CHAPTER XLVI
CATAMARANS
Napoleon had shown no proper dread of the valiant British volunteers,but kept his festival in August, and carried on his sea-side plans, asif there were no such fellows. Not content with that, he even floutedour blockading fleet by coming out to look at them. And if one of ourfrigates had shot straight, she might have saved millions of lives andbillions of money, at the cost of one greatly bad life. But the poorship knew not her opportunity, or she would rather have gone to thebottom than waste it.
Now the French made much of this affair, according to their nature; andhistories of it, full of life and growth, ran swiftly along theshallow shore, and even to Paris, the navel of the earth. Frenchmen ofletters--or rather of papers--declared that all England was smitten withdismay; and so she might have been, if she had heard of it. But as ourneighbours went home again, as soon as the water was six fathomsdeep, few Englishmen knew that they had tried to smell a little of thesea-breeze, outside the smell of their inshore powder. They were pleasedto get ashore again, and talk it over, with vivid description of thethings that did not happen.
"Such scenes as these tended much to agitate England," writes a greatFrench historian. "The British Press, arrogant and calumnious, as thePress always is in a free country, railed much at Napoleon and hispreparations; but railed as one who trembles at that which he would fainexhibit as the object of his laughter." It may have been so, but it isnot to be seen in any serious journal of that time. He seems to haveconfounded coarse caricaturists with refined and thoughtful journalists,even as, in the account of that inshore skirmish, he turns a gun-briginto a British frigate. However, such matters are too large for us.
It was resolved at any rate to try some sort of a hit at all thesevery gallant Frenchmen, moored under their own batteries, and makinghorse-marines of themselves, whenever Neptune, the father of the horse,permitted. The jolly English tars, riding well upon the waves, sent manya broad grin through a spy-glass at Muncher Crappo tugging hard to gethis nag into his gun-boat and then to get him out again, because hispresent set of shoes would not be worn out in England. Every sailorloves a horse, regarding him as a boat on legs, and therefore knowingmore about him than any landlubber may feign to know.
But although they would have been loth to train a gun on the nobleanimal, who was duly kept beyond their range, all the British sailorslonged to have a bout with the double tier of hostile craft mooredoff the shore within shelter of French batteries. Every day they couldreckon at least two hundred sail of every kind of rig invented sincethe time of Noah, but all prepared to destroy instead of succouring thegodly. It was truly grievous to see them there and not be able to get atthem, for no ship of the line or even frigate could get near enough totackle them. Then the British Admiral, Lord Keith, resolved after muchconsultation to try what could be done with fire-ships.
Blyth Scudamore, now in command of the Blonde, had done much excellentservice, in cutting off stragglers from the French flotilla, and drivingashore near Vimereux some prames and luggers coming from Ostend. Hebegan to know the French coast and the run of the shoals like a nativepilot; for the post of the Blonde, and some other light ships, wasbetween the blockading fleet and the blockaded, where perpetualvigilance was needed. This sharp service was the very thing required toimprove his character, to stamp it with decision and self-reliance, andto burnish his quiet, contemplative vein with the very frequent frictionof the tricks of mankind. These he now was strictly bound not to study,but anticipate, taking it as first postulate that every one wouldcheat him, if permitted. To a scrimpy and screwy man, of the type mostabundant, such a position would have done a deal of harm, shutting himup into his own shell harder, and flinting its muricated horns againstthe world. But with the gentle Scuddy, as the boys at school had calledhim, the process of hardening was beneficial, as it is with pure gold,which cannot stand the wear and tear of the human race until it has beenreduced by them at least to the mark of their twenty carats.
And now it was a fine thing for Scudamore--even as a man toophilanthropic was strengthened in his moral tone (as his wife found out)by being compelled to discharge the least pleasant of the duties of acounty sheriff--or if not a fine thing, at least it was a wholesome anddurable corrective to all excess of lenience, that duty to his countryand mankind compelled the gentle Scuddy to conduct the western divisionof this night-attack.
At this time there was in the public mind, which is quite of fullfeminine agility, a strong prejudice against the use of fire-ships.Red-hot cannon-balls, and shrapnel, langrage, chain-shot, andGreek-fire--these and the like were all fair warfare, and France mightuse them freely. But England (which never is allowed to do, withouthooting and execration, what every other country does with loudapplause)--England must rather burn off her right hand than send afire-ship against the ships full of fire for her houses, her cottages,and churches. Lord Keith had the sense to laugh at all that stuff, buthe had not the grand mechanical powers which have now enabled the humanrace, not to go, but to send one another to the stars. A clumsy affaircalled a catamaran, the acephalous ancestor of the torpedo, was expectedto relieve the sea of some thousands of people who had no businessthere. This catamaran was a water-proof box about twenty feet long, andfour feet wide, narrowed at the ends, like a coffin for a giant. Itwas filled with gunpowder, and ballasted so that its lid, or deck, wasalmost awash; and near its stern was a box containing clock movementsthat would go for about ten minutes, upon the withdrawal of a pegoutside, and then would draw a trigger and explode the charge. Thiswondrous creature had neither oar nor sail, but demanded to be towed tothe tideward of the enemy, then have the death-watch set going, and becast adrift within hail of the enemy's line. Then as soon as it cameacross their mooring cables, its duty was to slide for a little wayalong them in a friendly manner, lay hold of them kindly with its longtail, which consisted of a series of grappling-hooks buoyed with cork,and then bringing up smartly alongside of the gun-boats, blow itself up,and carry them up with it. How many there were of these catamarans isnot quite certain, but perhaps about a score, the intention being tohave ten times as many, on the next occasion, if these did well. And nodoubt they would have done well, if permitted; but they failed of theirpurpose, like the great Guy Fawkes, because they were prevented.
For the French, by means of treacherous agents--of whom perhaps CarylCarne was one, though his name does not appear in the despatches--knewall about this neat little scheme beforehand, and set their wits at workto defeat it. Moreover, they knew that there were four fire-ships,one of which was the Peggy of Springhaven, intended to add to theconsternation and destruction wrought by the catamarans. But they didnot know that, by some irony of fate, the least destructive and mostgentle of mankind was ordered to take a leading part in shattering man,and horse, and even good dogs, into vapours.
Many quiet horses, and sweet-natured dogs, whose want of breeding hadimproved their manners, lived in this part of the great flotilla, andwere satisfied to have their home where it pleased the Lord to feedthem. The horses were led to feed out of the guns, that they might notbe afraid of them; and they struggled against early prejudice, to likewood as well as grass, and to get sea-legs. Man put them here to suithis own ideas; of that they were quite aware, and took it kindly,accepting superior powers, and inferior use of them, without a shadeof question in their eyes. To their innocent minds it was never broughthome that they were tethered here, and cropping clots instead ofclover, for the purpose of inspiring in their timid friends ashore theconfidence a horse reposes in a brother horse, but very wisely doubtsabout investing in mankind. For instance, whenever a wild young animal,a new recruit for the cavalry, was haled against his judgment by a manon either side to the hollow-sounding gangway over dancing depth ofperil, these veteran salts of horses would assure him, with a neigh fromthe billowy distance, that they were not drowned yet, but were walkingon a sort of gate, and got their victuals regular. On the other hand,as to the presence of the dogs, that requires no explanati
on. Wasthere ever a time or place in which a dog grudged his sprightly anddisinterested service, or failed to do his best when called upon? TheseFrench dogs, whom the mildest English mastiff would have looked upon,or rather would have shut his eyes at, as a lot of curs below contempt,were as full of fine ardour for their cause and country as any noblehound that ever sate like a statue on a marble terrace.
On the first of October all was ready for this audacious squibbing ofthe hornet's nest, and the fleet of investment (which kept its distanceaccording to the weather and the tides) stood in, not bodily so as toarouse excitement, but a ship at a time sidling in towards the coast,and traversing one another's track, as if they were simply exchangingstations. The French pretended to take no heed, and did not call in asingle scouting craft, but showed every sign of having all eyes shut.Nothing, however, was done that night, by reason perhaps of the weather;but the following night being favourable, and the British fleet broughtas nigh as it durst come, the four fire-ships were despatched afterdark, when the enemy was likely to be engaged with supper. The sky wasconveniently overcast, with a faint light wandering here and there, fromthe lift of the horizon, just enough to show the rig of a vessel andher length, at a distance of about a hundred yards. Nothing could bebetter--thought the Englishmen; and the French were of that opinion too,especially as Nelson was not there.
Scudamore had nothing to do with the loose adventure of the fire-ships,the object of which was to huddle together this advanced part of theflotilla, so that the catamarans might sweep unseen into a goodlythicket of vessels, and shatter at least half a dozen at once.
But somehow the scheme was not well carried out, though it looked verynice upon paper. One very great drawback, to begin with, was that theenemy were quite aware of all our kind intentions; and another scarcelyless fatal was the want of punctuality on our part. All the floatingcoffins should have come together, like a funeral of fifty from acolliery; but instead of that they dribbled in one by one, and werecast off by their tow-boats promiscuously. Scudamore did his part wellenough, though the whole thing went against his grain, and the fourcatamarans under his direction were the only ones that did their duty.The boats of the Blonde had these in tow, and cast them off handsomelyat the proper distance, and drew the plugs which set their clock-springsgoing. But even of these four only two exploded, although the clockswere not American, and those two made a tremendous noise, but onlysinged a few French beards off. Except, indeed, that a fine old horse,with a white Roman nose and a bright chestnut mane, who was living ina flat-bottomed boat, broke his halter, and rushed up to the bows, andgave vent to his amazement, as if he had been gifted with a trumpet.
Hereupon a dog, loth to be behind the times, scampered up to his side,and with his forefeet on the gunwale, contributed a howl of incalculablelength and unfathomable sadness.
In the hurly of the combat and confusion of the night, with the dimnessstreaked with tumult, and the water gashed with fire, that horse andthis dog might have gone on for ever, bewailing the nature of the sonsof men, unless a special fortune had put power into their mouths. Oneof the fire-ships, as scandal did declare, was that very ancient tubindeed--that could not float on its bottom--the Peggy of Springhaven,bought at thrice her value, through the influence of Admiral Darling. Ifone has to meet every calumny that arises, and deal with it before goingfurther, the battle that lasted for a fortnight and then turned intoan earthquake would be a quick affair compared with the one now inprogress. Enough that the Peggy proved by the light she gave, and hergrand style of burning to the water's edge before she blew up, that shewas worth at least the hundred pounds Widow Shanks received for her. Shestartled the French more than any of the others, and the strong lightshe afforded in her last moments shone redly on the anguish of that poorhorse and dog. There was no sign of any one to help them, and the flamesin the background redoubled their woe.
Now this apparently deserted prame, near the centre of the line, wasthe Ville de Mayence; and the flag of Rear-Admiral Lacrosse was even nowflying at her peak. "We must have her, my lads," cried Scudamore, whowas wondering what to do next, until he descried the horse and dog andthat fine flag; "let us board her, and make off with all of them."
The crew of his launch were delighted with that. To destroy is verygood; but to capture is still better; and a dash into the midst of theenemy was the very thing they longed for. "Ay, ay, sir," they cried, settheir backs to their oars, and through the broad light that still shoneupon the waves, and among the thick crowd of weltering shadows, thelaunch shot like a dart to the side of the foe.
"Easy all! Throw a grapple on board," cried the young commander; and asthe stern swung round he leaped from it, and over the shallow bulwarks,and stood all alone on the enemy's fore-deck. And alone he remained, forat that moment a loud crash was heard, and the launch filled and sank,with her crew of sixteen plunging wildly in the waves.
This came to pass through no fault of their own, but a clever deviceof the enemy. Admiral Lacrosse, being called away, had left hisfirst officer to see to the safety of the flag-ship and her immediateneighbours, and this brave man had obtained permission to try a littleplan of his own, if assailed by any adventurous British boats in chargeof the vessels explosive. In the bows of some stout but handy boats hehad rigged up a mast with a long spar attached, and by means of a guy atthe end of that spar, a brace of heavy chain-shot could be swung up andpitched headlong into any boat alongside. While the crew of Scudamore'slaunch were intent upon boarding the prame, one of these boats cameswiftly from under her stern, and with one fling swamped the enemy. Thenthe Frenchmen laughed heartily, and offered oars and buoys for the poorBritish seamen to come up as prisoners.
Scudamore saw that he was trapped beyond escape, for no other Britishboat was anywhere in hail. His first impulse was to jump overboard andhelp his own drowning men, but before he could do so an officer stoodbefore him, and said, "Monsieur is my prisoner. His men will be safe,and I cannot permit him to risk his own life. Mon Dieu, it is my dearfriend Captain Scudamore!"
"And you, my old friend, Captain Desportes! I see it is hopeless toresist"--for by this time a score of Frenchmen were round him--"I canonly congratulate myself that if I must fall, it is into such goodhands."
"My dear friend, how glad I am to see you!" replied the French captain,embracing him warmly; "to you I owe more than to any man of your nation.I will not take your sword. No, no, my friend. You shall not bea prisoner, except in word. And how much you have advanced in theknowledge of our language, chiefly, I fear, at the expense of France.And now you will grow perfect, at the expense of England."