----"All were glad,
And laughed, and shouted, as she darted on,
And plunged amid the foam, and tossed it high,
Over the deck, as when a strong, curbed steed
Flings the froth from him in his eager race."
PERCIVAL
The long twilight of a high latitude had now ended, and the sun, though
concealed behind clouds, had risen. The additional light contributed to
lessen the gloomy look of the ocean, though the fury of the winds and
waves still lent to it a dark and menacing aspect. To windward there
were no signs of an abatement of the gale, while the heavens continued
to abstain from letting down their floods, on the raging waters beneath.
By this lime, the fleet was materially to the southward of Cape la
Hogue, though far to the westward, where the channel received the winds
and waves from the whole rake of the Atlantic, and the seas were setting
in, in the long, regular swells of the ocean, a little disturbed by the
influence of the tides. Ships as heavy as the two-deckers moved along
with groaning efforts, their bulk-heads and timbers "complaining," to
use the language of the sea, as the huge masses, loaded with their iron
artillery, rose and sunk on the coming and receding billows. But their
movements were stately and full of majesty; whereas, the cutter, sloop,
and even the frigates, seemed to be tossed like foam, very much at the
mercy of the elements. The Chloe was passing the admiral, on the
opposite tack, quite a mile to leeward, and yet, as she mounted to the
summit of a wave, her cut-water was often visible nearly to the keel.
These are the trials of a vessel's strength; for, were a ship always
water-borne equally on all her lines, there would not be the necessity
which now exists to make her the well-knit mass of wood and iron she is.
The progress of the two fleets was very much the same, both squadrons
struggling along through the billows, at the rate of about a marine
league in the hour. As no lofty sail was carried, and the vessels were
first made in the haze of a clouded morning, the ships had not become
visible to each other until nearer than common; and, by the time at
which we have now arrived in our tale, the leading vessels were
separated by a space that did not exceed two miles, estimating the
distance only on their respective lines of sailing; though there would
be about the same space between them, when abreast, the English being so
much to windward of their enemies. Any one in the least familiar with
nautical man[oe]uvres will understand that these circumstances would
bring the van of the French and the rear of their foes much nearer
together in passing, both fleets being close-hauled.
Sir Gervaise Oakes, as a matter of course, watched the progress of the
two lines with close and intelligent attention. Mons. de Vervillin did
the same from the poop of le Foudroyant, a noble eighty-gun ship in
which his flag of _vice-admiral_ was flying, as it might be, in
defiance. By the side of the former stood Greenly, Bunting, and Bury,
the Plantagenet's first lieutenant; by the side of the latter his
capitaine de vaisseau, a man as little like the caricatures of such
officers, as a hostile feeling has laid before the readers of English
literature, as Washington was like the man held up to odium in the
London journals, at the commencement of the great American war. M. de
Vervillin himself was a man of respectable birth, of a scientific
education, and of great familiarity with ships, so far as a knowledge of
their general powers and principles was concerned; but here his
professional excellence ceased, all that infinity of detail which
composes the distinctive merit of the practical seaman being, in a great
degree, unknown to him, rendering it necessary for him to _think_ in
moments of emergency; periods when the really prime mariner seems more
to act by a sort of _instinct_ than by any very intelligible process of
ratiocination. With his fleet drawn out before him, however, and with no
unusual demands on his resources, this gallant officer was an
exceedingly formidable foe to contend with in squadron.
Sir Gervaise Oakes lost all his constitutional and feverish impatience
while the fleets drew nigher and nigher. As is not unusual with brave
men, who are naturally excitable, as the crisis approached he grew
calmer, and obtained a more perfect command over himself; seeing all
things in their true colours, and feeling more and more equal to control
them. He continued to walk the poop, but it was with a slower step; and,
though his hands were still closed behind his back, the fingers were
passive, while his countenance became grave and his eye thoughtful.
Greenly knew that his interference would now be hazardous; for
whenever the vice-admiral assumed that air, he literally became
commander-in-chief; and any attempt to control or influence him, unless
sustained by the communication of new facts, could only draw down
resentment on his own head. Bunting, too, was aware that the "admiral
was aboard," as the officers, among themselves, used to describe this
state of their superior's mind, and was prepared to discharge his own
duty in the most silent and rapid manner in his power. All the others
present felt more or less of this same influence of an established
character.
"_Mr._ Bunting," said Sir Gervaise, when the distance between the
Plantagenet and _le Téméraire_ the leading French vessel, might have
been about a league, allowing for the difference in the respective lines
of sailing--"_Mr._ Bunting, bend on the signal for the ships to go to
quarters. We may as well be ready for any turn of the dice."
No one dared to comment on this order: it was obeyed in readiness and
silence.
"Signal ready, Sir Gervaise," said Bunting, the instant the last flag
was in its place.
"Run it up at once, sir, and have a bright look-out for the answers.
Captain Greenly, go to quarters, and see all clear on the main-deck, to
use the batteries if wanted. The people can stand fast below, as I think
it might be dangerous to open the ports."
Captain Greenly passed off the poop to the quarter-deck, and in a minute
the drum and fife struck up the air which is known all over the
civilized world as the call to arms. In most services this summons is
made by the drum alone, which emits sounds to which the fancy has
attached peculiar words; those of the soldiers of France being "_prend
ton sac_--_prend ton sac_--_prend ton sac_," no bad representatives of
the meaning; but in English and American ships, this appeal is usually
made in company with the notes of the "ear-piercing fife," which gives
it a melody that might otherwise be wanting.
"Signal answered throughout the fleet, Sir Gervaise," said Bunting.
No answer was given to this report beyond a quiet inclination of the
head. After a moment's pause, however, the vice-admiral turned to his
signal officer and said--
"I should think, Bunting, no captain can need an order to tell him _not_
to open his lee-lower-deck ports in such a sea as this?"
"I rather fancy not, Sir Gervaise," answered Bunting, looking drolly at
the boiling element that gushed up each minute from beneath the bottom
of the ship, in a way to appear as high as the hammock-cloths. "The
people at the _main_-deck guns would have rather a wet time of it."
"Bend on the signal, sir, for the ships astern to keep in the
vice-admiral's wake. Young gentleman," to the midshipman who always
acted as his aid in battle, "tell Captain Greenly I desire to see him as
soon as he has received all the reports."
Down to the moment when the first tap of the drum was heard, the
Plantagenet had presented a scene of singular quiet and unconcern,
considering the circumstances in which she was placed. A landsman would
scarcely credit that men could be so near their enemies, and display so
much indifference to their vicinity; but this was the result of long
habit, and a certain marine instinct that tells the sailor when any
thing serious is in the wind, and when not. The difference in the force
of the two fleets, the heavy gale, and the weatherly position of the
English, all conspired to assure the crew that nothing decisive could
yet occur. Here and there an officer or an old seaman might be seen
glancing through a port, to ascertain the force and position of the
French; but, on the whole, their fleet excited little more attention
than if lying at anchor in Cherbourg. The breakfast hour was
approaching, and that important event monopolized the principal interest
of the moment. The officers' boys, in particular, began to make their
appearance around the galley, provided, as usual, with their pots and
dishes, and, now and then, one cast a careless glance through the
nearest opening to see how the strangers looked; but as to warfare there
was much more the appearance of it between the protectors of the rights
of the different messes, than between the two great belligerent navies
themselves.
Nor was the state of things materially different in the gun-room, or
cock-pit, or on the orlops. Most of the people of a two-decked ship are
berthed on the lower gun deck, and the order to "clear ship" is more
necessary to a vessel of that construction, before going to quarters
seriously, than to smaller craft; though it is usual in all. So long as
the bags, mess-chests, and other similar appliances were left in their
ordinary positions, Jack saw little reason to derange himself; and as
reports were brought below, from time to time, respecting the approach
of the enemy, and more especially of his being well to leeward, few of
those whose duty did not call them on deck troubled themselves about the
matter at all. This habit of considering his fortune as attached to that
of his ship, and of regarding himself as a point on her mass, as we all
look on ourselves as particles of the orb we accompany in its
revolutions, is sufficiently general among mariners; but it was
particularly so as respects the sailors of a fleet, who were kept so
much at sea, and who had been so often, with all sorts of results, in
the presence of the enemy. The scene that was passing in the gun-room at
the precise moment at which our tale has arrived, was so characteristic,
in particular, as to merit a brief description.
All the idlers by this time were out of their berths and cotts; the
signs of those who "slept in the country," as it is termed, or who were
obliged, for want of state-rooms, to sling in the common apartment,
having disappeared. Magrath was reading a treatise on medicine, in good
Leyden Latin, by a lamp. The purser was endeavouring to decipher his
steward's hieroglyphics, favoured by the same light, and the captain of
marines was examining the lock of an aged musket. The third and fourth
lieutenants were helping each other to untangle one of their
Bay-of-Biscay reckonings, which had set both plane and spherical
trigonometry at defiance, by a lamp of their own; and the chaplain was
hurrying the steward and the boys along with the breakfast--his usual
occupation at that "witching time" in the morning.
While things were in this state, the first lieutenant, Mr. Bury,
appeared in the gun-room. His arrival caused one or two of the mess to
glance upward at him, though no one spoke but the junior lieutenant,
who, being an honourable, was at his ease with every one on board, short
of the captain.
"What's the news from deck, Bury?" asked this officer, a youth of
twenty, his senior being a man ten years older. "Is Mr. de Vervillin
thinking of running away yet?"
"Not he, sir; there's too much of the game-cock about him for _that_."
"I'll warrant you he can _crow_! But what _is_ the news, Bury?"
"The news is that the old Planter is as wet as a wash-tub, forward, and
I must have a dry jacket--do you hear, there, Tom? Soundings," turning
to the master, who just then came in from forward, "have you taken a
look out of doors this morning?"
"You know I seldom forget that, Mr. Bury. A pretty pickle the ship would
soon be in, if _I_ forgot to look about me!"
"He swallowed the deep-sea, down in the bay," cried the honourable,
laughing, "and goes every morning at day-light to look for it out at the
bridle-ports."
"Well, then, Soundings, what do you think of the third ship in the
French line?" continued Bury, disregarding the levity of the youth: "did
you ever see such top-masts, as she carries, before?"
"I scarce ever saw a Frenchman without them, Mr. Bury. You'd have just
such sticks in this fleet, if Sir Jarvy would stand them."
"Ay, but Sir Jarvy _won't_ stand them. The captain who sent such a stick
up in his ship, would have to throw it overboard before night. I never
saw such a pole in the air in my life!"
"What's the matter with the mast, Mr. Bury?" put in Magrath, who kept up
what he called constant scientific skirmishes with the _elder_
sea-officers; the _junior_ being too inexperienced in his view to be
worthy of a contest. "I'll engage the spar is moulded and fashioned
agreeably to the most approved pheelosphical principles; for in _that_
the French certainly excel us."
"Who ever heard of _moulding_ a spar?" interrupted Soundings, laughing
loudly, "we _mould_ a ship's frame, Doctor, but we _lengthen_ and
_shorten_, and _scrape_ and _fid_ her masts."
"I'm answered as usual, gentlemen, and voted down, I suppose by
acclamation, as they call it in other learned bodies. I would advise no
creature that has a reason to go to sea; an instinct being all that is
needed to make a Lord High Admiral of twenty tails."
"I should like Sir Jarvy to hear _that_, my man of books," cried the
fourth, who had satisfied himself that a book was not his own forte--"I
fancy your instinct, doctor, will prevent you from whispering this in
the vice-admiral's ear!"
Although Magrath had a profound respect for the commander-in-chief, he
was averse to giving in, in a gun-room discussion. His answer,
therefore, partook of the feeling of the moment.
"Sir Gervaise," (he pronounced this word Jairvis,) "Sir Gervaise Oakes,
_honourable_ sir," he said, with a sneer, "may be a good seaman, but
he's no linguist. Now, there he was, ashore among the dead and dying,
just as ignorant of the meaning of _filius nullius_, which is boy's
Latin, as if he had never seen a horn-book! Nevertheless, gentlemen, it
is science, and not even the classics, that makes the man; as for a
creature's getting the sciences by instinct, I shall contend it is
against the possibilities, whereas the attainment of what you call
seamanship, is among even the lesser probabilities."
"This is the most marine-ish talk I ever heard from your mouth, doctor,"
interrupted Soundings. "How the devil can a man tell how to ware ship by
instinct, as you call it, if one may ask the question?"
"Simply, Soundings, because the process of ratiocination is dispensed
with. Do you have to _think_ in waring ship, now?--I'll put it to your
own honour, for the answer."
"Think!--I should be a poor creature for a master, indeed, if much
thinking were wanting in so simple a matter as tacking or veering.
No--no--your real sea-dog has no occasion for much _thinking_, when he
has his work before him."
"That'll just be it, gentlemen!--that'll be just what I'm telling ye,"
cried the doctor, exulting in the success of his artifice. "Not only
will Mr. Soundings not _think_, when he has his ordinary duties to
perform, but he holds the process itself in merited contempt, ye'll
obsairve; and so my theory is established, by evidence of a pairty
concerned; which is more than a postulate logically requires."
Here Magrath dropped his book, and laughed with that sort of hissing
sound that seems peculiar to the genus of which he formed a part. He was
still indulging in his triumph, when the first tap of the drum was
heard. All listened; every ear pricking like that of a deer that hears
the hound, when there followed--"r-r-r-ap tap--r-r-r-ap tap--r-r-r-ap
tapa-tap-tap--rap-a-tap--a-rap-a-tap a-rap-a-tap--a-tap-tap."
"Instinct or reason, Sir Jarvy is going to quarters!" exclaimed the
honourable. "I'd no notion we were near enough to the Monsieurs, for
_that_!"
"Now," said Magrath, with a grinning sneer, as he rose to descend to the
cock-pit, "there'll may be arise an occasion for a little learning, when
I'll promise ye all the science that can be mustered in my unworthy
knowledge. Soundings, I may have to heave the lead in the depths of your
physical formation, in which case I'll just endeevour to avoid the
breakers of ignorance."
"Go to the devil, or to the cock-pit, whichever you please, sir,"
answered the master; "I've served in six general actions, already, and
have never been obliged to one of your kidney for so much as a bit of
court-plaster or lint. With me, oakum answers for one, and canvass for
the other."
While this was saying, all hands were in motion. The sea and marine
officers looking for their side-arms, the surgeon carefully collecting
his books, and the chaplain seizing a dish of cold beef, that was
hurriedly set upon a table, carrying it down with him to his quarters,
by way of taking it out of harm's way. In a minute, the gun-room was
cleared of all who usually dwelt there, and their places were supplied
by the seamen who manned the three or four thirty-two's that were
mounted in the apartment, together with their opposites. As the
sea-officers, in particular, appeared among the men, their faces assumed
an air of authority, and their voices were heard calling out the order
to "tumble up," as they hastened themselves to their several stations.
All this time, Sir Gervaise Oakes paced the poop. Bunting and the
quarter-master were in readiness to hoist the new signal, and Greenly
merely waited for the reports, to join the commander-in-chief. In about
five minutes after the drum had given its first tap, these were
completed, and the captain ascended to the poop.
"By standing on, on our present course, Captain Greenly," observed Sir
Gervaise, anxious to justify to himself the evolution he contemplated,
"the rear of our line and the van of the French will be brought within
fair range of shot from each other, and, by an accident, we might lose a
ship; since any vessel that was crippled, would necessarily sag directly
down upon the enemy. Now, I propose to keep away in the Plantagenet, and
just brush past the leading French ships, at about the distance the
Warspite will _have_ to pass, and so alter the face of matters a little.
What do you think would be the consequence of such a man[oe]uvre?"
"That the van of our line and the van of the French will be brought as
near together, as you have just said must happen to the rear, Sir
Gervaise, in any case."
"It does not require a mathematician to tell that much, sir. You will
keep away, as soon as Bunting shows the signal, and bring the wind
abeam. Never mind the braces; let _them_ stand fast; as soon as we have
passed the French admiral, I shall luff, again. This will cause us to
lose a little of our weatherly position, but about that I am very
indifferent. Give the order, sir--Bunting, run up the signal."
These commands were silently obeyed, and presently the Plantagenet was
running directly in the troughs of the seas, with quite double her
former velocity. The other ships answered promptly, each keeping away as
her second ahead came down to the proper line of sailing, and all
complying to the letter with an order that was very easy of execution.
The effect, besides giving every prospect of a distant engagement, was
to straighten the line to nearly mathematical precision.
"Is it your wish, Sir Gervaise, that we should endeavour to open our lee
lower ports?" asked Greenly. "Unless we attempt something of the sort,
we shall have nothing heavier than the eighteens to depend on, should
Monsieur de Vervillin see fit to begin."
"And will _he_ be any better off?--It would be next to madness to think
of fighting the lower-deck guns, in such weather, and we will keep all
fast. Should the French commence the sport, we shall have the advantage
of being to windward; and the loss of a few weather shrouds might bring
down the best mast in their fleet."
Greenly made no answer, though he perfectly understood that the loss of
a mast would almost certainly ensure the loss of the ship, did one of
his own heavier spars go. But this was Sir Gervaise's greatest weakness
as a commander, and he knew it would be useless to attempt persuading
him to suffer a single ship under his order to pass the enemy nearer
than he went himself in the Plantagenet. This was what he called
covering his ships; though it amounted to no more than putting all of
them in the jeopardy that happened to be unavoidable, as regarded one or
two.
The Comte de Vervillin seemed at a loss to understand this sudden and
extraordinary movement in the van of his enemy. His signals followed,
and his crews went to their guns; but it was not an easy matter for
ships that persevered in hugging the wind to make any material
alterations in their relative positions, in such a gale. The rate of
sailing of the English, however, now menaced a speedy collision, if
collision were intended, and it was time to be stirring, in order to be
ready for it.
On the other hand, all was quiet, and, seemingly, death-like, in the
English ships. Their people were at their quarters, already, and this is
a moment of profound stillness in a vessel of war. The lower ports being
down, the portions of the crews stationed on those decks were buried, as
it might be, in obscurity, while even those above were still partly
concealed by the half-ports. There was virtually nothing for the
sail-trimmers to do, and every thing was apparently left to the
evolutions of the vast machines themselves, in which they floated. Sir
Gervaise, Greenly, and the usual attendants still remained on the poop,
their eyes scarcely turning for an instant from the fleet of the enemy.
By this time the Plantagenct and _le Téméraire_ were little more than a
mile apart, each minute lessening this distance. The latter ship was
struggling along, her bows plunging into the seas to the hawse-holes,
while the former had a swift, easy motion through the troughs, and along
the summits of the waves, her flattened sails aiding in steadying her in
the heavy lurches that unavoidably accompanied such a movement. Still, a
sea would occasionally break against her weather side, sending its crest
upward in a brilliant _jet-d'eau_, and leaving tons of water on the
decks. Sir Gervaise's manner had now lost every glimmering of
excitement. When he spoke, it was in a gentle, pleasant tone, such as a
gentleman might use in the society of women. The truth was, all his
energy had concentrated in the determination to do a daring deed; and,
as is not unusual with the most resolute men, the nearer he approached
to the consummation of his purpose, the more he seemed to reject all the
spurious aids of manner.
"The French do not open their lower ports, Greenly," observed the
vice-admiral, dropping the glass after one of his long looks at the
enemy, "although they have the advantage of being to leeward. I take
that to be a sign they intend nothing very serious."
"We shall know better five minutes hence, Sir Gervaise. This ship slides
along like a London coach."
"His line is lubberly, after all, Greenly! Look at those two ships
astern--they are near half a mile to windward of the rest of the fleet,
and at least half a mile astern. Hey! Greenly?"
The captain turned towards the rear of the French, and examined the
positions of the two ships mentioned with sufficient deliberation; but
Sir Gervaise dropped his head in a musing manner, and began to pace the
poop again. Once or twice he stopped to look at the rear of the French
line, then distant from him quite a league, and as often did he resume
his walk.
"Bunting," said the vice-admiral, mildly, "come this way, a moment. Our
last signal was to keep in the commander-in-chief's wake, and to follow
his motions?"
"It was, Sir Gervaise. The old order to follow motions, 'with or without
signals,' as one might say."
"Bend on the signals to close up in line, as near as safe, and to carry
sail by the flag-ship."
"Ay, ay, Sir Gervaise--we'll have 'em both up in five minutes, sir."
The commander-in-chief now even seemed pleased. His physical excitement
returned a little, and a smile struggled round his lip. His eye glanced
at Greenly, to see if he were suspected, and then all his calmness of
exterior returned. In the mean time the signals were made and answered.
The latter circumstance was reported to Sir Gervaise, who cast his eyes
down the line astern, and saw that the different ships were already
bracing in, and easing off their sheets, in order to diminish the spaces
between the different vessels. As soon as it was apparent that the
Carnatic was drawing ahead, Captain Greenly was told to lay his main and
fore-yards nearly square, to light up all his stay-sail sheets, and to
keep away sufficiently to make every thing draw. Although these orders
occasioned surprise, they were implicitly obeyed.
The moment of meeting had now come. In consequence of having kept away
so much, the Plantagenet could not be quite three-fourths of a mile on
the weather-bow of _le Téméraire_, coming up rapidly, and threatening a
semi-transverse fire. In order to prevent this, the French ship edged
off a little, giving herself an easier and more rapid movement through
the water, and bringing her own broadside more fairly to the shock. This
evolution was followed by the two next ships, a little prematurely,
perhaps; but the admiral in _le Foudroyant_, disdaining to edge off from
her enemy, kept her luff. The ships astern were governed by the course
of their superior. This change produced a little disorder in the van of
the French, menacing still greater, unless one party or the other
receded from the course taken. But time pressed, and the two fleets were
closing so fast as to induce other thoughts.
"There's lubberly work for you, Greenly!" said Sir Gervaise, smiling. "A
commander-in-chief heading up with the bowlines dragged, and his second
and third ahead--not to say fourth--running off with the wind abeam!
Now, if we can knock the Comte off a couple of points, in passing, all
his fellows astern will follow, and the Warspite and Blenheim and
Thunderer will slip by like girls in a country-dance! Send Bury down to
the main-deck, with orders to be ready with those eighteens."
Greenly obeyed, of course, and he began to think better of audacity in
naval warfare, than he had done before, that day. This was the usual
course of things with these two officers; one arguing and deciding
according to the dictates of a cool judgment, and the other following
his impulses quite as much as any thing else, until facts supervened to
prove that human things are as much controlled by adventitious agencies,
the results of remote and unseen causes, as by any well-digested plans
laid at the moment. In their cooler hours, when they came to reason on
the past, the vice-admiral generally consummated his triumphs, by
reminding his captain that if he had not been in the way of luck, he
never could have profited by it; no bad creed for a naval officer, who
is otherwise prudent and vigilant.
The quarter-masters of the fleet were just striking six bells, or
proclaiming that it was seven o'clock in the morning watch, as the
Plantagenet and _le Téméraire_ came abeam of each other. Both ships
lurched heavily in the troughs of the seas, and both rolled to windward
in stately majesty, and yet both slid through the brine with a momentum
that resembled the imperceptible motion of a planet. The water rolled
back from their black sides and shining hammock-cloths, and all the
other dark panoply that distinguishes a ship-of-war glistened with the
spray; but no sign of hostility proceeded from either. The French
admiral made no signal to engage, and Sir Gervaise had reasons of his
own for wishing to pass the enemy's van, if possible, unnoticed. Minute
passed after minute, in breathless silence, on board the Plantagenet and
the Carnatic, the latter vessel being now but half a cable's-length
astern of the admiral. Every eye that had any outlet for such a purpose,
was riveted on the main-deck ports of _le Téméraire_ in expectation of
seeing the fire issue from her guns. Each instant, however, lessened the
chances, as regarded that particular vessel, which was soon out of the
line of fire from the Plantagenet, when the same scene was to follow
with the same result, in connection with _le Conquereur_, the second
ship of the French line. Sir Gervaise smiled as he passed the three
first ships, seemingly unnoticed; but as he drew nearer to the admiral,
he felt confident this impunity must cease.
"What they _mean_ by it all, Greenly," he observed to his companion, "is
more than I can say; but we will go nearer, and try to find out. Keep
her away a little more, sir; keep her away half a point." Greenly was
not disposed to remonstrate now, for his prudent temperament was
yielding to the excitement of the moment just reversing the traits of
Sir Gervaise's character; the one losing his extreme discretion in
feeling, as the other gained by the pressure of circumstances. The helm
was eased a little, and the ship sheered nearer to _le Foudroyant_.
As is usual in all services, the French commander-in-chief was in one of
the best vessels of his fleet. Not only was the Foudroyant a heavy ship,
carrying French forty-twos below, a circumstance that made her rate as
an eighty, but, like the Plantagenet, she was one of the fastest and
most weatherly vessels of her class known. By "hugging the wind," this
noble vessel had got, by this time, materially to windward of her second
and third ahead, and had increased her distance essentially from her
supports astern. In a word, she was far from being in a position to be
sustained as she ought to be, unless she edged off herself, a movement
that no one on board her seemed to contemplate.
"He's a noble fellow, Greenly, that Comte de Vervillin!" murmured Sir
Gervaise, in a tone of admiration, "and so have I always found him, and
so have I always _reported_ him, too! The fools about the Gazettes, and
the knaves about the offices, may splutter as they will; Mr. de
Vervillin would give them plenty of occupation were they _here_. I
question if he mean to keep off in the least, but insists on holding
every inch he can gain!"
The next moment, however, satisfied Sir Gervaise that he was mistaken in
his last conjecture, the bows of the Foudroyant gradually falling off,
until the line of her larboard guns bore, when she made a general
discharge of the whole of them, with the exception of those on the lower
deck. The Plantagenets waited until the ship rose on a sea, and then
they returned the compliment in the same manner. The Carnatic's side
showed a sheet of flame immediately after; and the Achilles, Lord
Morganic, luffing briskly to the wind, so as to bring her guns to bear,
followed up the game, like flashes of lightning. All three of these
ships had directed their fire at le Foudroyant, and the smoke had not
yet driven from among her spars, when Sir Gervaise perceived that all
three of her top-masts were hanging to leeward. At this sight, Greenly
fairly sprang from the deck, and gave three cheers The men below caught
up the cry, even to those who were, in a manner, buried on the lower
deck, and presently, spite of the gale, the Carnatic's were heard
following their example astern. At this instant the whole French and
English lines opened their fire, from van to rear, as far as their guns
would bear, or the shot tell.
"Now, sir, now is our time to close with de Vervillin!" exclaimed
Greenly, the instant he perceived the manner in which his ship was
crippled. "In our close order we might hope to make a thorough wreck of
him."
"Not so, Greenly," returned Sir Gervaise calmly. "You see he edges away
already, and will be down among his other ships in five minutes; we
should have a general action with twice our force. What is done, is
_well_ done, and we will let it stand. It is _something_ to have
dismasted the enemy's commander-in-chief; do you look to it that the
enemy don't do the same with ours. I heard shot rattling aloft, and
every thing now bears a hard strain."
Greenly went to look after his duty, while Sir Gervaise continued to
pace the poop. The whole of le Foudroyant's fire had been directed at
the Plantagenet, but so rough was the ocean that not a shot touched the
hull. A little injury had been done aloft, but nothing that the ready
skill of the seamen was not able to repair even in that rough weather.
The fact is, most of the shot had touched the waves, and had flown off
from their varying surfaces at every angle that offered. One of the
secrets that Sir Gervaise had taught his captains was to avoid hitting
the surface of the sea, if possible, unless that surface was reasonably
smooth, and the object intended to be injured was near at hand. Then the
French admiral received the _first_ fire--always the most
destructive--of three fresh vessels; and his injuries were in
proportion.
The scene was now animated, and not without a wild magnificence. The
gale continued as heavy as ever, and with the raging of the ocean and
the howling of the winds, mingled the roar of artillery, and the smoky
canopy of battle. Still the destruction on neither side bore any
proportion to the grandeur of the accompaniments; the distance and the
unsteadiness of the ships preventing much accuracy of aim. In that day,
a large two-decked ship never carried heavier metal than an eighteen
above her lower batteries; and this gun, efficient as it is on most
occasions, does not bring with it the fearful destruction that attends a
more modern broadside. There was a good deal of noise, notwithstanding,
and some blood shed in passing; but, on the whole, when the Warspite,
the last of the English ships, ceased her fire, on account of the
distance of the enemy abreast of her, it would have been difficult to
tell that any vessel but le Foudroyant, had been doing more than
saluting. At this instant Greenly re-appeared on the poop, his own ship
having ceased to fire for several minutes.
"Well, Greenly, the main-deck guns are at least scaled," said Sir
Gervaise, smiling; "and _that_ is not to be done over again for some
time. You keep every thing ready in the batteries, I trust?"
"We are all ready, Sir Gervaise, but there is nothing to be done. It
would be useless to waste our ammunition at ships quite two miles under
our lee."
"Very true--very true, sir. But _all_ the Frenchmen are not quite so far
to leeward, Greenly, as you may see by looking ahead. Yonder two, at
least, are not absolutely out of harm's way!"
Greenly turned, gazed an instant in the direction in which the
commander-in-chief pointed, and then the truth of what Sir Gervaise had
really in view in keeping away, flashed on his mind, as it might be, at
a glance. Without saying a word, he immediately quitted the poop, and
descending even to the lower deck, passed through the whole of his
batteries, giving his orders, and examining their condition.