"By Heaven! it is a splendid sight to see,
(For one who hath no friend, nor brother there,)
Their rival scarfs of mixed embroidery--
Their various arms that glitter in the air!"
CHILDE HAROLD.
The little conflict between the English ships and the head of the French
line, the evolutions that had grown out of it, the crippling of le
Foudroyant, and the continuance of the gale, contributed to produce
material changes in the relative positions of the two fleets. All the
English vessels kept their stations with beautiful accuracy, still
running to the southward in a close line ahead, having the wind a trifle
abaft the beam, with their yards braced in. Under the circumstances, it
needed but some seven or eight minutes for these ships to glide a mile
through the troubled ocean, and this was about the period the most
exposed of them all had been under the random and slow fire that the
state of the weather permitted. The trifling damages sustained were
already repaired, or in a way soon to be so. On the other hand,
considerable disorder prevailed among the French. Their line had never
been perfect, extending quite a league; a few of the leading vessels, or
those near the commander-in-chief, sustaining each other as well as
could be desired, while long intervals existed between the ships astern.
Among the latter, too, as has been stated, some were much farther to
windward than the others; an irregularity that proceeded from a desire
of the Comte to luff up as near as possible to the enemy--a desire,
which, practised on, necessarily threw the least weatherly vessels to
leeward. Thus the two ships in the extreme rear, as has been hinted at
already, being jammed up unusually hard upon the wind, had weathered
materially on their consorts, while their way through the water had been
proportionably less. It was these combined circumstances which brought
them so far astern and to windward.
At the time Sir Gervaise pointed out their positions to Greenly, the two
vessels just mentioned were quite half a mile to the westward of their
nearest consort, and more than that distance to the southward. When it
is remembered that the wind was nearly due west, and that all the French
vessels, these two excepted, were steering north, the relative positions
of the latter will be understood. Le Foudroyant, too, had kept away,
after the loss of her top-masts, until fairly in the wake of the ships
ahead of her, in her own line, and, as the vessels had been running off
with the wind abeam, for several minutes, this man[oe]uvre threw the
French still farther to leeward. To make the matter worse, just as the
Warspite drew out of the range of shot from the French, M. de Vervillin
showed a signal at the end of his gaff, for his whole fleet to ware in
succession; an order, which, while it certainly had a gallant semblance,
as it was bringing his vessels round on the same tack as his enemy, and
looked like a defiance, was singularly adapted to restoring to the
latter all the advantage of the wind they had lost by keeping away. As
it was necessary to take room to execute this evolution, in order to
clear the ships that were now crowded in the van, when le Téméraire came
to the wind again on the starboard tack, she was fully half a mile to
leeward of the admiral, who had just put his helm up. As a matter of
course, in order to form anew, with the heads of the ships to the
southward, each vessel had to get into her leader's wake, which would be
virtually throwing the whole French line, again, two miles to leeward of
the English. Nevertheless, the stragglers in the rear of the French
continued to hug the wind, with a pertinacity that denoted a resolution
to have a brush with their enemies in passing. The vessels were le
Scipion and la Victoire, each of seventy-four guns. The first of these
ships was commanded by a young man of very little professional
experience, but of high court influence; while the second had a captain
who, like old Parker, had worked his way up to his present station,
through great difficulties, and by dint of hard knocks, and harder work.
Unfortunately the first ranked, and the humble _capitaine de frégate_,
placed by accident in command of a ship of the line, did not dare to
desert a _capitaine de vaisseau_, who had a _duc_ for an elder brother,
and called himself _comte_. There was perhaps a redeeming gallantry in
the spirit which determined the Comte de Chélincourt to incur the risk
of passing so near six vessels with only two, that might throw a veil
over the indiscretion; more especially as his own fleet was near enough
to support him in the event of any disaster, and it was certainly
possible that the loss of a material spar on board either of his foes,
might induce the capture of the vessel. At all events, thus reasoned M.
de Chélincourt; who continued boldly on, with his larboard tacks aboard,
always hugging the wind, even after the Téméraire was round; and M.
Comptant chose to follow him in la Victoire. The Plantagenet, by this
time, being not a mile distant from the Scipio, coming on with steady
velocity, these intentions and circumstances created every human
probability that she would soon be passing her weather beam, within a
quarter of a mile, and, consequently, that a cannonade, far more serious
than what had yet occurred, must follow. The few intervening minutes
gave Sir Gervaise time to throw a glance around him, and to come to his
final decision.
The English fleet was never in better line than at that precise moment.
The ships were as close to each other as comported with safety, and
every thing stood and drew as in the trade winds. The leading French
vessels were waring and increasing their distance to leeward, and it
would require an hour for them to get up near enough to be at all
dangerous in such weather, while all the rest were following, regardless
of the two that continued their luff. The Chloe had already got round,
and, hugging the wind, was actually coming up to windward of her own
line, though under a press of canvass that nearly buried her. The Active
and Driver were in their stations, as usual; one on the weather beam,
and the other on the weather bow; while the Druid had got so near as to
show her hull, closing fast, with square yards.
"That is either a very bold, or a very obstinate fellow; he, who
commands the two ships ahead of us," observed Greenly, as he stood at
the vice-admiral's side, and just as the latter terminated his survey.
"What object can he possibly have in braving three times his force in a
gale like this?"
"If it were an Englishman, Greenly, we should call him a hero! By taking
a mast out of one of us, he might cause the loss of the ship, or compel
us to engage double _our_ force. Do not blame him, but help me, rather,
to disappoint him. Now, listen, and see all done immediately."
Sir Gervaise then explained to the captain what his intentions really
were, first ordering, himself, (a very unusual course for one of his
habits,) the first lieutenant, to keep the ship off as much as
practicable, without seeming to wish to do so; but, as the orders will
be explained incidentally, in the course of the narrative, it is not
necessary to give them here. Greenly then went below, leaving Sir
Gervaise, Bunting, and their auxiliaries, in possession of the poop. A
private signal had been bent on some little time, and it was now
hoisted. In about five minutes it was read, understood, and answered by
all the ships of the fleet. Sir Gervaise rubbed his hands like a man who
was delighted, and he beckoned to Bury, who had the trumpet on the
quarter-deck, to join him on the poop.
"Did Captain Greenly let you into our plot, Bury," asked the
vice-admiral, in high good-humour, as soon as obeyed, "I saw he spoke to
you in going below?"
"He only told me, Sir Gervaise, to edge down upon the Frenchmen as close
as I could, and this we are doing, I think, as fast as mounsheer"--Bury
was an Anglo-Gallican--"will at all like."
"Ah! there old Parker sheers bravely to leeward! Trust to him to be in
the right place. The Carnatic went fifty fathoms out of the line at that
one twist. The Thunderer and Warspite too! Never was a signal more
beautifully obeyed. If the Frenchmen don't take the alarm, now, every
thing will be to our minds."
By this time, Bury began to understand the man[oe]uvre. Each alternate
ship of the English was sheering fast to leeward, forming a weather and
a lee line, with increased intervals between the vessels, while all of
them were edging rapidly away, so as greatly to near the enemy. It was
apparent now, indeed, that the Plantagenet herself must pass within a
hundred fathoms of the Scipio, and that in less than two minutes. The
delay in issuing the orders for this evolution was in favour of its
success, inasmuch as it did not give the enemy time for deliberation.
The Comte de Chélincourt, in fact, did not detect it; or, at least, did
not foresee the consequences; though both were quite apparent to the
more experienced _capitaine de frégate_ astern. It was too late, or the
latter would have signalled his superior to put him on his guard; but,
as things were, there remained no alternative, apparently, but to run
the gauntlet, and trust all to the chances of battle.
In a moment like that we are describing, events occur much more rapidly
than they can be related. The Plantagenet was now within pistol-shot of
le Scipion, and on her weather bow. At that precise instant, when the
bow-guns, on both sides, began to play, the Carnatic, then nearly in a
line with the enemy, made a rank sheer to leeward, and drove on, opening
in the very act with her weather-bow guns. The Thunderer and Warspite
imitated this man[oe]uvre, leaving the Frenchman the cheerless prospect
of being attacked on both sides. It is not to be concealed that M. de
Chélincourt was considerably disturbed by this sudden change in his
situation. That which, an instant before, had the prospect of being a
chivalrous, but extremely hazardous, passage in front of a formidable
enemy, now began to assume the appearance of something very like
destruction. It was too late, however, to remedy the evil, and the young
Comte, as brave a man as existed, determined to face it manfully. He had
scarcely time to utter a few cheering sentiments, in a dramatic manner,
to those on the quarter-deck, when the English flag-ship came sweeping
past in a cloud of smoke, and a blaze of fire. His own broadside was
nobly returned, or as much of it as the weather permitted, but the smoke
of both discharges was still driving between his masts, when the dark
hamper of the Carnatic glided into the drifting canopy, which was made
to whirl back on the devoted Frenchman in another torrent of flame.
Three times was this fearful assault renewed on the Scipio, at intervals
of about a minute, the iron hurricane first coming from to windward, and
then seeming to be driven back from to leeward, as by its own rebound,
leaving no breathing time to meet it. The effect was completely to
silence her own fire; for what between the power of the raging elements,
and the destruction of the shot, a species of wild and blood-fraught
confusion took the place of system and order. Her decks were covered
with killed and wounded, among the latter of whom was the Comte de
Chélincourt, while orders were given and countermanded in a way to
render them useless, if not incoherent. From the time when the
Plantagenet fired her first gun, to that when the Warspite fired her
last, was just five minutes by the watch. It seemed an hour to the
French, and but a moment to their enemies. One hundred and eighty-two
men and boys were included in the casualties of those teeming moments on
board the Scipio alone; and when that ship issued slowly from the scene
of havoc, more by the velocity of her assailants in passing than by her
own, the foremast was all that stood, the remainder of her spars
dragging under her lee. To cut the last adrift, and to run off nearly
before the wind, in order to save the spars forward, and to get within
the cover of her own fleet, was all that could now be done. It may as
well be said here, that these two objects were effected.
The Plantagenet had received damage from the fire of her opponent. Some
ten or fifteen men were killed and wounded; her main-top-sail was split
by a shot, from clew to earing; one of the quarter-masters was carried
from the poop, literally dragged overboard by the sinews that connected
head and body; and several of the spars, with a good deal of rigging,
required to be looked to, on account of injuries. But no one thought of
these things, except as they were connected with present and pressing
duties. Sir Gervaise got a sight of la Victoire, some hundred and twenty
fathoms ahead, just as the roar of the Carnatic's guns was rushing upon
his ears. The French commander saw and understood the extreme jeopardy
of his consort, and he had already put his helm hard up.
"Starboard--starboard hard, Bury!" shouted Sir Gervaise from the poop.
"Damn him, run him aboard, if he dare hold on long enough to meet us."
The lieutenant signed with his hand that the order was understood, and
the helm being put up, the ship went whirling off to leeward on the
summit of a hill of foam. A cheer was heard struggling in the tempest,
and glancing over his left shoulder, Sir Gervaise perceived the Carnatic
shooting out of the smoke, and imitating his own movement, by making
another and still ranker sheer to leeward. At the same moment she set
her main-sail close-reefed, as if determined to outstrip her antagonist,
and maintain her station. None but a prime seaman could have done such a
thing so steadily and so well, in the midst of the wild haste and
confusion of such a scene. Sir Gervaise, now not a hundred yards from
the Carnatic, waved high his hat in exultation and praise; and old
Parker, alone on his own poop, bared his grey hairs in acknowledgment of
the compliment. All this time the two ships drove madly ahead, while the
crash and roar of the battle was heard astern.
The remaining French ship was well and nimbly handled. As she came round
she unavoidably sheered towards her enemies, and Sir Gervaise found it
necessary to countermand his last order, and to come swiftly up to the
wind, both to avoid her raking broadside, and to prevent running into
his own consort. But the Carnatic, having a little more room, first kept
off, and then came to the wind again, as soon as the Frenchman had
fired, in a way to compel him to haul up on the other tack, or to fall
fairly aboard. Almost at the same instant, the Plantagenet closed on his
weather quarter and raked. Parker had got abeam, and pressing nearer, he
compelled la Victoire to haul her bowlines, bringing her completely
between two fires. Spar went after spar, and being left with nothing
standing but the lower masts, the Plantagenet and Carnatic could not
prevent themselves from passing their victim, though each shortened
sail; the first being already without a top-sail. Their places, however,
were immediately supplied by the Achilles and the Thunderer, both ships
having hauled down their stay-sails to lessen their way. As the Blenheim
and Warspite were quite near astern, and an eighteen-pound shot had
closed the earthly career of the poor _capitaine de frégate_, his
successor in command deemed it prudent to lower his ensign; after a
resistance that in its duration was unequal to the promise of its
commencement. Still the ship had suffered materially, and had fifty of
her crew among the casualties. His submission terminated the combat.
Sir Gervaise Oakes had now leisure and opportunity to look about him.
Most of the French ships had got round; but, besides being quite as far
astern, when they should get up abeam, supposing himself to remain where
he was, they would be at very long gun-shot dead to leeward. To remain
where he was, however, formed no part of his plan, for he was fully
resolved to maintain all his advantages. The great difficulty was to
take possession of his prize, the sea running so high as to render it
questionable if a boat would live. Lord Morganic, however, was just of
an age and a temperament to bring that question to a speedy issue. Being
on the weather-beam of la Victoire, as her flag came down, he ordered
his own first lieutenant into the larger cutter, and putting
half-a-dozen marines, with the proper crew, into the boat, it was soon
seen dangling in the air over the cauldron of the ocean; the oars
on-end. To lower, let go, and unhook, were the acts of an instant; the
oars fell, and the boat was swept away to leeward. A commander's
commission depended on his success, and Daly made desperate efforts to
obtain it. The prize offered a lee, and the French, with a national
benevolence, courtesy, and magnanimity, that would scarcely have been
imitated had matters been reversed, threw ropes to their conquerors, to
help to rescue them from a very awkward dilemma. The men did succeed in
getting into the prize; but the boat, in the end, was stove and lost.
The appearance of the red flag of England, the symbol of his own
professional rank, and worn by most under his own orders, over the white
ensign of France, was the sign to Sir Gervaise that the prize-officer
was in possession. He immediately made the signal for the fleet to
follow the motions of the commander-in-chief. By this time, his own
main-sail, close-reefed, had taken the place of the torn top-sail, and
the Plantagenet led off to the southward again, as if nothing unusual
had occurred. Daly had a quarter of an hour of extreme exertion on board
the prize, before he could get her fairly in motion as he desired; but,
by dint of using the axe freely, he cut the wreck adrift, and soon had
la Victoire liberated from that incumbrance. The fore-sail and fore and
mizzen stay-sails were on the ship, and the main-sail, close-reefed also,
was about to be set, to drag her-from the _mêlée_ of her foes, when her
ensign came down. By getting the tack of the latter aboard, and the
sheet aft, he would have all the canvass set the gale would allow, and
to this all-essential point he directed his wits. To ride down the
main-tack of a two-decked ship, in a gale of wind, or what fell little
short of a real gale, was not to be undertaken with twenty men, the
extent of Daly's command; and he had recourse to the assistance of his
enemies. A good natured, facetious Irishman, himself, with a smattering
of French, he soon got forty or fifty of the prisoners in a sufficient
humour to lend their aid, and the sail was set, though not without great
risk of its splitting. From this moment, la Victoire was better off, as
respected the gale and keeping a weatherly position, than any of the
English ships; inasmuch as she could carry all the canvass the wind
permitted, while she was relieved from the drift inseparable from hamper
aloft. The effect, indeed, was visible in the first hour, to Daly's
great delight and exultation. At the end of that period, he found
himself quite a cable's-length to windward of the line. But in relating
this last particular, events have been a little anticipated.
Greenly, who had gone below to attend to the batteries, which were not
worked without great difficulty in so heavy a sea, and to be in
readiness to open the lower ports should occasion offer, re-appeared on
deck just as the commander-in-chief showed the signal for the ships to
follow his own motions. The line was soon formed, as mentioned, and ere
long it became apparent that the prize could easily keep in her station.
As most of the day was still before him, Sir Gervaise had little doubt
of being able to secure the latter, ere night should come to render it
indispensable.
The vice-admiral and his captain shook hands cordially on the poop, and
the former pointed out to the latter, with honest exultation, the result
of his own bold man[oe]uvres.
"We've clipped the wings of two of them," added Sir Gervaise, "and have
fairly bagged a third, my good friend; and, God willing, when Bluewater
joins, there will not be much difficulty with the remainder. I cannot
see that any of our vessels have suffered much, and I set them all down
as sound. There's been time for a signal of inability, that curse to an
admiral's evolutions, but no one seems disposed to make it. If we really
escape that nuisance, it will be the first instance in my life!"
"Half-a-dozen yards may be crippled, and no one the worse for it, in
this heavy weather. Were we under a press of canvass, it would be a
different matter; but, now, so long as the main sticks stand, we shall
probably do well enough. I can find no injury in my own ship that may
not be remedied at sea."
"And she has had the worst of it. 'Twas a decided thing, Greenly, to
engage such an odds in a gale; but we owe our success, most probably, to
the audacity of the attack. Had the enemy believed it possible, it is
probable he would have frustrated it. Well, Master Galleygo, I'm glad to
see you unhurt! What is your pleasure?"
"Why, Sir Jarvy, I've two opportunities, as a body might say, on the
poop, just now. One is to shake hands, as we always does a'ter a brush,
you knows, sir, and to look a'ter each other's health; and the other is
to report a misfortin that will bear hard on this day's dinner. You see,
Sir Jarvy, I had the dead poultry slung in a net, over the live stock,
to be out of harm's way; well, sir, a shot cut the lanyard, and let all
the chickens down by the run, in among the gun-room grunters; and as
they never half feeds them hanimals, there isn't as much left of the
birds as would make a meal for a sick young gentleman. To my notion, no
one ought to _have_ live stock but the commanders-in-chief."
"To the devil with you and the stock! Give me a shake of the hand, and
back into your top--how came you, sir, to quit your quarters without
leave?"
"I didn't, Sir Jarvy. Seeing how things was a going on, among the pigs,
for our top hoverlooks the awful scene, I axed the young gentleman to
let me come down to condole with your honour; and as they always lets me
do as I axes, in such matters, why down I come. We has had one rattler
in at our top, howsever, that came nigh lo clear us all out on it!"
"Is any spar injured?" asked Sir Gervaise, quickly. "This must be looked
to--hey! Greenly?"
"Not to signify, your honour; not to signify. One of them French
eighteens aboard the prize just cocked its nose up, as the ship lurched,
and let fly a round 'un and a grist of grape, right into our faces. I
see'd it coming and sung out 'scaldings;' and 'twas well I did. We all
ducked in time, and the round 'un cleared every thing, but a handful of
the marbles are planted in the head of the mast, making the spar look
like a plum-pudding, or a fellow with the small-pox."
"Enough of this. You are excused from returning to the top;--and,
Greenly, beat the retreat. Bunting, show the signal for the retreat from
quarters. Let the ships pipe to breakfast, if they will."
This order affords a fair picture of the strange admixture of feelings
and employments that characterize the ordinary life of a ship. At one
moment, its inmates find themselves engaged in scenes of wild
magnificence and fierce confusion, while at the next they revert to the
most familiar duties of humanity. The crews of the whole fleet now
retired from the guns, and immediately after they were seated around
their kids, indulging ravenously in the food for which the exercise of
the morning had given keen appetites. Still there was something of the
sternness of battle in the merriment of this meal, and the few jokes
that passed were seasoned with a bitterness that is not usual among the
light-hearted followers of the sea. Here and there, a messmate was
missed, and the vacancy produced some quaint and even pathetic allusion
to his habits, or to the manner in which he met his death; seamen
usually treating the ravages of this great enemy of the race, after the
blow has been struck, with as much solemnity and even tenderness, as
they regard his approaches with levity. It is when spared themselves,
that they most regard the destruction of battle. A man's standing in a
ship, too, carries great weight with it, at such times; the loss of the
quarter-master, in particular, being much regretted in the Plantagenet.
This man messed with a portion of the petty officers, a set of men
altogether more thoughtful and grave than the body of the crew; and who
met, when they assembled around their mess-chest that morning, with a
sobriety and even sternness of mien, that showed how much in the
management of the vessel had depended on their individual exertions.
Several minutes elapsed in the particular mess of the dead man, before a
word was spoken; all eating with appetites that were of proof, but no
one breaking the silence. At length an old quarter-gunner, named Tom
Sponge, who generally led the discourse, said in a sort of
half-inquiring, half-regretting, way--
"I suppose there's no great use in asking why Jack Glass's spoon is idle
this morning. They says, them forecastle chaps, that they see'd his body
streaming out over the starboard quarter, as if it had been the fly of
one of his own ensigns. How was it, Ned? you was thereaway, and ought to
know all about it."
"To be sure I does," said Ned, who was Bunting's remaining assistant. "I
was there, as you says, and see'd as much of it as a man can see of what
passes between a poor fellow and a shot, when they comes together, and
that not in a very loving manner. It happened just as we come upon the
weather beam of that first chap--him as we winged so handsomely among
us. Well, Sir Jarvy had clapped a stopper on the signals, seeing as we
had got fairly into the smoke, and Jack and I was looking about us for
the muskets, not knowing but a chance might turn up to chuck a little
lead into some of the parly-woos; and so says Jack, says he, 'Ned, you's
got my musket;--(as I _had_, sure enough)--and says he, 'Ned, you's got
my musket; but no matter arter all, as they're much of a muchness.' So
when he'd said this, he lets fly; but whether he hit any body, is more
than I can say. If he _did_, 'twas likely a Frenchman, as he shot
that-a-way. 'Now,' says Jack, says he, 'Ned, as this is your musket, you
can load it, and hand over mine, and I'll sheet home another of the
b----s.' Well, at that moment the Frenchman lifted for'ard, on a heavy
swell, and let drive at us, with all his forecastle guns, fired as it
might be with one priming--"
"That was bad gunnery," growled Tom Sponge, "it racks a ship woundily."
"Yes, they'se no judgment in ships, in general. Well, them French
twelves are spiteful guns; and a _little_ afore they fired, it seemed to
me I heard something give Jack a rap on the check, that sounded as if a
fellow's ear was boxed with a clap of thunder. I looked up, and there
was Jack streaming out like the fly of the ensign, head foremost, with
the body towing after it by strings in the neck."
"I thought when a fellow's head was shot off," put in another
quarter-master named Ben Barrel, "that the body was left in the ship
while only the truck went!"
"That comes of not seeing them things, Ben," rejoined the eye-witness.
"A fellow's head is staid in its berth just like a ship's mast. There's
for'ard and back-stays, and shrouds, all's one as aboard here; the only
difference is that the lanyards are a little looser, so as to give a man
more play for his head, than it might be safe to give to a mast. When a
fellow makes a bow, why he only comes up a little aft, and bowses on the
fore-stay, and now and then you falls in with a chap that is stayed
altogether too far for'ard, or who's got a list perhaps from having the
shrouds set up too taut to port or to starboard."
"That sounds reasonable," put in the quarter-gunner, gravely; "I've seen
such droggers myself."
"If you'd been on the poop an hour or too ago, you'd ha' seen more on
it! Now, there's all our marines, their back-stays have had a fresh pull
since they were launched, and, as for their captain, I'll warrant you,
_he_ had a luff upon luff!"
"I've heard the carpenter overhauling them matters," remarked Sam Wad,
another quarter-gunner, "and he chalked it all out by the square and
compass. It seems reasonable, too."
"If you'd seen Jack's head dragging his body overboard, just like the
Frenchman dragging his wreck under his lee, you'd ha' _thought_ it
reasonable. What's a fellow's shoulders for, but to give a spread to his
shrouds, which lead down the neck and are set up under the arms
somewhere. They says a great deal about the heart, and I reckons it's
likely every thing is key'd there."
"Harkee, Ned," observed a quarter-master, who knew little more than the
mess generally, "if what you say is true, why don't these shrouds lead
straight from the head to the shoulders, instead of being all tucked up
under a skin in the neck? Answer me that, now."
"Who the devil ever saw a ship's shrouds that wasn't cat-harpened in!"
exclaimed Ned, with some heat. "A pretty hand a wife would make of it,
in pulling her arms around a fellow's neck if the rigging spread in the
way you mean! Them things is all settled according to reason when a
chap's keel's laid."
This last argument seemed to dispose of the matter, the discourse
gradually turning on, and confining itself to the merits of the
deceased.
Sir Gervaise had directed Galleygo to prepare his breakfast as soon as
the people were piped to their own; but he was still detained on deck in
consequence of a movement in one of his vessels, to which it has now
become necessary more particularly to recur.
The appearance of the Druid to the northward, early in the morning, will
doubtless be remembered by the reader. When near enough to have it made
out, this frigate had shown her number; after which she rested satisfied
with carrying sail much harder than any vessel in sight. When the fleets
engaged, she made an effort to set the fore-top-sail, close-reefed, but
several of the critics in the other ships, who occasionally noticed her
movements, fancied that some accident must have befallen her, as the
canvass was soon taken in, and she appeared disposed to remain content
with the sail carried when first seen. As this ship was materially to
windward of the line, and she was running the whole time a little free,
her velocity was much greater than that of the other vessels, and by
this time she had got so near that Sir Gervaise observed she was fairly
abeam of the Plantagenet, and a little to leeward of the Active. Of
course her hull, even to the bottom, as she rose on a sea, was plainly
visible, and such of her people as were in the tops and rigging could be
easily distinguished by the naked eye.
"The Druid must have some communication for us from the other division
of the fleet," observed the vice-admiral to his signal-officer, as they
stood watching the movements of the frigate; "it is a little
extraordinary Blewet does not signal! Look at the book, and find me a
question to put that will ask his errand?"
Bunting was in the act of turning over the leaves of his little
vocabulary of questions and answers, when three or four dark balls, that
Sir Gervaise, by the aid of the glass, saw suspended between the
frigate's masts, opened into flags, effectually proving that Blewet was
not absolutely asleep.
"Four hundred and sixteen, ordinary communication," observed the
vice-admiral, with his eye still at the glass. "Look up that, Bunting,
and let us know what it means."
"The commander-in-chief--wish to speak him!" read Bunting, in the
customary formal manner in which he announced the purport of a signal.
"Very well--answer; then make the Druid's number to come within hail!
The fellow has got cloth enough spread to travel two feet to our one;
let him edge away and come under our lee. Speaking will be rather close
work to-day."
"I doubt if a ship _can_ come near enough to make herself heard,"
returned the other, "though the second lieutenant of that ship never
uses a trumpet in the heaviest weather, they tell me, sir. Our gents say
his father was a town-crier, and that he has inherited the family
estate."
"Ay, our gents are a set of saucy fellows, as is usually the case when
there isn't work enough aboard."
"You should make a little allowance, Sir Gervaise, for being in the ship
of a successful commander-in-chief. That makes us all carry
weather-helms among the other messes."
"Up with your signal, sir; up with your signal. I shall be obliged to
order Greenly to put you upon watch-and-watch for a month, in order to
bring you down to the old level of manners."
"Signal answered, already, Sir Gervaise. By the way, sir, I'll thank you
to request Captain Greenly to give me another quarter-master. It's
nimble work for us when there is any thing serious to do."
"You shall have him, Bunting," returned the vice-admiral, a shade
passing over his face for the moment. "I had missed poor Jack Glass, and
from seeing a spot of blood on the poop, guessed his fate. I fancied,
indeed, I heard a shot strike something behind me."
"It struck the poor fellow's head, sir, and made a noise as if a butcher
were felling an ox."
"Well--well--let us try to forget it, until something can be done for
his son, who is one of the side boys. Ah! there's Blewet keeping away in
earnest. How the deuce he is to speak us, however, is more than I can
tell."
Sir Gervaise now sent a message to his captain to say that he desired
his presence. Greenly soon appeared, and was made acquainted with the
intention of the Druid, as well as with the purport of the last signals.
By this time, the rent main-top-sail was mended, and the captain
suggested it should be set again, close-reefed, as before, and that the
main-sail should be taken in. This would lessen the Plantagenet's way,
which ship was sensibly drawing ahead of her consorts. Sir Gervaise
assenting, the change was made, and the effects were soon apparent, not
only in the movement of the ship, but in her greater ease and steadiness
of motion.
It was not long before the Druid was within a hundred fathoms of the
flag-ship, on her weather-quarter, shoving the brine before her in a way
to denote a fearful momentum. It was evidently the intention of Captain
Blewet to cross the Plantagenet's stern, and to luff up under her lee
quarter; the safest point at which he could approach, in so heavy a
swell, provided it were done with discretion. Captain Blewet had a
reputation for handling his frigate like a boat, and the occasion was
one which would be likely to awaken all his desire to sustain the
character he had already earned. Still no one could imagine how he was
to come near enough to make a communication of any length. The
stentorian lungs of the second lieutenant, however, might effect it;
and, as the news of the expected hail passed through the ship, many who
had remained below, in apathy, while the enemy was close under their
lee, came on deck, curious to witness what was about to pass.
"Hey! Atwood?" exclaimed Sir Gervaise, for the little excitement had
brought the secretary up from the commander-in-chief's cabin;--"what is
Blewet at! The fellow cannot mean to set a studding-sail!"
"He is running out a boom, nevertheless, Sir Gervaise, or my thirty
years' experience of nautical things have been thrown away."
"He is truly rigging out his weather fore-topmast-studding-sail-boom,
sir!" added Greenly, in a tone of wonder.
"It _is_ out," rejoined the vice-admiral, as one would give emphasis to
the report of a calamity. "Hey!--what? Isn't that a man they're running
up to the end of it, Bunting? Level your glass, and let us know at
once."
"A glass is not necessary to make out that much, Sir Gervaise. It is a
man, beyond a doubt, and there he hangs at the boom-end, as if sentenced
by a general court-martial."
Sir Gervaise now suppressed every expression of surprise, and his
reserve was imitated, quite as a matter of course, by the twenty
officers, who, by this time, had assembled on the poop. The Druid,
keeping away, approached rapidly, and had soon crossed the flag-ship's
wake. Here she came by the wind, and favoured by the momentum with which
she had come down, and the addition of the main-sail, drew heavily but
steadily up on her lee-quarter. Both vessels being close-hauled, it was
not difficult steering; and by watching the helms closely, it would have
been possible, perhaps, notwithstanding the heavy sea, to have brought
the two hulls within ten yards of each other, and no harm should come of
it. This was nearer, however, than it was necessary to approach; the
studding-sail-boom, with the man suspended on the end of it, projecting
twice that distance, beyond the vessel's bows. Still it was nice work;
and while yet some thirty or forty feet from the perpendicular, the man
on the boom-end made a sign for attention, swung a coil of line he hold,
and when he saw hands raised to catch it, he made a cast. A lieutenant
caught the rope, and instantly hauled in the slack. As the object was
now understood, a dozen others laid hold of the line, and, at a common
signal, when those on board the Plantagenet hauled in strongly, the
people of the Druid lowered away. By this simple, but united movement,
the man descended obliquely, leaping out of the bowline in which he had
sat, and casting the whip adrift. Shaking himself to gain his footing,
he raised his cap and bowed to Sir Gervaise, who now saw Wycherly
Wychecombe on his poop.