SAIL FOR FRANCE.
By the last day of May, all the troops destined for the hostile
expedition were embarked on board of the ships of war and transports.
In all there were thirteen thousand fighting men, with sixty pieces
of cannon, and fifty mortars.
The embarkation of our horses was an object of peculiar care, and
General Elliot, with Captain Lindsay, of ours, superintended this
duty in person--for on the manner in which it is performed, depends
all the chance of cavalry being employed with success in the field
after landing.
They were conveyed on board the various ships, after a short march of
exercise, and when perfectly _cool_. On the first night after
embarkation, each received a mash mixed with some nitre, and bran was
supplied to every trooper, as the chief portion of his horse's daily
ration.
Every day each dragoon had to wash with care the hoofs and fetlocks
of his horse, and to sponge its face, eyes and nostrils with cold
water. We had ample wind sails rigged up for air, and spare slings
and bands all ready in case of illness or accident, but, fortunately,
neither occurred among the nags of our troop at least.
At daybreak, on the first of June, a gun from the commodore gave the
signal _for sea_; and in less than ten minutes every vessel had her
anchor apeak or atrip, and her head sails filled, and soon after,
with nine hearty cheers, the whole armament, consisting of
twenty-four ships of war, and one hundred and forty transports,
cutters and tenders, stood out into the channel, and a glorious sight
they presented.
The _Essex_, a sixty-four gun-ship, commanded by our commodore, the
Honourable Richard (afterwards Earl) Howe, led the van, and closely
in her wake followed the _Brilliant_ of thirty-six guns, commanded by
Captain Hyde Parker, who was afterwards knighted for his services off
the coast of America.
As the _Essex_ bore across Sandown Bay, I have been told that the
French deserter, Theophile Damien, assisted with his own hands to
steer the ship, as if in token of the good service he meant to
perform for us in future.
There was a pretty stiff breeze on this morning, and I had a dread of
sea sickness, as the vessel rolled heavily, her main-deck being
encumbered by stores; but the novelty of the scene and of the
situation, together with the activity of the seamen, as they swarmed
up aloft and lay out upon the yards, occupied all my attention for a
time; and to our tars of after years, the Jacks of Anson and of Howe,
in their little low cocked hats, Dutch-cut pea-jackets, petticoat
trousers, and brass-buckled shoes, would present a very unusual
spectacle. Certainly their costume was scarcely fitted for sending
down the topgallant yards, or lying out on the man-rope to close-reef
topsails in a gale of wind; but they were true tars, nevertheless.
Ere long the breeze, which had favoured us so much that the shores of
England had lessened astern, veered somewhat ahead; the weather
became stormy and wet, and I was glad to keep below, and share the
stall of my horse. While Kirkton, Charters, and others, who had been
frequently at sea before, sat out upon the booms to leeward, and
smoked to fill up the time.
In their mirth and cheerfulness, they formed a contrast to the
unfortunate seasick troopers, who were all huddled away in groups,
seeking shelter under the lee of anything that offered itself, and
who remained there in discomfort and misery, till the drum beat for
all but the watch to go below and turn in.
Next day I came on deck about dawn, and joined Charters, who was one
of the morning watch, and here I may mention, that when on boardship,
troops are divided into three watches, and must take their share of
all deck duty with the seamen. A subaltern officer has charge of
each watch, and there are also, when the numbers embarked will permit
it, a captain and subaltern of the day.
"Gauntlet, my lad, you look pale," said Charters, as he trod to and
fro to keep himself warm; for though the month was June, the air upon
the morning sea was cold, and the chill spray came flying in showers
over the weather cat-heads, as the _Brilliant_ sped upon her course,
like all the fleet which covered the open channel, close hauled; "the
morning watch is a devilish cold one, and we have no chance here of
getting a hair of the dog--eh?" added my friend, laughing.
"What land is that?" I asked, with chattering teeth, while clutching
the rigging with one hand, and pointing southward with the other.
"The land of France--that is Cape La Hogue," replied Charters.
"Ay," growled an old quartermaster; "yonder is the fort, with the
flag flying."
The old tar's eyes must have been better than mine, which could
discern neither fort nor flag; but I muffled my trooper's cloak about
me, and set myself to watch the hostile shore.
The outline of the land looked dim and low, and like a dark cloud, as
it rose from the grey morning sea, which was all of a dusky tint and
flecked with masses of foam. The whole aspect of the fleet was
gloomy and cheerless now; the decks and canvas were wet and dripping
with the rain of the past night, and with the spray of the waves, for
there was a heavy sea running in the channel; but anon the sun began
to rise through successive bars or streaks of purple and saffron
cloud; then the long lines of waves rolled after each other
glittering in light. The canvas aloft became whiter; the hulls of
the vessels shone and became instinct with life, as the red port lids
were triced up, the snowy hammocks placed in their nettings, and the
scarlet coats crowded on the decks; drums and bugles were heard from
time to time, warnings for parade, orders or messing, as the swift
fleet flew on at the rate of eight knots per hour, and now and then,
by a signal from the commodore, the best sailers were ordered to cast
a tow-line to the more slow, especially our deeply laden storeships.
On the evening of the 3rd of June we came to anchor, between Sark and
Jersey, for what reason I know not. In the night we had a hurricane;
one transport lost a mast, another lost her bowsprit, and a third,
crowded with foot soldiers, was totally lost by running foul of a
sunken rock. The boats of the _Brilliant_ were piped away with great
celerity, and all the troops were saved before the wreck went to
pieces; but I shall never forget that horrible night--the darkness of
the atmosphere, the bellowing of the wind and the roaring of the sea,
while the frigate leaped, plunged and strained on her cables, like a
restive horse; and then, amid all this, the danger and excitement
caused by the sinking of the transport amid the obscurity of that
stormy midnight sea, and the loss of life that might have ensued but
for the skill and bravery of our seamen.
Jersey is so surrounded by reefs of sunken rock, that it was a
miracle no more of our armament perished on this occasion.
On the morning of the 5th, the commodore signalled to weigh anchor
and pursue our course.
The whole fleet ran with a fair breeze along the coast of Normandy,
and so close were we in shore, that the houses, farms, and even the
inhabitants could be seen distinctly without the aid of glasses. At
one place we saw a column of French Infantry on the march, with all
their bayonets glittering in the sunshine; at another, where the land
opened near Sainte Soule, a regiment of dragoons riding at full
gallop in the direction we were pursuing.
"Tom, we shall be under fire to-morrow," said Charters, thoughtfully,
as he knocked the ashes from his pipe into the palm of his left hand
and scattered them to leeward.
"All the better," replied Kirkton, "the see-saw of home service has
sickened me."
"And me too," added I, "and I long for some keen excitement."
"Excitement," replied Charters, "then you are likely to have it with
a vengeance, my boy! Think of thirteen thousand men invading France!"
By two o'clock p.m. we came to anchor in Cancalle Bay, on the coast
of Brittany, nine miles eastward of St. Malo. The _Brilliant_ lay
not far from the famous rock of Cancalle, so celebrated for its
oysters, the fishing of which forms one of the chief sources of local
wealth.
Commodore Howe, it would appear, had now questioned narrowly the two
French deserters, Theophile Damien and Benoit Bossoit, whom I had
been the humble means of introducing to his notice, and discovering
that they were profoundly ignorant of the whole locality, he began to
suspect both their veracity and intentions, and therefore ordered
them to be made close prisoners, while, accompanied by the Duke of
Marlborough, Colonel Watson our quarter-master-general, and Thierry
the pilot, he went in the _Grace_, an armed cutter, to reconnoitre
the Bay.
The information of two pretended deserters, as to the position and
strength of batteries, and so forth, having proved perfectly
erroneous, on his return the commodore ordered the Frenchmen to be
searched; and then, on papers detailing the number and object of our
armament being found upon them both, he forthwith ordered them to be
put to death in the most summary manner.
Posted as sentinel on the poop of the _Brilliant_, I was in ignorance
of all this, and was treading to and fro carbine in hand, with my
eyes fixed on the rough and wooded shore of Brittany, when Captain
Lindsay came on deck, harnessed in full regimentals with sword and
gorget on.
"Well, Gauntlet," said he, "your two Frenchmen have, unfortunately,
proved to be impostors and spies, after all."
"Spies!" I reiterated, with some dismay.
"Yes; of the most dangerous kind."
"And what is to be done with them, sir?"
"That which the laws of war direct--ah! look yonder!"
He pointed to the _Essex_, the ship of the commodore, and a thrill of
horror ran through me, on beholding two human forms run up
simultaneously by the neck, to the arms of the foreyard, where they
dangled for a minute in mid-air; but they were not meant to be
hanged, as each had a cold thirty-two pound shot at his heels.
This must have been a pleasant spectacle for Thierry the pilot, who
was also a Frenchman, and consequently a traitor.
A gun was fired from the bow of the _Essex_; solemnly the echoes of
the sea and shore replied, and ere the last had died away, both
culprits had vanished under the waves, whose ripples closed over them
and left no trace behind. Then, as the pale and fierce dark face of
Damien came in memory before me, I turned to my leader and said--
"Captain Lindsay, the fate of Damien forms a terrible sequel to the
story of his brother."
"That story was falsehood--all," replied the captain; "he was no
relation whatever of the famous would-be regicide, who was a peasant
of Artois. The name of the spy was Theophile Hautois, not Damiens,
and he never was a privateersman, nor served under Thurot, but was a
forester of Brittany, and, as some suppose, a robber among the Menez
Mountains. His whole narrative, so far as he was concerned, proves
an artful forgery, and, like his companion, he was a fully accredited
spy of the French authorities, employed to obtain information which
his lips can never render them now."
The boom of a second cannon now pealed across the Bay.
"The commodore has fired another gun and hoisted a signal," said an
officer close by.
The signal midshipman raised his telescope to the bunting which we
saw fluttering at the mainmast-head of the _Essex_.
"What is it now--what says the order?" asked several, with the
impatience and curiosity natural enough at such a time.
"All ships having flat-bottomed boats and landing-stages, _to hoist
them out_!" replied the middy, with a kindling eye.
"Bravo," added Captain Lindsay; "that seems like work! Ere long we
shall have to look to our spurleathers and spatterdashes."