about three in the
morning
We still met with no interruption . I was fast getting confidence in myself ; handling the Amanda , in my own judgment , quite as welt as Marble could have done it , and getting my green hands into so much method and practice , that I should not have hesitated about turning round and shaping our course for New York , so far as the mere business of navigating the vessel was concerned . The lights on the English coast were safe guides for our movements , and they let me understand how much we made or lost on a tack . Dungeness was drawing nearer slowly , to appearances , and I was beginning to look out for a pilot ; when Talcott , who had the watch , about three in the morning , came with breathless haste into the cabin , to tell me there was a sail closing with us fast , and , so far as he could make her out in the darkness , she was lugger-rigged . This was startling news indeed , for it was almost tantamount to saying the stranger was a Frenchman . I did not undress at all , and was on deck in a moment . The vessel in chase was about half a mile distant on our lee-quarter , but could be plainly enough distinguished , and I saw at a glance she was a lugger .