Bruce's crown lay there now?"

By and by, that is to say, in about an hour and a half, the excisemen made their appearance on the top of a cliff, and instantly began hurling down stones on the cutter's men; but by good fortune none of the brave tars were hit, for they had at the first notice of this attack hallooed out, "Did the gaugers mean to kill the king's people?"-and hence the crafty excisemen, after having with incredible labour gained this height, were compelled to descend as speedily as possible by the same route they had got up; but the time consumed in these fruitless attempts to secure the smugglers, had now brought on the twilight of

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the evening, and the whole party of fifteen men was forced to give up the enterprise; but they purposed to resume it on the next morning.

It was nearly midnight before they got to the shore, and their disappointment was too great not to be keenly felt by all; but the master of the cutter, resolute in his plan, ordered his men to go to Brodick, and get six quarriers with hammers and crows, for the purpose of blowing up the mouth of the cave next day. These implements were procured, and by day-light a party of twenty-two men went to take the smugglers. St. Clyde staid at Brodick.

These men gained the cave's mouth, and six holes were now being bored to blow up the rock; but as this operation was going forward, a shouting and noise was heard from the opposite cliff, and on narrowly looking at the

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