For the rest of the night the crew were busily engaged in setting up the swivel guns, bending the larger and lighter sails in the place of the heavier winter canvas, and leaving nothing untouched that would increase our speed; and as the grey dawn stole across the eastern sky, we found ourselves standing close in shore within a short distance of Worseley Tower, hard by the little town of Yarmouth. We observed a small sloop lying at anchor just off the tower, while several soldiers on shore were intently watching us. Presently a boat pushed off from the land, and an officer ordered us roughly to stand farther off. "Can us not fish here?" asked Dick, who with two others alone remained on deck. "No, sirrah," replied the officer. "For all I know, you and your other boat may be looking for fish that does not swim in the sea. Get you gone, I say." There was no help for it. We could have seized the officer, but that deed would not have helped us, for the rebels would have delayed putting His Majesty across till a sufficient number of ships had assembled to guard his passage, or else they might have sent him from Cowes to Titchfield Haven. So the two vessels stood out from shore, the _Emma Farleigh_ leading, with the _Three Brothers_ close astern. The wind had fallen very light, and we barely moved through the water. A slight haze hung around, entirely blotting out Hurst Castle from our view. "If this fog becomes no thicker, 'twill serve our purpose well," commented the colonel, as we came on deck once more. But, happening to look shorewards, we observed with great uneasiness that we were being simply borne through the narrow channel by the irresistible force of the tide. In vain we tried to hold our own, but the wind was not sufficient to enable us to do so, and we observed with dismay that the breeze blew strongly off Yarmouth, while we were practically becalmed. Then, to our mortification, we saw a party of soldiers hurry on board the sloop, a cloaked, bent figure in their midst, and in utter helplessness we saw the vessel shake out her sails, and heeling over to the breeze, stand on her way towards the frowning walls of Hurst Castle. Our efforts to rescue His Majesty had failed. A feeling of depression had seized upon everyone on board both our vessels, and for a long time we breasted the tide at twenty yards apart, without any fixed plan or purpose. At length Firestone suggested that, to avoid needless risk, and the consequences of an already existing suspicion, the _Three Brothers_ should return to the west, while the _Emma Farleigh_ should land me at Wootton, and follow at her leisure. This was agreed to, and an hour later our former consort was a mere speck against the western sky.