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THE TWO ADMIRALS
ship, without a due escort to the shore. Bluewater accompanied him, in order to discuss any little point of duty that might
occur to the mind of either, at the last moment; and Wycherly
was of the group, partly from professional feeling, and more
from a desire to be near Mildred. Then there were Atwood,
and the surgeons, Mr. Rotherham, and two or three of the
cabin attendants. Lord Geoffrey, too, strolled along with the
rest, though it was understood that his own ship would not
sail that day.
Just as the party issued from the gate of the park into the
street of the hamlet, a heavy gun was fired from the fleet. It
was soon succeeded by others, and whiffs and cornets were
seen flying from the mast-heads that rose above the openings
in the cliffs, the signals of recall for all boats. This set every
one in motion, and, never within the memory of man, had
Wychecombe presented such a scene of confusion and activity. Half-intoxicated seamen were driven down to the boats, by
youngsters with the cloth diamond in their collars, like swine,
who were reluctant to go, and yet afraid to stay. Quarters of
beeves were trundled along in carts or barrows, and were soon
seen swinging at different main-stays; while the gathering of
eggs, butter, poultry, mutton, lamb, and veal, menaced the surrounding country with a scarcity. Through this throng of the
living and the dead, our party held its way, jostled by the eager
countrymen, and respectfully avoided by all who belonged to
the fleet, until it reached the point where the roads to the cliffs
and the landing separated, when the vice-admiral turned to
the only midshipman present, and courteously lifting his hat,
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
as if reluctant to impose such a duty on a “young gentleman”
on liberty, he said –
“Do me the favour, Lord Geoffrey, to step down to the landing and ascertain if my barge is there. The officer of the boat
will find me at the signal-station.”
The boy cheerfully complied; and this son of an English
duke, who, by the death of an elder brother, became in time a
duke himself, went on a service that among gentlemen of the
land would be deemed nearly menial, with as much alacrity
as if he felt honoured by the request. It was by a training like
this, that England came, in time, to possess a marine that has
achieved so many memorable deeds; since it taught those who
were destined to command, the high and useful lesson how to
obey.
While the midshipman was gone to look for the boat, the
two admirals walked the cliff, side by side, discussing their
future movements; and when all was ready, Sir Gervaise descended to the shore, using the very path by which he had
ascended the previous day; and, pushing through the throng
that crowded the landing, almost too much engaged to heed
even his approach, he entered his barge. In another minute,
the measured strokes of the oars urged him swiftly towards the
Plantagenet.
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CHAPTER XVII
“’Twas not without some reason, for the wind
Increased at night, until it blew a gale;
And though ‘twas not much to a naval mind,
Some landsmen would have look’d a little pale,
For sailors are, in fact, a different kind;
At sunset they began to take in sail,
For the sky show’d it would come on to blow,
And carry away, perhaps, a mast or so.”
Byron.
As it was just past the turn of the day, Bluewater determined
to linger on the cliffs for several hours, or until it was time to
think of his dinner. Abstracted as his thoughts were habitually, his mind found occupation and pleasure in witnessing
the evolutions that succeeded among the ships; some of which
evolutions it may be well now briefly to relate.
Sir Gervaise Oakes’ foot had not been on the deck of the
Plantagenet five minutes, before a signal for all commanders
was flying at that vessel’s mast-head. In ten minutes more every captain of the fleet, with the exception of those belonging
to the vessels in the offing, were in the flag-ship’s cabin, listening to the intentions and instructions of the vice-admiral.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“My plan of sailing, gentlemen, is easily comprehended,”
continued the commander-in-chief, after he had explained
his general intentions to chase and engage; “and everyone of
you will implicitly follow it. We have the tide strong at ebb,
and a good six-knot breeze is coming up at south-west. I shall
weigh, with my yards square, and keep them so, until the ship
has drawn out of the fleet, and then I shall luff up on a taut
bowline and on the starboard tack, bringing the ebb well under my lee-bow. This will hawse the ship over towards Morlaix, and bringing us quite as far to windward as is desirable.
While the ebb lasts, and this breeze stands, we shall have plain
sailing; the difficulty will come on the flood, or with a shift
of wind. The ships that come out last must be careful to keep
their seconds, ahead and astern, in plain sight, and regulate
their movements, as much as they can, by the leading vessels.
The object is to spread as wide a clew as possible, while we hold
the ships within signal-distance of each other. Towards sunset
I shall shorten sail, and the line will close up within a league
from vessel to vessel, and I have told Bluewater to use his discretion about coming out with the last ships, though I have
requested him to hold on as long as he shall deem it prudent,
in the hope of receiving another express from the Admiralty.
When the flood makes, I do not intend to go about, but shall
continue on the starboard tack, and I wish you all to do the
same. This will bring the leading vessels considerably to windward of those astern, and may possibly throw the fleet into a
bow and quarter line. Being in the van, it will fall to my duty to
look to this, and to watch for the consequences. But I ask of you
to keep an eye on the weather, and to hold your ships within
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
plain signal-distance of each other. If it come on thick, or to
blow very hard, we must close, from van to rear, and try our
luck, in a search in compact order. Let the man who first sees
the enemy make himself heard at once, and send the news,
with the bearings of the French, both ahead and astern, as fast
as possible. In that case you will all close on the point from
which the intelligence comes; and, mark me, no cruising to
get to windward, in your own fashions, as if you sailed with
roving commissions. You know I’ll not stand that. And now,
gentlemen, it is probable that we shall all never meet again.
God bless you! Come and shake hands with me, one by one,
and then to your boats, for the first lieutenant has just sent
Greenly word that we are up and down. Let him trip, Greenly,
and be off as soon as we can.”
The leave-taking, a scene in which joyousness and sadness
were strangely mingled, succeeded, and then the captains disappeared. From that moment every mind was bent on sailing.
Although Bluewater did not witness the scene in the Plantagenet’s cabin, he pictured it, in his mind’s eye, and remained
on the cliffs to watch the succeeding movements. As Wycherly
had disappeared in the house, and Dutton clung to his flagstaff, the rear-admiral had no one but Lord Geoffrey for a companion. The latter, perceiving that his relation did not seem
disposed to converse, had the tact to be silent himself; a task
that was less difficult than common, on account of the interest
he felt in the spectacle.
The boats of the different captains were still shoving off
from the starboard side of the Plantagenet, whither etiquette
had brought them together, in a little crowd, when her three
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
top-sails fell, and their sheets steadily drew the clews towards
the ends of the lower yards. Even while this was in process, the
yards began to ascend, and rose with that steady but graduated movement which marks the operation in a man-of-war.
All three were fairly mast-headed in two minutes. As the wind
struck the canvass obliquely, the sails filled as they opened
their folds, and, by the time their surfaces were flattened by
distension, the Plantagenet steadily moved from her late berth,
advancing slowly against a strong tide, out of the group of
ships, among which she had been anchored. This was a beautiful evolution, resembling that of a sea-fowl, which lazily rises
on its element, spreads its wings, emerges from the water, and
glides away to some distant and unseen point.
The movement of the flag-ship was stately, measured, and
grand. For five minutes she held her way nearly due east, with
the wind on her starboard quarter, meeting the tide in a direct
line; until, having drawn sufficiently ahead of the fleet, she
let fall her courses, sheeted home top-gallant-sails and royals,
set her spanker, jibs, and stay-sails, and braced up sharp on a
wind, with her head at south-southeast. This brought the tide
well under her lee fore-chains, and set her rapidly off the land,
and to windward. As she trimmed her sails, and steadied her
bowlines, she fired a gun, made the numbers of the vessels in
the offing to weigh, and to pass within hail. All this did Bluewater note, with the attention of an amateur, as well as with
the critical analysis of a connoisseur.
“Very handsomely done, Master Geoffrey – very handsomely done, it must be allowed! never did a bird quit a flock
with less fuss, or more beautifully, than the Plantagenet has
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
drawn out of the fleet. It must be admitted that Greenly knows
how to handle his ship.”
“I fancy Captain Stowel would have done quite as well with
the Cæsar, sir,” answered the boy, with a proper esprit-de-ship.
“Don’t you remember, Admiral Bluewater, the time when we
got under way off l’Orient, with the wind blowing a gale directly on shore? Even Sir Gervaise said, afterwards, that we lost
less ground than any ship in the fleet, and yet the Plantagenet
is the most weatherly two-decker in the navy; as every body
says.”
“Every body! – She is certainly a weatherly vessel, but not
more so than several others. Whom did you ever hear give that
character to this particular ship?”
“Why, sir, her reefers are always bragging as much as that;
and a great deal more, too.”
“Her reefers! – Young gentlemen are particularly struck
with the charms of their first loves, both ashore and afloat, my
boy. Did you ever hear an old seaman say that much for the
Plantagenet?”
“I think I have, sir,” returned Lord Geoffrey, blushing.
“Galleygo, Sir Gervaise’s steward, is commonly repeating some
such stuff or other. They are furious braggarts, the Plantagenet’s, all round, sir.”
“That comes honestly,” answered Bluewater, smiling, “her
namesakes and predecessors of old, having some such characteristic, too. Look at that ship’s yards, boy, and learn how to
trim a vessel’s sails on a wind. The pencil of a painter could not
draw lines more accurate!”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Captain Stowel tells us, sir, that the yards ought not to
be braced in exactly alike; but that we ought to check the
weather-braces, a little, as we go aloft, so that the top-sail yard
should point a little less forward than the lower yard, and the
topgallant than the top-sail.”
“You are quite right in taking Stowel’s opinion in all such
matters, Geoffrey: but has not Captain Greenly done the same
thing in the Plantagenet? When I speak of symmetry, I mean
the symmetry of a seaman.”
The boy was silenced, though exceedingly reluctant to admit that any ship could equal his own. In the mean time, there
was every appearance of a change in the weather. Just about
the time the Plantagenet braced up, the wind freshened, and
in ten minutes it blew a stiff breeze. Some time before the admiral spoke the vessels outside, he was compelled to take in
all his light canvass; and when he filled, again, after giving his
orders to the frigate and sloop, the topgallant sheets were let
fly, a single reef was taken in the top-sails, and the lighter sails
were set over them. This change in the weather, more especially as the night threatened to be clouded, if not absolutely
dark, would necessarily bring about a corresponding change
in the plan of sailing, reducing the intervals between the departures of the vessels, quite one-half. To such vicissitudes are
all maritime operations liable, and it is fortunate when there is
sufficient capacity in the leaders to remedy them.
In less than an hour, the Plantagenet’s hull began to sink,
to those on a level with it, when the Carnatic tripped her anchor, opened her canvass, shot out of the fleet, hauled by the
wind, and followed in the admiral’s wake. So accurate was the
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
course she steered, that, half an hour after she had braced up, a
hawse-bucket, which had been dropped from the Plantagenet
in hauling water, was picked up. We may add, here, though
it will be a little anticipating events, that the Thunderer followed the Carnatic; the Blenheim the Thunderer; the Achilles
the Blenheim; the Warspite the Achilles; the Dover the Warspite; the York the Dover; the Elizabeth the York; the Dublin
the Elizabeth; and the Cæsar the Dublin. But hours passed
before all these ships were in motion, and hours in which we
shall have some occurrences to relate that took place on shore.
Still it will aid the reader in better understanding the future
incidents of our tale, if we describe, at once, some of the circumstances under which all these ships got in motion.
By the time the Plantagenet’s top-sails were beginning to
dip from the cliffs, the Carnatic, the Thunderer, the Blenheim,
the Achilles, and the Warspite were all stretching out in line,
with intervals of quite two leagues between them, under as
much canvass as they could now bear. The admiral had shortened sail the most, and was evidently allowing the Carnatic
to close, most probably on account of the threatening look of
the sky, to windward; while he was suffering the frigate and
sloop, the Chloe and Driver, to pass ahead of him, the one on
his weather, and the other on his lee bow. When the Dover
weighed, the admiral’s upper sail was not visible from her tops,
though the Warspite’s hull had not yet disappeared from her
deck. She left the fleet, or the portions of it that still remained
at anchor, with her fore-course set, and hauled by the wind,
under double-reefed top-sails, a single reef in her main-sail,
and with her main-topgallant sail set over its proper sail. With
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
this reduced canvass, she started away on the track of her consorts, the brine foaming under her bows, and with a heel that
denoted the heavy pressure that bore on her sails. By this time,
the York was aweigh, the tide had turned, and it became necessary to fill on the other tack in order to clear the land to the
eastward. This altered the formation, but we will now revert
to the events as they transpired on the shore, with a view to
relate them more in their regular order.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Bluewater must have remained on, or about the cliffs several hours, in order to witness the departure of so many of the vessels. Instead of returning to the Hall at the dinner hour, agreeably to promise, he
profited by the appearance of Wycherly, who left the cottage
with a flushed, agitated manner, just as he was thinking of the
necessity of sending a message to Sir Reginald, and begged the
young man to be the bearer of his excuses. He thought that the
change in the weather rendered it necessary for him to remain
in sight of the sea. Dutton overheard this message, and, after
a private conference with his wife, he ventured to invite his
superior to appease his appetite under his own humble roof.
To this Bluewater cheerfully assented; and when the summons
came to the table, to his great joy he found that his only companion was to be Mildred, who, like himself, for some reason
known only to her own bosom, had let the ordinary dining
hour pass without appearing at table, but whom her mother
had now directed to take some sustenance.
“The late events at the Hall have agitated the poor child,
sir,” said Mrs. Dutton, in the way of apology, “and she has not
tasted food since morning. I have told her you would excuse
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