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THE TWO ADMIRALS
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
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
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
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
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
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
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
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
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-inchief; 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
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
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.”
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
“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.
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CHAPTER XXIII
“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 de-
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THE TWO ADMIRALS
sired, 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 man[oe]uvre 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
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
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
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