CHAPTER XXII.
----"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, thoughconcealed behind clouds, had risen. The additional light contributed tolessen the gloomy look of the ocean, though the fury of the winds andwaves still lent to it a dark and menacing aspect. To windward therewere no signs of an abatement of the gale, while the heavens continuedto abstain from letting down their floods, on the raging waters beneath.By this lime, the fleet was materially to the southward of Cape laHogue, though far to the westward, where the channel received the windsand waves from the whole rake of the Atlantic, and the seas were settingin, in the long, regular swells of the ocean, a little disturbed by theinfluence of the tides. Ships as heavy as the two-deckers moved alongwith groaning efforts, their bulk-heads and timbers "complaining," touse the language of the sea, as the huge masses, loaded with their ironartillery, rose and sunk on the coming and receding billows. But theirmovements were stately and full of majesty; whereas, the cutter, sloop,and even the frigates, seemed to be tossed like foam, very much at themercy of the elements. The Chloe was passing the admiral, on theopposite tack, quite a mile to leeward, and yet, as she mounted to thesummit 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 alwayswater-borne equally on all her lines, there would not be the necessitywhich 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 squadronsstruggling along through the billows, at the rate of about a marineleague in the hour. As no lofty sail was carried, and the vessels werefirst made in the haze of a clouded morning, the ships had not becomevisible to each other until nearer than common; and, by the time atwhich we have now arrived in our tale, the leading vessels wereseparated by a space that did not exceed two miles, estimating thedistance only on their respective lines of sailing; though there wouldbe about the same space between them, when abreast, the English being somuch to windward of their enemies. Any one in the least familiar withnautical man[oe]uvres will understand that these circumstances wouldbring the van of the French and the rear of their foes much nearertogether in passing, both fleets being close-hauled.
Sir Gervaise Oakes, as a matter of course, watched the progress of thetwo lines with close and intelligent attention. Mons. de Vervillin didthe same from the poop of le Foudroyant, a noble eighty-gun ship inwhich his flag of _vice-admiral_ was flying, as it might be, indefiance. By the side of the former stood Greenly, Bunting, and Bury,the Plantagenet's first lieutenant; by the side of the latter hiscapitaine de vaisseau, a man as little like the caricatures of suchofficers, as a hostile feeling has laid before the readers of Englishliterature, as Washington was like the man held up to odium in theLondon journals, at the commencement of the great American war. M. deVervillin himself was a man of respectable birth, of a scientificeducation, and of great familiarity with ships, so far as a knowledge oftheir general powers and principles was concerned; but here hisprofessional excellence ceased, all that infinity of detail whichcomposes the distinctive merit of the practical seaman being, in a greatdegree, unknown to him, rendering it necessary for him to _think_ inmoments of emergency; periods when the really prime mariner seems moreto act by a sort of _instinct_ than by any very intelligible process ofratiocination. With his fleet drawn out before him, however, and with nounusual demands on his resources, this gallant officer was anexceedingly formidable foe to contend with in squadron.
Sir Gervaise Oakes lost all his constitutional and feverish impatiencewhile the fleets drew nigher and nigher. As is not unusual with bravemen, who are naturally excitable, as the crisis approached he grewcalmer, and obtained a more perfect command over himself; seeing allthings in their true colours, and feeling more and more equal to controlthem. 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 werepassive, while his countenance became grave and his eye thoughtful.Greenly knew that his interference would now be hazardous; forwhenever the vice-admiral assumed that air, he literally becamecommander-in-chief; and any attempt to control or influence him, unlesssustained by the communication of new facts, could only draw downresentment on his own head. Bunting, too, was aware that the "admiralwas aboard," as the officers, among themselves, used to describe thisstate of their superior's mind, and was prepared to discharge his ownduty in the most silent and rapid manner in his power. All the otherspresent felt more or less of this same influence of an establishedcharacter.
"_Mr._ Bunting," said Sir Gervaise, when the distance between thePlantagenet and _le Temeraire_ the leading French vessel, might havebeen about a league, allowing for the difference in the respective linesof sailing--"_Mr._ Bunting, bend on the signal for the ships to go toquarters. 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 andsilence.
"Signal ready, Sir Gervaise," said Bunting, the instant the last flagwas 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, touse the batteries if wanted. The people can stand fast below, as I thinkit might be dangerous to open the ports."
Captain Greenly passed off the poop to the quarter-deck, and in a minutethe drum and fife struck up the air which is known all over thecivilized world as the call to arms. In most services this summons ismade by the drum alone, which emits sounds to which the fancy hasattached peculiar words; those of the soldiers of France being "_prendton sac_--_prend ton sac_--_prend ton sac_," no bad representatives ofthe meaning; but in English and American ships, this appeal is usuallymade in company with the notes of the "ear-piercing fife," which givesit 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 thehead. After a moment's pause, however, the vice-admiral turned to hissignal 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 atthe boiling element that gushed up each minute from beneath the bottomof the ship, in a way to appear as high as the hammock-cloths. "Thepeople 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 thevice-admiral's wake. Young gentleman," to the midshipman who alwaysacted as his aid in battle, "tell Captain Greenly I desire to see him assoon as he has received all the reports."
Down to the moment when the first tap of the drum was heard, thePlantagenet had presented a scene of singular quiet and unconcern,considering the circumstances in which she was placed. A landsman wouldscarcely credit that men could be so near their enemies, and display somuch indifference to their vicinity; but this was the result of longhabit, and a certain marine instinct that tells the sailor when anything serious is in the wind, and when not. The difference in the forceof the two fleets, the heavy gale, and the weatherly position of theEnglish, all conspired to assure the crew that nothing decisive couldyet occur. Here and there an officer or an old seaman might be seenglancing through a port, to ascertain the force and position of theFrench; but, on the whole, their fleet excited little more attentionthan if lying at anchor in Cherbourg. The breakfast hour wasapproaching, and that important event monopolized the principal interestof the moment. The officers' boys, in particular, began to make theirappearance around the galley, provided, as usual, with their pots anddishes, and, now and then, one cast a careless glance through thenearest opening to see how the strangers
looked; but as to warfare therewas much more the appearance of it between the protectors of the rightsof the different messes, than between the two great belligerent naviesthemselves.
Nor was the state of things materially different in the gun-room, orcock-pit, or on the orlops. Most of the people of a two-decked ship areberthed on the lower gun deck, and the order to "clear ship" is morenecessary to a vessel of that construction, before going to quartersseriously, than to smaller craft; though it is usual in all. So long asthe bags, mess-chests, and other similar appliances were left in theirordinary positions, Jack saw little reason to derange himself; and asreports were brought below, from time to time, respecting the approachof the enemy, and more especially of his being well to leeward, few ofthose whose duty did not call them on deck troubled themselves about thematter at all. This habit of considering his fortune as attached to thatof his ship, and of regarding himself as a point on her mass, as we alllook on ourselves as particles of the orb we accompany in itsrevolutions, is sufficiently general among mariners; but it wasparticularly so as respects the sailors of a fleet, who were kept somuch at sea, and who had been so often, with all sorts of results, inthe presence of the enemy. The scene that was passing in the gun-room atthe 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; thesigns of those who "slept in the country," as it is termed, or who wereobliged, for want of state-rooms, to sling in the common apartment,having disappeared. Magrath was reading a treatise on medicine, in goodLeyden Latin, by a lamp. The purser was endeavouring to decipher hissteward's hieroglyphics, favoured by the same light, and the captain ofmarines was examining the lock of an aged musket. The third and fourthlieutenants were helping each other to untangle one of theirBay-of-Biscay reckonings, which had set both plane and sphericaltrigonometry at defiance, by a lamp of their own; and the chaplain washurrying the steward and the boys along with the breakfast--his usualoccupation 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 toglance upward at him, though no one spoke but the junior lieutenant,who, being an honourable, was at his ease with every one on board, shortof the captain.
"What's the news from deck, Bury?" asked this officer, a youth oftwenty, his senior being a man ten years older. "Is Mr. de Vervillinthinking 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, andI must have a dry jacket--do you hear, there, Tom? Soundings," turningto the master, who just then came in from forward, "have you taken alook out of doors this morning?"
"You know I seldom forget that, Mr. Bury. A pretty pickle the ship wouldsoon 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 thebridle-ports."
"Well, then, Soundings, what do you think of the third ship in theFrench line?" continued Bury, disregarding the levity of the youth: "didyou ever see such top-masts, as she carries, before?"
"I scarce ever saw a Frenchman without them, Mr. Bury. You'd have justsuch sticks in this fleet, if Sir Jarvy would stand them."
"Ay, but Sir Jarvy _won't_ stand them. The captain who sent such a stickup in his ship, would have to throw it overboard before night. I neversaw such a pole in the air in my life!"
"What's the matter with the mast, Mr. Bury?" put in Magrath, who kept upwhat he called constant scientific skirmishes with the _elder_sea-officers; the _junior_ being too inexperienced in his view to beworthy of a contest. "I'll engage the spar is moulded and fashionedagreeably to the most approved pheelosphical principles; for in _that_the French certainly excel us."
"Who ever heard of _moulding_ a spar?" interrupted Soundings, laughingloudly, "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 byacclamation, as they call it in other learned bodies. I would advise nocreature that has a reason to go to sea; an instinct being all that isneeded to make a Lord High Admiral of twenty tails."
"I should like Sir Jarvy to hear _that_, my man of books," cried thefourth, who had satisfied himself that a book was not his own forte--"Ifancy your instinct, doctor, will prevent you from whispering this inthe vice-admiral's ear!"
Although Magrath had a profound respect for the commander-in-chief, hewas 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, buthe'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'sLatin, as if he had never seen a horn-book! Nevertheless, gentlemen, itis science, and not even the classics, that makes the man; as for acreature's getting the sciences by instinct, I shall contend it isagainst the possibilities, whereas the attainment of what you callseamanship, 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 byinstinct, as you call it, if one may ask the question?"
"Simply, Soundings, because the process of ratiocination is dispensedwith. Do you have to _think_ in waring ship, now?--I'll put it to yourown honour, for the answer."
"Think!--I should be a poor creature for a master, indeed, if muchthinking were wanting in so simple a matter as tacking or veering.No--no--your real sea-dog has no occasion for much _thinking_, when hehas 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 onlywill Mr. Soundings not _think_, when he has his ordinary duties toperform, but he holds the process itself in merited contempt, ye'llobsairve; and so my theory is established, by evidence of a pairtyconcerned; which is more than a postulate logically requires."
Here Magrath dropped his book, and laughed with that sort of hissingsound that seems peculiar to the genus of which he formed a part. He wasstill indulging in his triumph, when the first tap of the drum washeard. All listened; every ear pricking like that of a deer that hearsthe hound, when there followed--"r-r-r-ap tap--r-r-r-ap tap--r-r-r-aptapa-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 thehonourable. "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 thecock-pit, "there'll may be arise an occasion for a little learning, whenI'll promise ye all the science that can be mustered in my unworthyknowledge. Soundings, I may have to heave the lead in the depths of yourphysical formation, in which case I'll just endeevour to avoid thebreakers 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, andhave never been obliged to one of your kidney for so much as a bit ofcourt-plaster or lint. With me, oakum answers for one, and canvass forthe other."
While this was saying, all hands were in motion. The sea and marineofficers looking for their side-arms, the surgeon carefully collectinghis books, and the chaplain seizing a dish of cold beef, that washurriedly 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 wascleared of all who usually dwelt there, and their places were suppliedby the seamen who manned the three or four thirty-two's that weremounted in the apartment, together with their opposites. As thesea-officers, in particular, appeared amo
ng the men, their faces assumedan air of authority, and their voices were heard calling out the orderto "tumble up," as they hastened themselves to their several stations.
All this time, Sir Gervaise Oakes paced the poop. Bunting and thequarter-master were in readiness to hoist the new signal, and Greenlymerely waited for the reports, to join the commander-in-chief. In aboutfive minutes after the drum had given its first tap, these werecompleted, and the captain ascended to the poop.
"By standing on, on our present course, Captain Greenly," observed SirGervaise, anxious to justify to himself the evolution he contemplated,"the rear of our line and the van of the French will be brought withinfair range of shot from each other, and, by an accident, we might lose aship; since any vessel that was crippled, would necessarily sag directlydown upon the enemy. Now, I propose to keep away in the Plantagenet, andjust brush past the leading French ships, at about the distance theWarspite 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 asnear together, as you have just said must happen to the rear, SirGervaise, in any case."
"It does not require a mathematician to tell that much, sir. You willkeep away, as soon as Bunting shows the signal, and bring the windabeam. Never mind the braces; let _them_ stand fast; as soon as we havepassed the French admiral, I shall luff, again. This will cause us tolose a little of our weatherly position, but about that I am veryindifferent. Give the order, sir--Bunting, run up the signal."
These commands were silently obeyed, and presently the Plantagenet wasrunning directly in the troughs of the seas, with quite double herformer velocity. The other ships answered promptly, each keeping away asher second ahead came down to the proper line of sailing, and allcomplying to the letter with an order that was very easy of execution.The effect, besides giving every prospect of a distant engagement, wasto straighten the line to nearly mathematical precision.
"Is it your wish, Sir Gervaise, that we should endeavour to open our leelower ports?" asked Greenly. "Unless we attempt something of the sort,we shall have nothing heavier than the eighteens to depend on, shouldMonsieur de Vervillin see fit to begin."
"And will _he_ be any better off?--It would be next to madness to thinkof fighting the lower-deck guns, in such weather, and we will keep allfast. Should the French commence the sport, we shall have the advantageof being to windward; and the loss of a few weather shrouds might bringdown the best mast in their fleet."
Greenly made no answer, though he perfectly understood that the loss ofa mast would almost certainly ensure the loss of the ship, did one ofhis own heavier spars go. But this was Sir Gervaise's greatest weaknessas a commander, and he knew it would be useless to attempt persuadinghim to suffer a single ship under his order to pass the enemy nearerthan he went himself in the Plantagenet. This was what he calledcovering his ships; though it amounted to no more than putting all ofthem in the jeopardy that happened to be unavoidable, as regarded one ortwo.
The Comte de Vervillin seemed at a loss to understand this sudden andextraordinary movement in the van of his enemy. His signals followed,and his crews went to their guns; but it was not an easy matter forships that persevered in hugging the wind to make any materialalterations in their relative positions, in such a gale. The rate ofsailing of the English, however, now menaced a speedy collision, ifcollision were intended, and it was time to be stirring, in order to beready for it.
On the other hand, all was quiet, and, seemingly, death-like, in theEnglish ships. Their people were at their quarters, already, and this isa moment of profound stillness in a vessel of war. The lower ports beingdown, the portions of the crews stationed on those decks were buried, asit might be, in obscurity, while even those above were still partlyconcealed by the half-ports. There was virtually nothing for thesail-trimmers to do, and every thing was apparently left to theevolutions of the vast machines themselves, in which they floated. SirGervaise, 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 Temeraire_ were little more than amile apart, each minute lessening this distance. The latter ship wasstruggling along, her bows plunging into the seas to the hawse-holes,while the former had a swift, easy motion through the troughs, and alongthe summits of the waves, her flattened sails aiding in steadying her inthe heavy lurches that unavoidably accompanied such a movement. Still, asea would occasionally break against her weather side, sending its crestupward in a brilliant _jet-d'eau_, and leaving tons of water on thedecks. Sir Gervaise's manner had now lost every glimmering ofexcitement. When he spoke, it was in a gentle, pleasant tone, such as agentleman might use in the society of women. The truth was, all hisenergy had concentrated in the determination to do a daring deed; and,as is not unusual with the most resolute men, the nearer he approachedto the consummation of his purpose, the more he seemed to reject all thespurious aids of manner.
"The French do not open their lower ports, Greenly," observed thevice-admiral, dropping the glass after one of his long looks at theenemy, "although they have the advantage of being to leeward. I takethat to be a sign they intend nothing very serious."
"We shall know better five minutes hence, Sir Gervaise. This ship slidesalong like a London coach."
"His line is lubberly, after all, Greenly! Look at those two shipsastern--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 thepositions of the two ships mentioned with sufficient deliberation; butSir Gervaise dropped his head in a musing manner, and began to pace thepoop again. Once or twice he stopped to look at the rear of the Frenchline, then distant from him quite a league, and as often did he resumehis walk.
"Bunting," said the vice-admiral, mildly, "come this way, a moment. Ourlast signal was to keep in the commander-in-chief's wake, and to followhis motions?"
"It was, Sir Gervaise. The old order to follow motions, 'with or withoutsignals,' as one might say."
"Bend on the signals to close up in line, as near as safe, and to carrysail 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 excitementreturned a little, and a smile struggled round his lip. His eye glancedat Greenly, to see if he were suspected, and then all his calmness ofexterior returned. In the mean time the signals were made and answered.The latter circumstance was reported to Sir Gervaise, who cast his eyesdown the line astern, and saw that the different ships were alreadybracing in, and easing off their sheets, in order to diminish the spacesbetween the different vessels. As soon as it was apparent that theCarnatic was drawing ahead, Captain Greenly was told to lay his main andfore-yards nearly square, to light up all his stay-sail sheets, and tokeep away sufficiently to make every thing draw. Although these ordersoccasioned surprise, they were implicitly obeyed.
The moment of meeting had now come. In consequence of having kept awayso much, the Plantagenet could not be quite three-fourths of a mile onthe weather-bow of _le Temeraire_, coming up rapidly, and threatening asemi-transverse fire. In order to prevent this, the French ship edgedoff a little, giving herself an easier and more rapid movement throughthe water, and bringing her own broadside more fairly to the shock. Thisevolution was followed by the two next ships, a little prematurely,perhaps; but the admiral in _le Foudroyant_, disdaining to edge off fromher enemy, kept her luff. The ships astern were governed by the courseof their superior. This change produced a little disorder in the van ofthe French, menacing still greater, unless one party or the otherreceded from the course taken. But time pressed, and the two fleets wereclosing so fast as to induce other thoughts.
"There's lubberly work for you, Greenly!" said Sir Gervaise, smiling. "Acommander-in-chief heading up
with the bowlines dragged, and his secondand 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, allhis fellows astern will follow, and the Warspite and Blenheim andThunderer will slip by like girls in a country-dance! Send Bury down tothe main-deck, with orders to be ready with those eighteens."
Greenly obeyed, of course, and he began to think better of audacity innaval warfare, than he had done before, that day. This was the usualcourse of things with these two officers; one arguing and decidingaccording to the dictates of a cool judgment, and the other followinghis impulses quite as much as any thing else, until facts supervened toprove that human things are as much controlled by adventitious agencies,the results of remote and unseen causes, as by any well-digested planslaid at the moment. In their cooler hours, when they came to reason onthe past, the vice-admiral generally consummated his triumphs, byreminding his captain that if he had not been in the way of luck, henever could have profited by it; no bad creed for a naval officer, whois otherwise prudent and vigilant.
The quarter-masters of the fleet were just striking six bells, orproclaiming that it was seven o'clock in the morning watch, as thePlantagenet and _le Temeraire_ came abeam of each other. Both shipslurched heavily in the troughs of the seas, and both rolled to windwardin stately majesty, and yet both slid through the brine with a momentumthat resembled the imperceptible motion of a planet. The water rolledback from their black sides and shining hammock-cloths, and all theother dark panoply that distinguishes a ship-of-war glistened with thespray; but no sign of hostility proceeded from either. The Frenchadmiral made no signal to engage, and Sir Gervaise had reasons of hisown for wishing to pass the enemy's van, if possible, unnoticed. Minutepassed after minute, in breathless silence, on board the Plantagenet andthe Carnatic, the latter vessel being now but half a cable's-lengthastern of the admiral. Every eye that had any outlet for such a purpose,was riveted on the main-deck ports of _le Temeraire_ in expectation ofseeing the fire issue from her guns. Each instant, however, lessened thechances, as regarded that particular vessel, which was soon out of theline of fire from the Plantagenet, when the same scene was to followwith the same result, in connection with _le Conquereur_, the secondship of the French line. Sir Gervaise smiled as he passed the threefirst 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, "ismore than I can say; but we will go nearer, and try to find out. Keepher away a little more, sir; keep her away half a point." Greenly wasnot disposed to remonstrate now, for his prudent temperament wasyielding to the excitement of the moment just reversing the traits ofSir Gervaise's character; the one losing his extreme discretion infeeling, as the other gained by the pressure of circumstances. The helmwas 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 ofthe best vessels of his fleet. Not only was the Foudroyant a heavy ship,carrying French forty-twos below, a circumstance that made her rate asan eighty, but, like the Plantagenet, she was one of the fastest andmost weatherly vessels of her class known. By "hugging the wind," thisnoble vessel had got, by this time, materially to windward of her secondand third ahead, and had increased her distance essentially from hersupports astern. In a word, she was far from being in a position to besustained as she ought to be, unless she edged off herself, a movementthat no one on board her seemed to contemplate.
"He's a noble fellow, Greenly, that Comte de Vervillin!" murmured SirGervaise, in a tone of admiration, "and so have I always found him, andso have I always _reported_ him, too! The fools about the Gazettes, andthe knaves about the offices, may splutter as they will; Mr. deVervillin would give them plenty of occupation were they _here_. Iquestion if he mean to keep off in the least, but insists on holdingevery inch he can gain!"
The next moment, however, satisfied Sir Gervaise that he was mistaken inhis last conjecture, the bows of the Foudroyant gradually falling off,until the line of her larboard guns bore, when she made a generaldischarge of the whole of them, with the exception of those on the lowerdeck. The Plantagenets waited until the ship rose on a sea, and thenthey returned the compliment in the same manner. The Carnatic's sideshowed a sheet of flame immediately after; and the Achilles, LordMorganic, luffing briskly to the wind, so as to bring her guns to bear,followed up the game, like flashes of lightning. All three of theseships had directed their fire at le Foudroyant, and the smoke had notyet driven from among her spars, when Sir Gervaise perceived that allthree of her top-masts were hanging to leeward. At this sight, Greenlyfairly sprang from the deck, and gave three cheers The men below caughtup the cry, even to those who were, in a manner, buried on the lowerdeck, and presently, spite of the gale, the Carnatic's were heardfollowing their example astern. At this instant the whole French andEnglish lines opened their fire, from van to rear, as far as their gunswould bear, or the shot tell.
"Now, sir, now is our time to close with de Vervillin!" exclaimedGreenly, the instant he perceived the manner in which his ship wascrippled. "In our close order we might hope to make a thorough wreck ofhim."
"Not so, Greenly," returned Sir Gervaise calmly. "You see he edges awayalready, and will be down among his other ships in five minutes; weshould have a general action with twice our force. What is done, is_well_ done, and we will let it stand. It is _something_ to havedismasted the enemy's commander-in-chief; do you look to it that theenemy don't do the same with ours. I heard shot rattling aloft, andevery thing now bears a hard strain."
Greenly went to look after his duty, while Sir Gervaise continued topace the poop. The whole of le Foudroyant's fire had been directed atthe Plantagenet, but so rough was the ocean that not a shot touched thehull. A little injury had been done aloft, but nothing that the readyskill 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 offfrom their varying surfaces at every angle that offered. One of thesecrets that Sir Gervaise had taught his captains was to avoid hittingthe surface of the sea, if possible, unless that surface was reasonablysmooth, and the object intended to be injured was near at hand. Then theFrench admiral received the _first_ fire--always the mostdestructive--of three fresh vessels; and his injuries were inproportion.
The scene was now animated, and not without a wild magnificence. Thegale continued as heavy as ever, and with the raging of the ocean andthe howling of the winds, mingled the roar of artillery, and the smokycanopy of battle. Still the destruction on neither side bore anyproportion to the grandeur of the accompaniments; the distance and theunsteadiness of the ships preventing much accuracy of aim. In that day,a large two-decked ship never carried heavier metal than an eighteenabove her lower batteries; and this gun, efficient as it is on mostoccasions, does not bring with it the fearful destruction that attends amore 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 thedistance of the enemy abreast of her, it would have been difficult totell that any vessel but le Foudroyant, had been doing more thansaluting. At this instant Greenly re-appeared on the poop, his own shiphaving ceased to fire for several minutes.
"Well, Greenly, the main-deck guns are at least scaled," said SirGervaise, smiling; "and _that_ is not to be done over again for sometime. You keep every thing ready in the batteries, I trust?"
"We are all ready, Sir Gervaise, but there is nothing to be done. Itwould be useless to waste our ammunition at ships quite two miles underour lee."
"Very true--very true, sir. But _all_ the Frenchmen are not quite so farto leeward, Greenly, as you may see by looking ahead. Yonder two, atleast, are not absolutely out of harm's way!"
Greenly turned, gazed an instant in the direction in which thecommander-in-chief pointed, and then the truth of what Sir Gervaise hadr
eally in view in keeping away, flashed on his mind, as it might be, ata glance. Without saying a word, he immediately quitted the poop, anddescending even to the lower deck, passed through the whole of hisbatteries, giving his orders, and examining their condition.