Suspicion hesitated between the smugglers and the gipsies.

The fate of Dirk Hatteraick's vessel was certain.

Two men from the opposite side of Warroch Bay (so the inlet on the southern side of the Point of Warroch is called) had seen, though at a great distance, the lugger drive eastward, after doubling the headland, and, as they judged from her manoeuvres, in a disabled state.

Shortly after, they perceived that she grounded, smoked, and finally took fire.

She was, as one of them expressed himself, 'in a light low' (bright flame) when they observed a king's ship, with her colours up, heave in sight from behind the cape.