The Two Admirals (55 page)

"Certainly a good deal, sir; and yet am I ashamed to say, I scarce know
what! Admiral Bluewater appeared to think the Comte de Vervillin had no
intention to strike a blow at any of our colonies, and with this he
seemed to connect the idea that there would be less necessity for our
engaging him. At all events, I cannot be mistaken in his wish that you
would keep off, sir, until he could close."

"Ay, and you see how instinctively I have answered to his wishes!" said
Sir Gervaise, smiling a little bitterly. "Nevertheless, had the rear of
the fleet been up this morning, Sir Wycherly, it might have been a
glorious day for England!"

"It
has
been a glorious day, as it is, sir. We, in the Druid, saw it
all; and there was not one among us that did not exult in the name of
Englishman!"

"What, even to the Virginian, Wychecombe!" rejoined Sir Gervaise,
greatly gratified with the natural commendation conveyed in the manner
and words of the other, and looking in a smiling, friendly manner, at
the young man. "I was afraid the hits you got in Devonshire might have
induced you to separate your nationality from that of old England."

"Even to the Virginian, Sir Gervaise. You have been in the colonies,
sir, and must know we do not merit all that we sometimes receive, on
this side of the Atlantic. The king has no subjects more loyal than
those of America."

"I am fully aware of it, my noble lad, and have told the king as much,
with my own mouth. But think no more of this. If your old uncle did give
you an occasional specimen of true John Bullism, he has left you an
honourable title and a valuable estate. I shall see that Greenly finds a
berth for you, and you will consent to mess with me, I hope. I trust
some time to see you at Bowldero. At present we will go on deck; and if
any thing that Admiral Bluewater has said
should
recur to your mind
more distinctly, you will not forget to let me know it."

Wycherly now bowed and left the cabin, while Sir Gervaise sat down and
wrote a note to Greenly to request that he would look a little after the
comfort of the young man. The latter then went on deck, in person.
Although he endeavoured to shake off the painful doubts that beset him,
and to appear as cheerful as became an officer who had just performed a
brilliant exploit, the vice-admiral found it difficult to conceal the
shock he had received from Bluewater's communication. Certain as he felt
of striking a decisive blow at the enemy, could he be reinforced with
the five ships of the rear division, he would cheerfully forego the
triumph of such additional success, to be certain his friend did not
intend to carry his disaffection to overt acts. He found it hard to
believe that a man like Bluewater could really contemplate carrying off
with him the ships he commanded; yet he knew the authority his friend
wielded over his captains, and the possibility of such a step would
painfully obtrude itself on his mind, at moments. "When a man can
persuade himself into all the nonsense connected with the
jus
divinum
," thought Sir Gervaise, "it is doing no great violence to
common sense to persuade himself into all its usually admitted
consequences." Then, again, would interpose his recollections of
Bluewater's integrity and simplicity of character, to reassure him, and
give him more cheering hopes for the result. Finding himself thus
vacillating between hope and dread, the commander-in-chief determined to
drive the matter temporarily from his mind, by bestowing his attention
on the part of the fleet he had with him. Just as this wise resolution
was formed, both Greenly and Wycherly appeared on the poop.

"I am glad to see you with a hungry look, Greenly," cried Sir Gervaise,
cheerfully; "here has Galleygo just been to report his breakfast, and,
as I know your cabin has not been put in order since the people left the
guns, I hope for the pleasure of your company. Sir Wycherly, my gallant
young Virginian, here, will take the third chair, I trust, and then our
party will be complete."

The two gentlemen assenting, the vice-admiral was about to lead the way
below, when suddenly arresting his footsteps, on the poop-ladder, he
said—

"Did you not tell me, Wychecombe, that the Druid had sprung her
foremast?"

"Badly, I believe, Sir Gervaise, in the hounds. Captain Blewet carried
on his ship fearfully, all night."

"Ay, he's a fearful fellow with spars, that Tom Blewet. I never felt
certain of finding all the sticks in their places, on turning out of a
morning, when he was with you as a lieutenant, Greenly. How many
jib-booms and top-gallant yards did he cost us, in that cruise off the
Cape of Good Hope? By George, it must have been a dozen, at least!"

"Not quite as bad as that, Sir Gervaise, though he did expend two
jib-booms and three top-gallant yards, for me. Captain Blewet has a fast
ship, and he wishes people to know it."

"And he has sprung his foremast and he shall see
I
know it! Harkee,
Bunting, make the Druid's number to lie by the prize; and when that's
answered, tell him to take charge of the Frenchman, and to wait for
further orders. I'll send him to Plymouth to get a new foremast, and to
see the stranger in. By the way, does any body know the name of the
Frenchman—hey! Greenly?"

"I cannot tell you, Sir Gervaise, though some of our gentlemen think it
is the ship that was the admiral's second ahead, in our brush off Cape
Finisterre. I am not of the same opinion, however; for that vessel had a
billet-head, and this has a woman figure-head, that looks a little like
a Minerva. The French have a
la Minerve
, I think."

"Not now, Greenly, if this be she, for she is
ours
." Here Sir Gervaise
laughed heartily at his own humour, and all near him joined in, as a
matter of course. "But la Minerve has been a frigate time out of mind.
The Goddess of Wisdom has never been fool enough to get into a line of
battle when she has had it in her power to prevent it."

"
We
thought the figure-head of the prize a Venus, as we passed her in
the Druid," Wycherly modestly observed.

"There is a way of knowing, and it shall be tried. When you've done with
the Druid, Bunting, make the prize's signal to repeat her name by
telegraph. You know how to make a prize's number, I suppose, when she
has none."

"I confess I do not, Sir Gervaise," answered Bunting, who had shown by
his manner that he was at a loss. "Having no number in our books, one
would be at a stand how to get at her, sir."

"How would
you
do it, young man?" asked Sir Gervaise, who all this
time was hanging on to the man-rope of the poop-ladder. "Let us see how
well you've been taught, sir."

"I believe it may be done in different modes, Sir Gervaise," Wycherly
answered, without any appearance of triumph at his superior readiness,
"but the simplest I know is to hoist the French flag under the English,
by way of saying for whom the signal is intended."

"Do it, Bunting," continued Sir Gervaise, nodding his head as he
descended the ladder, "and I warrant you, Daly will answer. What sort of
work he will make with the Frenchman's flags, is another matter. I
doubt, too, if he had the wit to carry one of our books with him, in
which case he will be at a loss to read our signal. Try him, however,
Bunting; an Irishman always has
something
to say, though it be a
bull."

This order given, Sir Gervaise descended to his cabin. In half an hour
the party was seated at table, as quietly as if nothing unusual had
occurred that day.

"The worst of these little brushes which lead to nothing, is that they
leave as strong a smell of gunpowder in your cabin, Greenly, as if a
whole fleet had been destroyed," observed the vice-admiral
good-humouredly, as he began to help his guests. "I hope the odour we
have here will not disturb your appetites, gentlemen."

"You do this day's success injustice, Sir Gervaise, in calling it only a
brush," answered the captain, who, to say the truth, had fallen to as
heartily upon the delicacies of Galleygo, as if he had not eaten in
twenty-four hours. "At any rate, it has brushed the spars out of two of
king Louis's ships, and one of them into our hands; ay, and in a certain
sense into our pockets."

"Quite true, Greenly—quite true; but what would it have been if—"

The sudden manner in which the commander-in-chief ceased speaking,
induced his companions to think that he had met with some accident in
eating or drinking; both looked earnestly at him, as if to offer
assistance. He
was
pale in the face, but he smiled, and otherwise
appeared at his ease.

"It is over, gentlemen," said Sir Gervaise, gently—"we'll think no more
of it."

"I sincerely hope you've not been hit, sir?" said Greenly. "I've known
men hit, who did not discover that they were hurt until some sudden
weakness has betrayed it."

"I believe the French have let me off this time, my good friend—yes, I
think Magrath will be plugging no shot-holes in my hull for this affair.
Sir Wycherly, those eggs are from your own estate, Galleygo having laid
the manor under contribution for all sorts of good things. Try them,
Greenly, as coming from our friend's property."

"Sir Wycherly is a lucky fellow in
having
an estate," said the
captain. "Few officers of his rank can boast of such an advantage;
though, now and then, an old one is better off."

"That is true enough—hey! Greenly? The army fetches up most of the
fortunes; for your rich fellows like good county quarters and county
balls. I was a younger brother when they sent
me
to sea, but I became
a baronet, and a pretty warm one too, while yet a reefer. Poor Josselin
died when I was only sixteen, and at seventeen they made me an officer."

"Ay, and we like you all the better, Sir Gervaise, for not giving us up
when the money came. Now Lord Morganic was a captain when
he
succeeded, and we think much less of that."

"Morganic remains in service, to teach us how to stay top-masts and
paint figure-heads;" observed Sir Gervaise, a little drily. "And yet the
fellow handled his ship well to-day; making much better weather of it
than I feared he would be able to do."

"I hear we are likely to get another duke in the navy, sir; it's not
often we catch one of that high rank."

Sir Gervaise cared much less for things of this sort than Bluewater, but
he naturally cast a glance at the speaker, as this was said, as much as
to ask whom he meant.

"They tell me, sir, that Lord Montresor, the elder brother of the boy in
the Cæsar, is in a bad way, and Lord Geoffrey stands next to the
succession. I think there is too much stuff in
him
to quit us now he
is almost fit to get his commission."

"True, Bluewater has that boy of high hopes and promise with him, too;"
answered Sir Gervaise in a musing manner, unconscious of what he said.
"God send he may not forget
that
, among other things!"

"I don't think rank makes any difference with Admiral Bluewater, or
Captain Stowel. The nobles are worked up in their ship, as well as the
humblest reefer of them all. Here is Bunting, sir, to tell us
something."'

Sir Gervaise started from a fit of abstraction, and, turning, he saw his
signal-officer ready to report.

"The Druid has answered properly, Sir Gervaise, and has already hauled
up so close that I think she will luff through the line, though it may
be astern of the Carnatic."

"And the prize, Bunting? Have you signalled the prize, as I told you to
do?"

"Yes, sir; and she has answered so properly that I make no question the
prize-officer took a book with him. The telegraphic signal was answered
like the other."

"Well, what does he say? Have you found out the name of the Frenchman?"

"That's the difficulty, sir;
we
are understood, but Mr. Daly has shown
something aboard the prize that the quarter-master swears is a paddy."

"A paddy!—What, he hasn't had himself run up at a yard-arm, or
stun'sail-boom end, has he—hey! Wychecombe? Daly's an Irishman, and has
only to show
himself
to show a paddy."

"But this is a sort of an image of some kind or other, Sir Gervaise, and
yet it isn't Mr. Daly. I rather think he hasn't the flags necessary for
our words, and has rigged out a sort of a woman, to let us know his
ship's name; for she
has
a woman figure-head, you know, sir."

"The devil he has! Well, that will form an era in signals. Galleygo,
look out at the cabin window and let me know if you can see the prize
from them—well, sir, what's the news?"

"I sees her, Sir Jarvy," answered the steward, "and I sees her where no
French ship as sails in company with British vessels has a right to be.
If she's a fathom, your honour, she's fifty to windward of our line!
Quite out of her place, as a body might say, and onreasonable."

"That's owing to our having felled the forests of her masts, Mr.
Galleygo; every spar that is left helping to put her where she is. That
prize must be a weatherly ship, though, hey! Greenly? She and her
consort were well to windward of their own line, or we could never have
got 'em as we did. These Frenchmen
do
turn off a weatherly vessel now
and then, that we must all admit."

"Yes, Sir Jarvy," put in Galleygo, who never let the conversation flag
when he was invited to take a part in it; "yes, Sir Jarvy, and when
they've turned 'em off the stocks they turns 'em over to us, commonly,
to sail 'em. Building a craft is one piece of knowledge, and sailing her
well
is another."

"Enough of your philosophy, sirrah; look and ascertain if there is any
thing unusual to be seen hanging in the rigging of the prize. Unless you
show more readiness, I'll send one of the Bowlderos to help you."