CHAPTER TEN.
AN IMPORTANT MISSION.
Once fairly at sea and out of reach of the enemy's shot, we had time totake a look at ourselves and realise the extent of our damages. Whenpassing over the same ground a few hours before, the "Juno" presented aspretty a picture as a nautical connoisseur could wish to see, with herhull recently painted, every spar in its place, and adjusted there to anicety, her rigging in perfect order, and her white sails--the new lookjust worn off them, and barely stretched into their proper shape--without a blemish or fault to mar their perfect appearance. _Now_, shepassed out to sea with her fore and main-topgallant-masts and mizen-topmast hanging over the side, the fore-topsail-yard down on the cap,the spankerboom shot away in the jaws, the flying-jib-stay and halliardscut through and the sail towing alongside, her canvas riddled with shot-holes, ends and bights of ropes streaming out in the wind everywherealoft, and two 36-pound shot in her side. Luckily, however, ourcasualties ended here; for, notwithstanding the hailstorm of shotthrough which we had passed, not a man on board was hurt.
We were busy the remainder of that night, and a good part of thefollowing day, making good the damages sustained. By evening, however,we were all ataunto once more; and as soon as the work was finished,Captain Hood mustered the hands and made them a speech, thanking them,both officers and men, for the courage and determination with which allhad co-operated with him in effecting the escape of the ship from anenemy's port, wherein she actually lay aground surrounded by armedships, and with numerous heavily armed batteries opposing our departure.Percival was specially referred to, his skill in piloting the ship inand out again being dwelt upon in highly commendatory terms; and then--the skipper being a rare hand at turning out a neat speech and roundingit off with a compliment--the men were told that, having behaved soexceptionally well, their officers would now have no hesitation aboutengaging in any enterprise, however hazardous or hopeless it mightappear, confident that the men they led would support them as long asthey had strength to stand.
At the close of this speech the men, as in duty bound, gave threecheers, the hammocks were piped down, and life on board the "Juno"resumed once more its normal conditions.
The first question which suggested itself to the skipper, after gettinghis ship once more into fighting order, naturally was what was to bedone with the supernumeraries which we had on board. His instructions,it appeared, made no provision whatever for the possibility of such a_contretemps_ as had befallen us, and he was, in consequence, quite at aloss what to do. Finally, after talking the affair over with MrAnnesley, he resolved to take them back to Malta, and a course wasaccordingly shaped for that island. We accomplished the passage in fivedays, and landed the men, who were glad enough to plant their feet onmother earth once more, after knocking about in their confined quartersfor nearly a fortnight.
During our absence, information of the evacuation of Toulon by Lord Hoodhad reached the island, and it was taken quite for granted that, goingto the place in ignorance of this important fact, as we were, we shouldinevitably fall into some trap and be made prisoners; when therefore weput in an appearance once more, and the details of our escape were madeknown, we immediately became the object of unbounded curiosity andadmiration. Hundreds flocked to see the ship (many of them beingintensely disappointed at the almost entire absence of visibleindications of the peril through which she had passed), and officers andmen alike were pointed out and looked after in the streets, until we ranthe greatest risk of becoming inordinately vain of our exploit. Theadmiration of the islanders did not end here, however; for it beingdeemed advisable to place the frigate in dry dock to examine her bottomand smooth her copper, after having touched the ground, as well as tomake good a few defects which were beyond our own unaided powers, wewere balled, _feted_, picnicked, and generally made much of for threedays by the excitable and pleasure-loving inhabitants, at the end ofwhich time, our repairs being completed, we were hurried away to seawith sealed orders, to be opened off Cape Spartivento.
We arrived off this headland on the 22nd of January, and Captain Hoodthen learned that we were to remain on the spot until the evening of the24th, when, if no farther instructions reached him, he was to open asealed paper which he found enclosed with his orders. The ship wasaccordingly hove-to and placed under reefed topsails, a private signalwas hoisted at the main-royal-mast-head, and in order that the timemight not be absolutely wasted, the crew were put through a specialcourse of drill.
A sharp lookout was maintained, in order that there might be nopossibility of our being passed unobserved by any craft bearing laterinstructions; but though we saw plenty of feluccas passing along thecoast, the only craft which came at all near us was a magnificent 40-gunfrigate, which hoisted French colours and bore down towards us on ourshowing our ensign; but having approached within four miles and lyinghove-to for half an hour, she resumed her original course to thenorthward, leaving us in a most unchristian frame of mind towards theadmiral, whose orders tied us to the spot, and prevented our acceptingthe challenge she had given. We at first cherished the hope that if wedid not go out to her, she would come down and attack us, but such aslice of good luck was not just then to fall to our lot.
The stipulated period of our stay off Cape Spartivento having at lengthexpired, Captain Hood broke open the packet to which reference hasalready been made, and having acquainted himself with the fartherinstructions therein contained, orders were forthwith issued to makesail to the northward and westward.
We had a fine breeze from the eastward, to which we showed a heavy pressof canvas; the frigate accordingly made short miles of the trip alongthe Sardinian coast, and on the following evening arrived off the Gulfof Ajaccio in Corsica, the coast-line being about twenty miles distant,and consequently "hull-down;" the mountain-chain, however, which formsas it were the backbone of Corsica, was distinctly visible, lighted upas it was by the gorgeous tints of sunset. Sail was now shortened totopsails, and the frigate hove-to.
While all hands were wondering more or less what the next move would be,I was sent for by the skipper to go to him in his cabin. On arrivingthere, I found him and Mr Annesley seated at the cabin-table with adecanter of port standing between them, glasses of the same at theirelbows, and a large map spread out in the full light of the cabin lamp,which had just been lighted; the table being further littered with alarge number of official-looking documents.
As I entered the cabin, Captain Hood raised his eyes from the map, overwhich both officers had been earnestly poring, and said,--
"Oh! come in, Mr Chester, and bwing yourself to an anchor. Atkins! awine-glass for Mr Chester. There, help yourself, young gentleman."
I poured out a glass of the port, wondering, as I sipped it, whereverthe skipper managed to pick up so very excellent a wine; and when thesteward had retired, closing the door after him, Captain Hood lookedacross the table at me, and said,--
"Mr Chester, I have been gweatly gwatified at the continued goodweports which Mr Annesley makes of your conduct. He speaks vewy highlyof your intelligence, persevewance, zeal, and couwage, and I--ah--maysay that--er--I have myself noted fwom time to time your possession ofthose--ah--desiwable chawactewistics. Partly on this account, andpartly because of your--ah--intimate knowledge of the Fwench language, Ihave selected you for the performance of a service in which all thequalities I have mentioned are--er--conspicuously necessawy. You willunderstand this more clearly when I explain that the service consists inthe safe conveyance of certain vewy important documents to the hands ofa Corsican gentleman on shore yonder, in the face of unknown butpossibly sewious difficulties from the numewous Fwench twoops occupyingthe island, and into whose hands the documents in question must by nomeans be allowed to fall. I should hesitate vewy stwongly aboutintwusting one so young with a mission so delicate but for MrAnnesley's positive assuwance that I may safely do so. Now, what sayyou? are you willing to undertake the service?"
To say that I _jumped_ at the offer would but feebly exp
ress theeagerness with which I answered in the affirmative. Here was one ofthose chances for distinguishing myself for which I had so ardentlylonged, and here too was the prospect of at least temporary freedom fromthe restraints of discipline and the monotony of shipboard, to saynothing of the possibilities of excitement and adventure involved in theperformance of a secret service in the enemy's country. It was with theutmost difficulty I controlled my excitement sufficiently to listen tothe skipper's instructions, and to absorb and master the informationnecessary to the successful conduct of the enterprise.
The map spread upon the table was a map of Corsica drawn to a largescale, and showing every road, stream, mountain-path, wood, chateau--indeed I might almost say _every house_ on the island; and upon it wasmarked in red ink the various French posts, as far as they could beascertained, while crosses in blue ink indicated the posts of theinsurgent Corsicans. Captain Hood produced also a skeleton map of theisland drawn to a very small scale, containing only such information aswas necessary for my guidance; and during the delivery of hisinstructions frequent reference was made to both these maps, as well asto a manuscript book of what would be called "sailing directions" if itreferred to a journey by water instead of by land, and from which I madebrief notes from time to time, by way of memory-refreshers, in a tinybook with which Captain Hood furnished me. The skipper kept me with himfor more than two hours--in fact until he had satisfied himself that Inot only thoroughly understood what was required of me--which was verysimple, being merely to find an individual, who was to be identified bycertain pre-arranged tokens, and to deliver my despatches, or whateverthey were, into his hands--but also that I had mastered every scrap ofinformation which he was able to give me. When at length he found thatI was fully "posted up," he dismissed me to make my preparations,cautioning me to dress in plain clothes, and to exercise the utmost carethat I carried no document or article of any description with me wherebyI might be identified as belonging to the English service, "otherwise,"he grimly observed, "they will hang you without hesitation on thenearest tree. One thing more," he continued, as I rose to leave thecabin; "as soon as you are landed, we shall proceed in search ofCommodore Linzee's squadron, which we are ordered to join; it istherefore quite uncertain when you may have an opportunity to return tothe ship; but as I have reason to believe we shall operate somewhere atthe northern end of the island, as soon as you have accomplished yourmission you had better make for either Calvi or Bastia, and when you canlearn our actual whereabouts, seize the first opportunity which offersto rejoin. Here," handing me a packet, "is a sufficient amount ofFwench money to cawwy you handsomely thwough the business if no hitchoccurs; if it does, you must exercise your ingenuity to get yourself outof the difficulty. Now go away and get weady, and--ah--er--I heartilywish you success. Good-bye."
He offered me his hand--with just the slightest perceptible touch ofstiffness in the gesture--which I seized and shook so heartily in theexcitement of the moment as to cause him to raise his eyebrows inastonishment at my audacity. The next minute I was on deck once more,with the cool night-air fanning my flushed and burning cheeks, while iturged the frigate through the water at a rate of about seven knotstoward the lights of Ajaccio, which glimmered on the horizon broad onour starboard bow.