They creep along inshore, and either run into a port or anchor under the guns of a battery if they see a British cruiser outside.

Drawing so little water, they can keep in nearer than a cruiser would dare to; and as they all can take the mud, they do not mind if they stick on the sands for a tide." Leigh returned with the news to his sister.
"What do you think, Patsey ?" he said.

"I do not say that we cannot cross from here in a boat, though I have learned that the entrance to the Channel is guarded by gunboats.

If we passed safely through these, we should have serious risk and many hardships to undergo.

I hear that there are numerous French privateers, and we might be picked up by one of them, instead of by an English cruiser.