"Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue ocean--roll
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed."
CHILDE HAROLD.
It was broad day-light, when Sir Gervaise Oakes next appeared on deck.
As the scene then offered to his view, as well as the impression it made
on his mind, will sufficiently explain to the reader the state of
affairs, some six hours later than the time last included in our
account, we refer him to those for his own impressions. The wind now
blew a real gale, though the season of the year rendered it less
unpleasant to the feelings than is usual with wintry tempests. The air
was even bland, and still charged with the moisture of the ocean; though
it came sweeping athwart sheets of foam, with a fury, at moments, which
threatened to carry the entire summits of waves miles from their beds,
in spray. Even the aquatic birds seemed to be terrified, in the instants
of the greatest power of the winds, actually wheeling suddenly on their
wings, and plunging into the element beneath to seek protection from the
maddened efforts of that to which they more properly belonged.
Still, Sir Gervaise saw that his ships bore up nobly against the fierce
strife. Each vessel showed the same canvass; viz.--a reefed fore-sail; a
small triangular piece of strong, heavy cloth, fitted between the end of
the bowsprit and the head of the fore-top-mast; a similar sail over the
quarter-deck, between the mizzen and main masts, and a close-reefed
main-top-sail Several times that morning, Captain Greenly had thought he
should be compelled to substitute a lower surface to the wind than that
of the sail last mentioned. As it was an important auxiliary, however,
in steadying the ship, and in keeping her under the command of her helm,
on each occasion the order had been delayed, until he now began to
question whether the canvass could be reduced, without too great a risk
to the men whom it would be necessary to send aloft. He had decided to
let it stand or blow away, as fortune might decide. Similar reasoning
left nearly all the other vessels under precisely the same canvass.
The ships of the vice-admiral's division had closed in the night,
agreeably to an order given before quitting the anchorage, which
directed them to come within the usual sailing distance, in the event of
the weather's menacing a separation. This command had been obeyed by the
ships astern carrying sail hard, long after the leading vessels had been
eased by reducing their canvass. The order of sailing was the
Plantagenet in the van, and the Carnatic, Achilles, Thunderer, Blenheim,
and Warspite following, in the order named; some changes having been
made in the night, in order to bring the ships of the division into
their fighting-stations, in a line ahead, the vice-admiral leading. The
superiority of the Plantagenet was a little apparent, notwithstanding;
the Carnatic alone, and that only by means of the most careful watching,
being able to keep literally in the commander-in-chief's wake; all the
other vessels gradually but almost imperceptibly setting to leeward of
it. These several circumstances struck Sir Gervaise, the moment his foot
touched the poop, where he found Greenly keeping an anxious look-out on
the state of the weather and the condition of his own ship; leaning at
the same time, against the spanker-boom to steady himself in the gusts
of the gale. The vice-admiral braced his own well-knit and compact
frame, by spreading his legs; then he turned his handsome but
weather-beaten face towards the line, scanning each ship in succession,
as she lay over to the wind, and came wallowing on, shoving aside vast
mounds of water with her bows, her masts describing short arcs in the
air, and her hull rolling to windward, and lurching, as if boring her
way through the ocean. Galleygo, who never regarded himself as a steward
in a gale of wind, was the only other person on the poop, whither he
went at pleasure by a sort of imprescriptibly right.
"Well done, old Planter!" cried Sir Gervaise, heartily, as soon as his
eye had taken in the leading peculiarities of the view. "You see,
Greenly, she has every body but old Parker to leeward, and she would
have him there, too, but he would carry every stick he has, out of the
Carnatic, rather than not keep his berth. Look at Master Morganic; he
has his main course close-reefed on the Achilles, to luff into his
station, and I'll warrant you will get a good six months' wear out of
that ship in this one gale; loosening her knees, and jerking her spars
like so many whip-handles; and all for love of the new fashion of
rigging an English two-decker like an Algerian xebec! Well, let him tug
his way up to windward, Bond-street fashion, if he likes the fun. What
has become of the Chloe, Greenly?"
"Here she is, sir, quite a league on our lee-bow, looking out, according
to orders."
"Ay, that is her work, and she'll do it effectually.--But I don't see
the Driver!"
"She's dead ahead sir," answered Greenly, smiling; "_her_ orders being
rather more difficult of execution. Her station would be off yonder to
windward, half a league ahead of us; but it's no easy matter to get into
that position, Sir Gervaise, when the Plantagenet is really in earnest."
Sir Gervaise laughed, and rubbed his hands, then he turned to look for
the Active, the only other vessel of his division. This little cutter
was dancing over the seas, half the time under water, notwithstanding,
under the head of her main-sail, broad off, on the admiral's
weather-beam; finding no difficulty in maintaining her station there, in
the absence of all top-hamper, and favoured by the lowness of her hull.
After this he glanced upward at the sails and spars of the Plantagenet,
which he studied closely.
"No signs of _de Vervillin_, hey! Greenly?" the admiral asked, when his
survey of the whole fleet had ended. "I was in hopes we might see
something of _him_, when the light returned this morning."
"Perhaps it is quite as well as it is, Sir Gervaise," returned the
captain. "We could do little besides look at each other, in this gale,
and Admiral Bluewater ought to join before I should like even to do
_that_."
"Think you so, Master Greenly!--There you are mistaken, then; for I'd
lie by him, were I alone in this ship, that I might know where he was to
be found as soon as the weather would permit us to have something to say
to him."
These words were scarcely uttered, when the look-out in the forward
cross-trees, shouted at the top of his voice, "sail-ho!" At the next
instant the Chloe fired a gun, the report of which was just heard amid
the roaring of the gale, though the smoke was distinctly seen floating
above the mists of the ocean; she also set a signal at her naked
mizzen-top-gallant-mast-head.
"Run below, young gentleman," said the vice-admiral, advancing to the
break of the poop and speaking to a midshipman on the quarter-deck; "and
desire Mr. Bunting to make his appearance. The Chloe signals us--tell
him not to look for his knee-buckles."
A century since, the last injunction, though still so much in use on
ship-board, was far more literal than it is to-day, nearly all classes
of men possessing the articles in question, though not invariably
wearing them when at sea. The midshipman dove below, however, as soon as
the words were out of his superior's mouth; and, in a very few minutes,
Bunting appeared, having actually stopped on the main-deck ladder to
assume his coat, lest he might too unceremoniously invade the sacred
precincts of the quarter-deck, in his shirt-sleeves.
"There it is, Bunting," said Sir Gervaise, handing the lieutenant the
glass; "two hundred and twenty-seven--'a large sail ahead,' if I
remember right."
"No, Sir Gervaise, '_sails_ ahead;' the number of them to follow. Hoist
the answering flag, quarter-master."
"So much the better! So much the better, Bunting! The number to follow?
Well, _we'll_ follow the number, let it be greater or smaller. Come,
sirrah, bear a hand up with your answering flag."
The usual signal that the message was understood was now run up between
the masts, and instantly hauled down again, the flags seen in the Chloe
descending at the same moment.
"Now for the number of the sails, ahead," said Sir Gervaise, as he,
Greenly, and Bunting, each levelled a glass at the frigate, on board
which the next signal was momentarily expected. "Eleven, by George!"
"No, Sir Gervaise," exclaimed Greenly, "I know better than _that_. Red
above, and blue beneath, with the distinguishing pennant _beneath_, make
_fourteen_, in our books, now!"
"Well, sir, if they are _forty_, we'll go nearer and see of what sort of
stuff they are made. Show your answering flag, Bunting, that we may know
what else the Chloe has to tell us."
This was done, the frigate hauling down her signals in haste, and
showing a new set as soon as possible.
"What now, Bunting?--what now, Greenly?" demanded Sir Gervaise, a sea
having struck the side of the ship and thrown so much spray into his
face as to reduce him to the necessity of using his pocket-handkerchief,
at the very moment he was anxious to be looking through his glass. "What
do you make of _that_, gentlemen?"
"I make out the number to be 382," answered Greenly; "but what it means,
I know not."
"'Strange sails, _enemies_,'" read Bunting from the book. "Show the
answer, quarter-master."
"We hardly wanted a signal for _that_, Greenly, since there can be no
friendly force, here away; and fourteen sail, on this coast, always
means mischief. What says the Chloe next?"
"'Strange sails on the larboard tack, heading as follows.'"
"By George, crossing our course!--We shall soon see them from deck. Do
the ships astern notice the signals?"
"Every one of them, Sir Gervaise," answered the captain; "the Thunderer
has just lowered her answering flag, and the Active is repeating. I have
never seen quarter-masters so nimble!"
"So much the better--so much the better--down he comes; stand by for
another."
After the necessary pause, the signal to denote the point of the compass
was shown from the Chloe.
"Heading how, Bunting?" the vice-admiral eagerly inquired. "Heading how,
sir?"
"North-west-and-by-north," or as Bunting pronounced it
"nor-west-and-by-loathe, I believe, sir,--no, I am mistaken, Sir
Gervaise; it is nor-nor-west."
"Jammed up like ourselves, hard on a wind! This gale comes directly from
the broad Atlantic, and one party is crossing over to the north and the
other to the south shore. We _must_ meet, unless one of us run
away--hey! Greenly?"
"True enough, Sir Gervaise; though fourteen sail is rather an awkward
odds for seven."
"You forget the Driver and Active, sir; we've _nine_; nine hearty,
substantial British cruisers."
"To wit: six ships of the line, one frigate, a _sloop_, and a _cutter_,"
laying heavy emphasis on the two last vessels.
"What does the Chloe say now, Bunting? That we're enough for the French,
although they _are_ two to one?"
"Not exactly that, I believe, Sir Gervaise. 'Five more sail ahead.' They
increase fast, sir."
"Ay, at that rate, they may indeed grow too strong for us," answered Sir
Gervaise, with more coolness of manner; "nineteen to nine are rather
heavy odds. I wish we had Bluewater here!"
"That is what I was about to suggest, Sir Gervaise," observed the
captain. "If we had the other division, as some of the Frenchmen are
probably frigates and corvettes, we might do better. Admiral Bluewater
cannot be far from us; somewhere down here, towards north-east--or
nor-nor-east. By warring round, I think we should make his division in
the course of a couple of hours."
"What, and leave to Monsieur de Vervillin the advantage of swearing he
frightened us away! No--no--Greenly; we will first _pass_ him fairly and
manfully, and that, too, within reach of shot; and then it will be time
enough to go round and look after our friends."
"Will not that be putting the French exactly between our two divisions,
Sir Gervaise, and give him the advantage of dividing our force. If he
stand far, on a nor-nor-west course, I think he will infallibly get
between us and Admiral Bluewater."
"And what will he gain by that, Greenly?--What, according to your
notions of matters and things, will be the great advantage of having an
English fleet on each side of him?"
"Not much, certainly, Sir Gervaise," answered Greenly, laughing; "if
these fleets were at all equal to his own. But as they will be much
inferior to him, the Comte may manage to close with one division, while
the other is so far off as to be unable to assist; and one hour of a hot
fire may dispose of the victory."
"All this is apparent enough, Greenly; yet I could hardly brook letting
the enemy go scathe less. So long as it blows as it does now, there will
not be much fighting, and there can be no harm in taking a near look at
M. de Vervillin. In half an hour, or an hour at most, we must get a
sight of him from off deck, even with this slow headway of the two
fleets. Let them heave the log, and ascertain how fast we go, sir."
"Should we engage the French in such weather, Sir Gervaise," answered
Greenly, after giving the order just mentioned; "it would be giving them
the very advantage they like. They usually fire at the spars, and one
shot would do more mischief, with such a strain on the masts, than
half-a-dozen in a moderate blow."
"That will do, Greenly--that will do," said the vice-admiral,
impatiently; "if I didn't so well know you, and hadn't seen you so often
engaged, I should think you were afraid of these nineteen sail. You have
lectured long enough to render me prudent, and we'll say no more."
Here Sir Gervaise turned on his heel, and began to pace the poop, for he
was slightly vexed, though not angered. Such little dialogues often
occurred between him and his captain, the latter knowing that his
commander's greatest professional failing was excess of daring, while he
felt that his own reputation was too well established to be afraid to
inculcate prudence. Next to the honour of the flag, and his own perhaps,
Greenly felt the greatest interest in that of Sir Gervaise Oakes, under
whom he had served as midshipman, lieutenant, and captain; and this his
superior knew, a circumstance that would have excused far greater
liberties. After moving swiftly to and fro several times, the
vice-admiral began to cool, and he forgot this passing ebullition of
quick feelings. Greenly, on the other hand, satisfied that the just mind
of the commander-in-chief would not fail to appreciate facts that had
been so plainly presented to it, was content to change the subject. They
conversed together, in a most friendly manner, Sir Gervaise being even
unusually frank and communicative, in order to prove he was not
displeased, the matter in discussion being the state of the ship and the
situation of the crew.
"You are always ready for battle, Greenly," the vice-admiral said,
smilingly, in conclusion; "when there is a necessity; and always just as
ready to point out the inexpediency of engaging, where you fancy nothing
is to be gained by it. You would not have me run away from a shadow,
however; or a signal; and that is much the same thing: so we will stand
on, until we make the Frenchmen fairly from off-deck, when it will be
time enough to determine what shall come next."
"Sail-ho!" shouted one of the look-outs from aloft, a cry that
immediately drew all eyes towards the mizzen-top-mast-cross-trees,
whence the sound proceeded.
The wind blew too fresh to render conversation, even by means of a
trumpet, easy, and the man was ordered down to give an account of what
he had seen. Of course he first touched the poop-deck, where he was met
by the admiral and captain, the officer of the watch, to whom he
properly belonged, giving him up to the examination of his two
superiors, without a grimace.
"Where-away is the sail you've seen, sir?" demanded Sir Gervaise a
little sharply, for he suspected it was no more than one of the ships
ahead, already signaled. "Down yonder to the southward and
eastward--hey! sirrah?"
"No, Sir Jarvy," answered the top-man, hitching his trowsers with one
hand, and smoothing the hair on his forehead with the other; "but out
here, to the forward and westward, on our weather-quarter. It's none o'
them French chaps as is with the County of Fairvillian,"--for so all the
common men of the fleet believed their gallant enemy to be rightly
named,--"but is a square-rigged craft by herself, jammed up on a wind,
pretty much like all on us."
"That alters the matter, Greenly! How do you know she is square-rigged,
my man?"
"Why, Sir Jarvy, your honour, she's under her fore and main-taw-sails,
close-reefed, with a bit of the main-sail set, as well as I can make it
out, sir."
"The devil she is! It must be some fellow in a great hurry, to carry
that canvass in this blow! Can it be possible, Greenly, that the leading
vessel of Bluewater is heaving in sight?"
"I rather think not, Sir Gervaise; it would be too far to windward for
any of his two-deckers. It may turn out to be a look-out ship of the
French, got round on the other tack to keep her station, and carrying
sail hard, because she dislikes our appearance."
"In that case she must claw well to windward to escape us! What's your
name, my lad--Tom Davis, if I'm not mistaken?"
"No, Sir Jarvy, it's Jack Brown; which is much the same, your honour.
We's no ways partic'lar about names."
"Well, Jack, does it blow hard aloft? So as to give you any trouble in
holding on?"
"Nothing to speak on, Sir Jarvy. A'ter cruising a winter and spring in
the Bay of Biscay, I looks on this as no more nor a puff. Half a hand
will keep a fellow in his berth, aloft."
"Galleygo--take Jack Brown below to my cabin, and give him a fresh nip
in his jigger--he'll hold on all the better for it."
This was Sir Gervaise's mode of atoning for the error in doing the man
injustice, by supposing he was mistaken about the new sail, and Jack
Brown went aloft devoted to the commander-in-chief. It costs the great
and powerful so little to become popular, that one is sometimes
surprised to find that any are otherwise; but, when we remember that it
is also their duty to be just, astonishment ceases; justice being
precisely the quality to which a large portion of the human race are
most averse.
Half an hour passed, and no further reports were received from aloft. In
a few minutes, however, the Warspite signalled the admiral, to report
the stranger on her weather-quarter, and, not long after, the Active did
the same. Still neither told his character; and the course being
substantially the same, the unknown ship approached but slowly,
notwithstanding the unusual quantity of sail she had set. At the end of
the period mentioned, the vessels in the south-eastern board began to be
visible from the deck. The ocean was so white with foam, that it was not
easy to distinguish a ship, under short canvass, at any great distance;
but, by the aid of glasses, both Sir Gervaise and Greenly satisfied
themselves that the number of the enemy at the southward amounted to
just twenty; one more having hove in sight, and been signalled by the
Chloe, since her first report. Several of these vessels, however, were
small; and, the vice-admiral, after a long and anxious survey, lowered
his glass and turned to his captain in order to compare opinions.
"Well, Greenly," he asked, "what do you make of them, now?--According to
my reckoning, there are thirteen of the line, two frigates, four
corvettes, and a lugger; or twenty sail in all."
"There can be no doubt of the twenty sail, Sir Gervaise, though the
vessels astern are still too distant to speak of their size. I rather
think it will turn out _fourteen_ of the line and only three frigates."
"That is rather too much for us, certainly, without Bluewater. His five
ships, now, and this westerly position, would make a cheering prospect
for us. We might stick by Mr. de Vervillin until it moderated, and then
pay our respects to him. What do you say to _that_, Greenly?"
"That it is of no great moment, Sir Gervaise, so long as the other
division is _not_ with us. But yonder are signals flying on board the
Active, the Warspite, and the Blenheim."
"Ay, they've something to tell us of the chap astern and to windward.
Come, Bunting, give us the news."
"'Stranger in the north-west shows the Druid's number;'" the
signal-officer read mechanically from the book.
"The deuce he does! Then Bluewater cannot be far off. Let Dick alone for
keeping in his proper place; he has an instinct for a line of battle,
and I never knew him fail to be in the very spot I could wish to have
him, looking as much at home, as if his ships had all been built there!
The Druid's number! The Cæsar and the rest of them are in a line ahead,
further north, heading up well to windward even of our own wake. This
puts the Comte fairly under our lee."
But Greenly was far from being of a temperament as sanguine as that of
the vice-admiral's. He did not like the circumstance of the Druid's
being alone visible, and she, too, under what in so heavy a gale, might
be deemed a press of canvass. There was no apparent reason for the
division's carrying sail so hard, while the frigate would he obliged to
do it, did she wish to overtake vessels like the Plantagenet and her
consorts. He suggested, therefore, the probability that the ship was
alone, and that her object might be to speak them.
"There is something in what you say, Greenly," answered Sir Gervaise,
after a minute's reflection; "and we must look into it. If Denham
doesn't give us any thing new from the Count to change our plans, it may
be well to learn what the Druid is after."
Denham was the commander of the Chloe, which ship, a neat
six-and-thirty, was pitching into the heavy seas that now came rolling
in heavily from the broad Atlantic, the water streaming from her
hawse-holes, as she rose from each plunge, like the spouts of a whale.
This vessel, it has been stated, was fully a league ahead and to leeward
of the Plantagenet, and consequently so much nearer to the French, who
were approaching from that precise quarter of the ocean, in a long
single line, like that of the English; a little relieved, however, by
the look-out vessels, all of which, in their case, were sailing along on
the weather-beam of their friends. The distance was still so great, as
to render glasses necessary in getting any very accurate notions of the
force and the point of sailing of Monsieur de Vervillin's fleet, the
ships astern being yet so remote as to require long practice to speak
with any certainty of their characters. In nothing, notwithstanding, was
the superior practical seamanship of the English more apparent, than in
the manner in which these respective lines were formed. That of Sir
Gervaise Oakes was compact, each ship being as near as might be a
cable's length distant from her seconds, ahead and astern. This was a
point on which the vice-admiral prided himself; and by compelling his
captains rigidly to respect their line of sailing, and by keeping the
same ships and officers, as much as possible, under his orders, each
captain of the fleet had got to know his own vessel's rate of speed, and
all the other qualities that were necessary to maintain her precise
position. All the ships being weatherly, though some, in a slight
degree, were more so than others, it was easy to keep the line in
weather like the present, the wind not blowing sufficiently hard to
render a few cloths more or less of canvass of any very great moment. If
there was a vessel sensibly out of her place, in the entire line, it was
the Achilles; Lord Morganic not having had time to get all his forward
spars as far aft as they should have been; a circumstance that had
knocked him off a little more than had happened to the other vessels.
Nevertheless, had an air-line been drawn at this moment, from the
mizzen-top of the Plantagenet to that of the Warspite, it would have
been found to pass through the spars of quite half the intermediate
vessels, and no one of them all would have been a pistol-shot out of the
way. As there were six intervals between the vessels, and each interval
as near as could be guessed at was a cable's length, the extent of the
whole line a little exceeded three-quarters of a mile.
On the other hand, the French, though they preserved a very respectable
degree of order, were much less compact, and by no means as methodical
in their manner of sailing. Some of their ships were a quarter of a mile
to leeward of the line, and the intervals were irregular and
ill-observed. These circumstances arose from several causes, neither of
which proceeded from any fault in the commander-in-chief, who was both
an experienced seaman and a skilful tactician. But his captains were new
to each other, and some of them were recently appointed to their ships;
it being just as much a matter of course that a seaman should ascertain
the qualities of his vessel, by familiarity, as that a man should learn
the character of his wife, in the intimacy of wedlock.
At the precise moment of which we are now writing, the Chloe might have
been about a league from the leading vessel of the enemy, and her
position to leeward of her own fleet threatened to bring her, half an
hour later, within range of the Frenchmen's guns. This fact was apparent
to all in the squadron; still the frigate stood on, having been placed
in that station, and the whole being under the immediate supervision of
the commander-in-chief.
"Denham will have a warm berth of it, sir, should he stand on much
longer," said Greenly, when ten minutes more had passed, during which
the ships had gradually drawn nearer.
"I was hoping he might get between the most weatherly French frigate and
her line," answered Sir Gervaise; "when I think, by edging rapidly away,
we could take her alive, with the Plantagenet."
"In which case we might as well clear for action; such a man[oe]uvre
being certain to bring on a general engagement."
"No--no--I'm not quite mad enough for that, Master Telemachus; but, we
can wait a little longer for the chances. How many flags can you make
out among the enemy, Bunting?"
"I see but two, Sir Gervaise; one at the fore, and the other at the
mizzen, like our own. I can make out, now, only twelve ships of the
line, too; neither of which is a three-decker."
"So much for rumour; as flagrant a liar as ever wagged a tongue! Twelve
ships on two decks, and eight frigates, sloops and luggers. There can be
no great mistake in this."
"I think not, Sir Gervaise; their commander-in-chief is in the fourth
ship from the head of the line. His flag is just discernible, by means
of our best glass. Ay, there goes a signal, this instant, at the end of
his gaff!"
"If one could only read French now, Greenly," said the vice-admiral,
smiling; "we might get into some of Mr. de Vervillin's secrets. Perhaps
it's an order to go to quarters or to clear; look out sharp, Bunting,
for any signs of such a movement. What do you make of it?"
"It's to the frigates, Sir Gervaise; all of which answer, while the
other vessels do not."
"We want no French to read that signal, sir," put in Greenly; "the
frigates themselves telling us what it means. Monsieur de Vervillin has
no idea of letting the Plantagenet take any thing he has, _alive_."
This was true enough. Just as the captain spoke, the object of the order
was made sufficiently apparent, by all the light vessels to windward of
the French fleet, bearing up together, until they brought the wind abaft
their beams, when away they glided to leeward, like floating objects
that have suddenly struck a swift current. Before this change in their
course, these frigates and corvettes had been struggling along, the seas
meeting them on their weather-bows, at the rate of about two knots or
rather less; whereas, their speed was now quadrupled, and in a few
minutes, the whole of them had sailed through the different intervals in
their main line, and had formed as before, nearly half a league to
leeward of it. Here, in the event of an action, their principal duties
would have been to succour crippled ships that might be forced out of
their allotted stations during the combat. All this Sir Gervaise viewed
with disgust. He had hoped that his enemy might have presumed on the
state of the elements, and suffered his light vessels to maintain their
original positions.
"It would be a great triumph to us, Greenly," he said, "if Denham could
pass without shifting his berth. There would be something manly and
seamanlike in an inferior fleet's passing a superior, in such a style."
"Yes, sir, though it _might_ cost us a fine frigate. The count can have
no difficulty in fighting his weather main-deck guns, and a discharge
from two or three of his leading vessels might cut away some spar that
Denham would miss sadly, just at such a moment."
Sir Gervaise placed his hands behind his back, paced the deck a minute,
and then said decidedly--
"Bunting, make the Chloe's signal to ware--tacking in this sea, and
under that short canvass, is out of the question."
Bunting had anticipated this order, and had even ventured clandestinely
to direct the quarter-masters to bend on the necessary flags; and Sir
Gervaise had scarcely got the words out of his mouth, before the signal
was abroad. The Chloe was equally on the alert; for she too each moment
expected the command, and ere her answering flag was seen, her helm was
up, the mizen-stay-sail down, and her head falling off rapidly towards
the enemy. This movement seemed to be expected all round--and it
certainly had been delayed to the very last moment--for the leading
French ship fell off three or four points, and as the frigate was
exactly end-on to her, let fly the contents of all the guns on her
forecastle, as well as of those on her main-deck, as far aft as they
could be brought to bear. One of the top-sail-sheets of the frigate was
shot away by this rapid and unexpected fire, and some little damage was
done to the standing rigging; but luckily, none of immediate moment.
Captain Denham was active, and the instant he found his top-sail
flapping, he ordered it clewed up, and the main-sail loosed. The latter
was set, close-reefed, as the ship came to the wind on the larboard
tack, and by the time every thing was braced up and hauled aft, on that
tack, the main-top-sail was ready to be sheeted home, anew. During the
few minutes that these evolutions required, Sir Gervaise kept his eye
riveted on the vessel; and when he saw her fairly round, and trimmed by
the wind, again, with the main-sail dragging her ahead, to own the truth,
he felt mentally relieved.
"Not a minute too soon, Sir Gervaise," observed the cautious Greenly,
smiling. "I should not be surprised if Denham hears more from that
fellow at the head of the French line. His weather chase-guns are
exactly in a range with the frigate, and the two upper ones might be
worked, well enough."
"I think not, Greenly. The forecastle gun, possibly; scarcely any thing
below it."
Sir Gervaise proved to be partly right and partly wrong. The Frenchman
_did_ attempt a fire with his main-deck gun; but, at the first plunge of
the ship, a sea slapped up against her weather-bow, and sent a column of
water through the port, that drove half its crew into the lee-scuppers.
In the midst of this waterspout, the gun exploded, the loggerhead having
been applied an instant before, giving a sort of chaotic wildness to the
scene in-board. This satisfied the party below; though that on the
forecastle fared better. The last fired their gun several times, and
always without success. This failure proceeded from a cause that is
seldom sufficiently estimated by nautical gunners; the shot having
swerved from the line of sight, by the force of the wind against which
it flew, two or three hundred feet, by the time it had gone the mile
that lay between the vessels. Sir Gervaise anxiously watched the effect
of the fire, and perceiving that all the shot fell to leeward of the
Chloe, he was no longer uneasy about that vessel, and he began to turn
his attention to other and more important concerns.
As we are now approaching a moment when it is necessary that the reader
should receive some tolerably distinct impression of the relative
positions of the two entire fleets, we shall close the present chapter,
here; reserving the duty of explanation for the commencement of a new
one.