The Two Admirals (51 page)

"Bunting," said the vice-admiral, mildly, "come this way, a moment. Our
last signal was to keep in the commander-in-chief's wake, and to follow
his motions?"

"It was, Sir Gervaise. The old order to follow motions, 'with or without
signals,' as one might say."

"Bend on the signals to close up in line, as near as safe, and to carry
sail 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 excitement
returned a little, and a smile struggled round his lip. His eye glanced
at Greenly, to see if he were suspected, and then all his calmness of
exterior returned. In the mean time the signals were made and answered.
The latter circumstance was reported to Sir Gervaise, who cast his eyes
down the line astern, and saw that the different ships were already
bracing in, and easing off their sheets, in order to diminish the spaces
between the different vessels. As soon as it was apparent that the
Carnatic was drawing ahead, Captain Greenly was told to lay his main and
fore-yards nearly square, to light up all his stay-sail sheets, and to
keep away sufficiently to make every thing draw. Although these orders
occasioned surprise, they were implicitly obeyed.

The moment of meeting had now come. In consequence of having kept away
so much, the Plantagenet could not be quite three-fourths of a mile on
the weather-bow of
le Téméraire
, coming up rapidly, and threatening a
semi-transverse fire. In order to prevent this, the French ship edged
off a little, giving herself an easier and more rapid movement through
the water, and bringing her own broadside more fairly to the shock. This
evolution was followed by the two next ships, a little prematurely,
perhaps; but the admiral in
le Foudroyant
, disdaining to edge off from
her enemy, kept her luff. The ships astern were governed by the course
of their superior. This change produced a little disorder in the van of
the French, menacing still greater, unless one party or the other
receded from the course taken. But time pressed, and the two fleets were
closing so fast as to induce other thoughts.

"There's lubberly work for you, Greenly!" said Sir Gervaise, smiling. "A
commander-in-chief heading up with the bowlines dragged, and his second
and 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, all
his fellows astern will follow, and the Warspite and Blenheim and
Thunderer will slip by like girls in a country-dance! Send Bury down to
the main-deck, with orders to be ready with those eighteens."

Greenly obeyed, of course, and he began to think better of audacity in
naval warfare, than he had done before, that day. This was the usual
course of things with these two officers; one arguing and deciding
according to the dictates of a cool judgment, and the other following
his impulses quite as much as any thing else, until facts supervened to
prove that human things are as much controlled by adventitious agencies,
the results of remote and unseen causes, as by any well-digested plans
laid at the moment. In their cooler hours, when they came to reason on
the past, the vice-admiral generally consummated his triumphs, by
reminding his captain that if he had not been in the way of luck, he
never could have profited by it; no bad creed for a naval officer, who
is otherwise prudent and vigilant.

The quarter-masters of the fleet were just striking six bells, or
proclaiming that it was seven o'clock in the morning watch, as the
Plantagenet and
le Téméraire
came abeam of each other. Both ships
lurched heavily in the troughs of the seas, and both rolled to windward
in stately majesty, and yet both slid through the brine with a momentum
that resembled the imperceptible motion of a planet. The water rolled
back from their black sides and shining hammock-cloths, and all the
other dark panoply that distinguishes a ship-of-war glistened with the
spray; but no sign of hostility proceeded from either. The French
admiral made no signal to engage, and Sir Gervaise had reasons of his
own for wishing to pass the enemy's van, if possible, unnoticed. Minute
passed after minute, in breathless silence, on board the Plantagenet and
the Carnatic, the latter vessel being now but half a cable's-length
astern of the admiral. Every eye that had any outlet for such a purpose,
was riveted on the main-deck ports of
le Téméraire
in expectation of
seeing the fire issue from her guns. Each instant, however, lessened the
chances, as regarded that particular vessel, which was soon out of the
line of fire from the Plantagenet, when the same scene was to follow
with the same result, in connection with
le Conquereur
, the second
ship of the French line. Sir Gervaise smiled as he passed the three
first 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, "is
more than I can say; but we will go nearer, and try to find out. Keep
her away a little more, sir; keep her away half a point." Greenly was
not disposed to remonstrate now, for his prudent temperament was
yielding to the excitement of the moment just reversing the traits of
Sir Gervaise's character; the one losing his extreme discretion in
feeling, as the other gained by the pressure of circumstances. The helm
was 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 of
the best vessels of his fleet. Not only was the Foudroyant a heavy ship,
carrying French forty-twos below, a circumstance that made her rate as
an eighty, but, like the Plantagenet, she was one of the fastest and
most weatherly vessels of her class known. By "hugging the wind," this
noble vessel had got, by this time, materially to windward of her second
and third ahead, and had increased her distance essentially from her
supports astern. In a word, she was far from being in a position to be
sustained as she ought to be, unless she edged off herself, a movement
that no one on board her seemed to contemplate.

"He's a noble fellow, Greenly, that Comte de Vervillin!" murmured Sir
Gervaise, in a tone of admiration, "and so have I always found him, and
so have I always
reported
him, too! The fools about the Gazettes, and
the knaves about the offices, may splutter as they will; Mr. de
Vervillin would give them plenty of occupation were they
here
. I
question if he mean to keep off in the least, but insists on holding
every inch he can gain!"

The next moment, however, satisfied Sir Gervaise that he was mistaken in
his last conjecture, the bows of the Foudroyant gradually falling off,
until the line of her larboard guns bore, when she made a general
discharge of the whole of them, with the exception of those on the lower
deck. The Plantagenets waited until the ship rose on a sea, and then
they returned the compliment in the same manner. The Carnatic's side
showed a sheet of flame immediately after; and the Achilles, Lord
Morganic, luffing briskly to the wind, so as to bring her guns to bear,
followed up the game, like flashes of lightning. All three of these
ships had directed their fire at le Foudroyant, and the smoke had not
yet driven from among her spars, when Sir Gervaise perceived that all
three of her top-masts were hanging to leeward. At this sight, Greenly
fairly sprang from the deck, and gave three cheers The men below caught
up the cry, even to those who were, in a manner, buried on the lower
deck, and presently, spite of the gale, the Carnatic's were heard
following their example astern. At this instant the whole French and
English lines opened their fire, from van to rear, as far as their guns
would bear, or the shot tell.

"Now, sir, now is our time to close with de Vervillin!" exclaimed
Greenly, the instant he perceived the manner in which his ship was
crippled. "In our close order we might hope to make a thorough wreck of
him."

"Not so, Greenly," returned Sir Gervaise calmly. "You see he edges away
already, and will be down among his other ships in five minutes; we
should have a general action with twice our force. What is done, is
well
done, and we will let it stand. It is
something
to have
dismasted the enemy's commander-in-chief; do you look to it that the
enemy don't do the same with ours. I heard shot rattling aloft, and
every thing now bears a hard strain."

Greenly went to look after his duty, while Sir Gervaise continued to
pace the poop. The whole of le Foudroyant's fire had been directed at
the Plantagenet, but so rough was the ocean that not a shot touched the
hull. A little injury had been done aloft, but nothing that the ready
skill 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 off
from their varying surfaces at every angle that offered. One of the
secrets that Sir Gervaise had taught his captains was to avoid hitting
the surface of the sea, if possible, unless that surface was reasonably
smooth, and the object intended to be injured was near at hand. Then the
French admiral received the
first
fire—always the most
destructive—of three fresh vessels; and his injuries were in
proportion.

The scene was now animated, and not without a wild magnificence. The
gale continued as heavy as ever, and with the raging of the ocean and
the howling of the winds, mingled the roar of artillery, and the smoky
canopy of battle. Still the destruction on neither side bore any
proportion to the grandeur of the accompaniments; the distance and the
unsteadiness of the ships preventing much accuracy of aim. In that day,
a large two-decked ship never carried heavier metal than an eighteen
above her lower batteries; and this gun, efficient as it is on most
occasions, does not bring with it the fearful destruction that attends a
more 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 the
distance of the enemy abreast of her, it would have been difficult to
tell that any vessel but le Foudroyant, had been doing more than
saluting. At this instant Greenly re-appeared on the poop, his own ship
having ceased to fire for several minutes.

"Well, Greenly, the main-deck guns are at least scaled," said Sir
Gervaise, smiling; "and
that
is not to be done over again for some
time. You keep every thing ready in the batteries, I trust?"

"We are all ready, Sir Gervaise, but there is nothing to be done. It
would be useless to waste our ammunition at ships quite two miles under
our lee."

"Very true—very true, sir. But
all
the Frenchmen are not quite so far
to leeward, Greenly, as you may see by looking ahead. Yonder two, at
least, are not absolutely out of harm's way!"

Greenly turned, gazed an instant in the direction in which the
commander-in-chief pointed, and then the truth of what Sir Gervaise had
really in view in keeping away, flashed on his mind, as it might be, at
a glance. Without saying a word, he immediately quitted the poop, and
descending even to the lower deck, passed through the whole of his
batteries, giving his orders, and examining their condition.

"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 manoeuvre 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.