Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide; Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit To his full height! On, on, you noble English, Whose blood is set from fathers of war-proof! Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought. "King Henry V."--_Shakespeare._ Harder still the gale, and the rush of the sea and the blinding snow. The storm was at its height. As the life-boat headed for the Sands, a darkness, as of night, seemed to settle down upon the men; they could scarcely see each other; but on through the raging sea and blinding storm they drove the gallant boat. As they approached the shallow water, the high part of the Sand, where the heaviest waves were breaking, they could see spreading itself before them, standing out in the gloom, a white, gleaming, barrier wall of foam; for there as the rushing waves broke, they clashed together in their recoil, and mounted up in columns of foam, their heavier volume falling, and their crests caught by the wind and carried away in white streaming clouds of spray, while the fearful roar of the beat of the waves could be heard above the gale. But still straight for the breakers the men made. No faltering, no hesitation, brows knit, teeth clenched, hands ready, and hearts firm, and into it with a cheer. The boat, although under the smallest sail she could carry--a double reefed fore-sail and mizen--was driven on by the hurricane force of the wind, on through the outer range of breakers she plunged, and then came indeed a struggle for life.