The Two Admirals (48 page)

Here Sir Gervaise turned on his heel, and began to pace the poop, for he
was slightly vexed, though not angered. Such little dialogues often
occurred between him and his captain, the latter knowing that his
commander's greatest professional failing was excess of daring, while he
felt that his own reputation was too well established to be afraid to
inculcate prudence. Next to the honour of the flag, and his own perhaps,
Greenly felt the greatest interest in that of Sir Gervaise Oakes, under
whom he had served as midshipman, lieutenant, and captain; and this his
superior knew, a circumstance that would have excused far greater
liberties. After moving swiftly to and fro several times, the
vice-admiral began to cool, and he forgot this passing ebullition of
quick feelings. Greenly, on the other hand, satisfied that the just mind
of the commander-in-chief would not fail to appreciate facts that had
been so plainly presented to it, was content to change the subject. They
conversed together, in a most friendly manner, Sir Gervaise being even
unusually frank and communicative, in order to prove he was not
displeased, the matter in discussion being the state of the ship and the
situation of the crew.

"You are always ready for battle, Greenly," the vice-admiral said,
smilingly, in conclusion; "when there is a necessity; and always just as
ready to point out the inexpediency of engaging, where you fancy nothing
is to be gained by it. You would not have me run away from a shadow,
however; or a signal; and that is much the same thing: so we will stand
on, until we make the Frenchmen fairly from off-deck, when it will be
time enough to determine what shall come next."

"Sail-ho!" shouted one of the look-outs from aloft, a cry that
immediately drew all eyes towards the mizzen-top-mast-cross-trees,
whence the sound proceeded.

The wind blew too fresh to render conversation, even by means of a
trumpet, easy, and the man was ordered down to give an account of what
he had seen. Of course he first touched the poop-deck, where he was met
by the admiral and captain, the officer of the watch, to whom he
properly belonged, giving him up to the examination of his two
superiors, without a grimace.

"Where-away is the sail you've seen, sir?" demanded Sir Gervaise a
little sharply, for he suspected it was no more than one of the ships
ahead, already signaled. "Down yonder to the southward and
eastward—hey! sirrah?"

"No, Sir Jarvy," answered the top-man, hitching his trowsers with one
hand, and smoothing the hair on his forehead with the other; "but out
here, to the forward and westward, on our weather-quarter. It's none o'
them French chaps as is with the County of Fairvillian,"—for so all the
common men of the fleet believed their gallant enemy to be rightly
named,—"but is a square-rigged craft by herself, jammed up on a wind,
pretty much like all on us."

"That alters the matter, Greenly! How do you know she is square-rigged,
my man?"

"Why, Sir Jarvy, your honour, she's under her fore and main-taw-sails,
close-reefed, with a bit of the main-sail set, as well as I can make it
out, sir."

"The devil she is! It must be some fellow in a great hurry, to carry
that canvass in this blow! Can it be possible, Greenly, that the leading
vessel of Bluewater is heaving in sight?"

"I rather think not, Sir Gervaise; it would be too far to windward for
any of his two-deckers. It may turn out to be a look-out ship of the
French, got round on the other tack to keep her station, and carrying
sail hard, because she dislikes our appearance."

"In that case she must claw well to windward to escape us! What's your
name, my lad—Tom Davis, if I'm not mistaken?"

"No, Sir Jarvy, it's Jack Brown; which is much the same, your honour.
We's no ways partic'lar about names."

"Well, Jack, does it blow hard aloft? So as to give you any trouble in
holding on?"

"Nothing to speak on, Sir Jarvy. A'ter cruising a winter and spring in
the Bay of Biscay, I looks on this as no more nor a puff. Half a hand
will keep a fellow in his berth, aloft."

"Galleygo—take Jack Brown below to my cabin, and give him a fresh nip
in his jigger—he'll hold on all the better for it."

This was Sir Gervaise's mode of atoning for the error in doing the man
injustice, by supposing he was mistaken about the new sail, and Jack
Brown went aloft devoted to the commander-in-chief. It costs the great
and powerful so little to become popular, that one is sometimes
surprised to find that any are otherwise; but, when we remember that it
is also their duty to be just, astonishment ceases; justice being
precisely the quality to which a large portion of the human race are
most averse.

Half an hour passed, and no further reports were received from aloft. In
a few minutes, however, the Warspite signalled the admiral, to report
the stranger on her weather-quarter, and, not long after, the Active did
the same. Still neither told his character; and the course being
substantially the same, the unknown ship approached but slowly,
notwithstanding the unusual quantity of sail she had set. At the end of
the period mentioned, the vessels in the south-eastern board began to be
visible from the deck. The ocean was so white with foam, that it was not
easy to distinguish a ship, under short canvass, at any great distance;
but, by the aid of glasses, both Sir Gervaise and Greenly satisfied
themselves that the number of the enemy at the southward amounted to
just twenty; one more having hove in sight, and been signalled by the
Chloe, since her first report. Several of these vessels, however, were
small; and, the vice-admiral, after a long and anxious survey, lowered
his glass and turned to his captain in order to compare opinions.

"Well, Greenly," he asked, "what do you make of them, now?—According to
my reckoning, there are thirteen of the line, two frigates, four
corvettes, and a lugger; or twenty sail in all."

"There can be no doubt of the twenty sail, Sir Gervaise, though the
vessels astern are still too distant to speak of their size. I rather
think it will turn out
fourteen
of the line and only three frigates."

"That is rather too much for us, certainly, without Bluewater. His five
ships, now, and this westerly position, would make a cheering prospect
for us. We might stick by Mr. de Vervillin until it moderated, and then
pay our respects to him. What do you say to
that
, Greenly?"

"That it is of no great moment, Sir Gervaise, so long as the other
division is
not
with us. But yonder are signals flying on board the
Active, the Warspite, and the Blenheim."

"Ay, they've something to tell us of the chap astern and to windward.
Come, Bunting, give us the news."

"'Stranger in the north-west shows the Druid's number;'" the
signal-officer read mechanically from the book.

"The deuce he does! Then Bluewater cannot be far off. Let Dick alone for
keeping in his proper place; he has an instinct for a line of battle,
and I never knew him fail to be in the very spot I could wish to have
him, looking as much at home, as if his ships had all been built there!
The Druid's number! The Cæsar and the rest of them are in a line ahead,
further north, heading up well to windward even of our own wake. This
puts the Comte fairly under our lee."

But Greenly was far from being of a temperament as sanguine as that of
the vice-admiral's. He did not like the circumstance of the Druid's
being alone visible, and she, too, under what in so heavy a gale, might
be deemed a press of canvass. There was no apparent reason for the
division's carrying sail so hard, while the frigate would he obliged to
do it, did she wish to overtake vessels like the Plantagenet and her
consorts. He suggested, therefore, the probability that the ship was
alone, and that her object might be to speak them.

"There is something in what you say, Greenly," answered Sir Gervaise,
after a minute's reflection; "and we must look into it. If Denham
doesn't give us any thing new from the Count to change our plans, it may
be well to learn what the Druid is after."

Denham was the commander of the Chloe, which ship, a neat
six-and-thirty, was pitching into the heavy seas that now came rolling
in heavily from the broad Atlantic, the water streaming from her
hawse-holes, as she rose from each plunge, like the spouts of a whale.
This vessel, it has been stated, was fully a league ahead and to leeward
of the Plantagenet, and consequently so much nearer to the French, who
were approaching from that precise quarter of the ocean, in a long
single line, like that of the English; a little relieved, however, by
the look-out vessels, all of which, in their case, were sailing along on
the weather-beam of their friends. The distance was still so great, as
to render glasses necessary in getting any very accurate notions of the
force and the point of sailing of Monsieur de Vervillin's fleet, the
ships astern being yet so remote as to require long practice to speak
with any certainty of their characters. In nothing, notwithstanding, was
the superior practical seamanship of the English more apparent, than in
the manner in which these respective lines were formed. That of Sir
Gervaise Oakes was compact, each ship being as near as might be a
cable's length distant from her seconds, ahead and astern. This was a
point on which the vice-admiral prided himself; and by compelling his
captains rigidly to respect their line of sailing, and by keeping the
same ships and officers, as much as possible, under his orders, each
captain of the fleet had got to know his own vessel's rate of speed, and
all the other qualities that were necessary to maintain her precise
position. All the ships being weatherly, though some, in a slight
degree, were more so than others, it was easy to keep the line in
weather like the present, the wind not blowing sufficiently hard to
render a few cloths more or less of canvass of any very great moment. If
there was a vessel sensibly out of her place, in the entire line, it was
the Achilles; Lord Morganic not having had time to get all his forward
spars as far aft as they should have been; a circumstance that had
knocked him off a little more than had happened to the other vessels.
Nevertheless, had an air-line been drawn at this moment, from the
mizzen-top of the Plantagenet to that of the Warspite, it would have
been found to pass through the spars of quite half the intermediate
vessels, and no one of them all would have been a pistol-shot out of the
way. As there were six intervals between the vessels, and each interval
as near as could be guessed at was a cable's length, the extent of the
whole line a little exceeded three-quarters of a mile.

On the other hand, the French, though they preserved a very respectable
degree of order, were much less compact, and by no means as methodical
in their manner of sailing. Some of their ships were a quarter of a mile
to leeward of the line, and the intervals were irregular and
ill-observed. These circumstances arose from several causes, neither of
which proceeded from any fault in the commander-in-chief, who was both
an experienced seaman and a skilful tactician. But his captains were new
to each other, and some of them were recently appointed to their ships;
it being just as much a matter of course that a seaman should ascertain
the qualities of his vessel, by familiarity, as that a man should learn
the character of his wife, in the intimacy of wedlock.

At the precise moment of which we are now writing, the Chloe might have
been about a league from the leading vessel of the enemy, and her
position to leeward of her own fleet threatened to bring her, half an
hour later, within range of the Frenchmen's guns. This fact was apparent
to all in the squadron; still the frigate stood on, having been placed
in that station, and the whole being under the immediate supervision of
the commander-in-chief.

"Denham will have a warm berth of it, sir, should he stand on much
longer," said Greenly, when ten minutes more had passed, during which
the ships had gradually drawn nearer.

"I was hoping he might get between the most weatherly French frigate and
her line," answered Sir Gervaise; "when I think, by edging rapidly away,
we could take her alive, with the Plantagenet."

"In which case we might as well clear for action; such a manoeuvre
being certain to bring on a general engagement."

"No—no—I'm not quite mad enough for that, Master Telemachus; but, we
can wait a little longer for the chances. How many flags can you make
out among the enemy, Bunting?"

"I see but two, Sir Gervaise; one at the fore, and the other at the
mizzen, like our own. I can make out, now, only twelve ships of the
line, too; neither of which is a three-decker."

"So much for rumour; as flagrant a liar as ever wagged a tongue! Twelve
ships on two decks, and eight frigates, sloops and luggers. There can be
no great mistake in this."

"I think not, Sir Gervaise; their commander-in-chief is in the fourth
ship from the head of the line. His flag is just discernible, by means
of our best glass. Ay, there goes a signal, this instant, at the end of
his gaff!"

"If one could only read French now, Greenly," said the vice-admiral,
smiling; "we might get into some of Mr. de Vervillin's secrets. Perhaps
it's an order to go to quarters or to clear; look out sharp, Bunting,
for any signs of such a movement. What do you make of it?"

"It's to the frigates, Sir Gervaise; all of which answer, while the
other vessels do not."

"We want no French to read that signal, sir," put in Greenly; "the
frigates themselves telling us what it means. Monsieur de Vervillin has
no idea of letting the Plantagenet take any thing he has,
alive
."

This was true enough. Just as the captain spoke, the object of the order
was made sufficiently apparent, by all the light vessels to windward of
the French fleet, bearing up together, until they brought the wind abaft
their beams, when away they glided to leeward, like floating objects
that have suddenly struck a swift current. Before this change in their
course, these frigates and corvettes had been struggling along, the seas
meeting them on their weather-bows, at the rate of about two knots or
rather less; whereas, their speed was now quadrupled, and in a few
minutes, the whole of them had sailed through the different intervals in
their main line, and had formed as before, nearly half a league to
leeward of it. Here, in the event of an action, their principal duties
would have been to succour crippled ships that might be forced out of
their allotted stations during the combat. All this Sir Gervaise viewed
with disgust. He had hoped that his enemy might have presumed on the
state of the elements, and suffered his light vessels to maintain their
original positions.