The affair of the _Badger_ revenue cutter and the _Vre Brodiers_, or _Four Brothers_, smuggling lugger was the next exciting event. It happened on January 13th, 1823, and attracted a great deal of attention at the time, not only on account of the severe encounter at sea, but from the subsequent trial of the crew of the smuggler. The _Four Brothers_ was a Folkestone boat, and her crew of twenty-six were chiefly Folkestone men. She was a considerable vessel, having once been a French privateer, and was, as a privateer had need to be, a smart, easily handled craft, capable of giving the go-by to most other vessels. She carried four six-pound carronades. In constant commission, her crew pouched a pound a week wages, with an additional ten guineas for each successful run. On January 12th, of this momentous voyage, she sailed from Flushing with over one hundred tons of leaf-tobacco aboard, snugly packed for convenience of carriage in bales of 60 lb., and carried also a small consignment of brandy and gin, contained in 50 half-ankers, and 13 chests of tea—all destined for the south of Ireland. Ship and cargo were worth some £11,000; so it is sufficiently evident that her owners were in a considerable way of business of the contraband kind. At daybreak on the morning of January 13th, when off Dieppe and sailing very slowly, in a light wind, the crew of the _Four Brothers_ found themselves almost upon what they at first took to be French fishing-boats, and held unsuspiciously on her course. Suddenly, however, one of them ran a flag smartly up her halliards and fired a gun across the bows of the _Four Brothers_, as a signal to bring her to. It was the revenue cutter _Badger_. Unfortunately for the smuggler, she was carrying a newly stepped mainmast, and under small sail only, and accordingly, in disobeying the summons and attempting to get away, she was speedily outsailed. The smuggler, unable to get away, hoisted the Dutch colours and opened the fight that took place by firing upon the _Badger_, which immediately returned it. For two hours this exchange of shots was maintained. Early in the encounter William Cullum, seaman, was killed aboard the _Badger_, and Lieutenant Nazer, in command, received a shot from a musket in the left shoulder. One man of the _Four Brothers_ was killed outright, and nine wounded, but the fight would have continued had not the _Badger_ sailed into the starboard quarter of the smuggler, driving her bowsprit clean through her adversary’s mainsail. Even then the smuggler’s crew endeavoured to fire one of her guns, but failed.