Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/147

 and finding a foot-path leading over the sand bank, we ran down to the sea, forgetting our wounds, and exulting as though the summit of our wishes was attained, and we were on the point of embarkation. Indeed, so exquisite was the delight, that, regardless of consequences, we dashed into the water, drank of it, and splashed about like playful school-boys, without being the least disconcerted that the few vessels that could be seen were high and dry, close under the battery; nor will these feelings create surprise, when it is recollected, that more than five years had elapsed since we last quitted the sea in the Mediterranean, and that to regain it was considered as surmounting the principal obstacle to final success. But when these first transports had a little subsided, and were succeeded by rational reflection, we could but acutely feel the disappointment; although, had we been enabled properly to calculate the tides, we might have foreseen this event, for it was high water on that day about half-past five P. M., consequently, low water about midnight,