Percival Keene

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

  Four nights and three days we remained in this way; during which my menhad nothing to do but to exercise at the guns, and of that I took carethey should have a good spell. On the fourth night the wind was alittle fresher, but the water quite smooth. I had turned in abouttwelve o'clock, and had been asleep about an hour when Cross came andcalled me.

  "Well, Cross," said I, "what is it?"

  "Here they are, sir."

  "What?--the privateers?"

  "Yes, sir; the brig and schooner both coming down right before the wind;they are on our weather quarter, and will pass us within two miles, ifnot nearer."

  I left my bed-place, and was dressed in a minute. I went on deck withmy glass, and directed it to the vessels, which were quite plain to thenaked eye.

  "Put out the binnacle light, Cross," said I; "they might discover us."

  The brig, which was the headmost of the two vessels, was now nearlycrossing our stern. The schooner was about a mile astern of her.

  "Turn the hands up, Cross; see all ready for action and making sail."

  "Not yet, sir, surely!"

  "No, not yet; we will let them run two or three miles dead to leeward,and then follow them till daylight, or till they see us, when, ofcourse, they will be after us."

  "It's very fortunate, sir, that we did furl the sails; for had they comedown, and we under sail, they would have seen us, and we should havebeen to leeward of them, which would have given us a poor chance againstsuch odds; now we shall have the weather-gage, and may choose, if ourheels are as good as theirs, which I expect they are, if not better."

  "I shall fight them in some shape or another, Bob, you may depend uponit."

  "Of course you will, Mr Keene, or you'll disappoint us all. The ship'scompany have every confidence in you, I can tell you."

  "Thanks to your long yarns, Bob, I presume."

  "Thanks to my telling the truth, Mr Keene. The schooner is rightastern of us now, so there's the weather-gage gone--thank God!"

  We remained as we were till I considered the two vessels sufficiently toleeward, and the sails were then set upon the Firefly, and first runningto the eastward, so as to get right in the wind's eye of them, I put thehelm up, and followed them. We had continued our course in their wakefor about an hour, when day dawned, and the schooner, who had discoveredus, fired a gun as a signal to her concert.

  "So you've found us out at last, have you?" said Bob Cross--"at allevents, we keep a better look-out than you do, old fellow."

  Shortly after the gun was fired, both vessels hauled to the wind on thelarboard tack, and we did the same: being about four miles to windwardof the schooner and five or five and a half of the brig, we could nowexamine our adversaries. The schooner was, apparently, about the sametonnage as the Firefly, a very beautiful vessel with her masts rakingover her stern. She was painted black, and we could not ascertain, atfirst, how many guns she carried, as her ports were shut; but after ashort time she knocked out her half ports to prepare for action, andthen we discovered that she carried twelve guns, but not a long gun on aswivel like the one on board of the Firefly. I observed this to Cross,who replied, "Then, sir, all we have to do now is to try our rate ofsailing with them, and if we are faster than they are we have not muchto fear--unless we lose a spar, indeed; but luck's all, Mr Keene. Theschooner has more sail on her than we have; shall we set exactly thesame?"

  "No, Cross, for I think we have fore-reached upon her already, and, ifwe can beat her with less sail set, it will do just as well. I thinkthat the breeze is steady; if anything, we shall have more than less ofit."

  For an hour we continued running on the same tack with them, by whichtime we found that we had not only brought the schooner one point abaftour beam, but had weathered her at least half a mile. We therefore werefully satisfied that we had sailed better than the schooner. With thebrig it was not so. Although we had brought the schooner two pointsabaft our beam, the brig was much in her former position, being stillhalf a point abaft our beam, and moreover had come in much closer to theschooner, proving that we had neither weathered her, nor fore-reachedupon her. As near as we could judge, our sailing with the brig was muchupon a par. Having ascertained this point more satisfactorily byallowing another hour of trial, I desired the men to get theirbreakfasts, while I and the officers did the same, and as soon as thatwas done, I ordered the Firefly to be kept away--edging down till withingood range of our long brass thirty-two-pound gun--that is, about onemile and a half--when we again hauled our wind and hoisted the Englishcolours.

  The tri-colour was immediately thrown up by the two Frenchmen, and ashot was fired at us by the schooner: it fell exhausted into the waterabout half a cable's length from us.

  "Now, Cross," said I, "see if we can't return the compliment with alittle better success."

  Cross, who had been training the gun, and had his eye on the sight,waited for a second or two, and fired: we saw the shot pass through thefirst reef of his main-sail, and dash into the water to leeward of him.

  "Very good that, Cross; but hull him if you can."

  The schooner now returned the fire with the whole broadside, apparentlytwelve pounders; but they did not throw so far as our longthirty-two-pounder, and no shot went over us, although one fell closeunder the stern. At the distance, therefore, that we were, we hadeverything in our favour and my object was to dismantle the schoonerbefore any chance enabled the brig to assist her. We continued to fireat her, taking the greatest pains in our aim, for the next hour, duringwhich we ascertained that we had hulled her more than once, and had verymuch cut up her spars and rigging. She continued to return the fire,but without effect. One or two shots hit us, but their force was somuch spent by the distance they were propelled, that they did not enterthe sides. At last a shot fired by the gunner did the job; it struckher foremast, which shortly afterwards went by the board. The Firefliesgave three cheers at the good fortune.

  "She's done for, sir," said Cross. "Now for the brig--we must try whatmetal she carries."

  "Stop a bit," said I, "Cross; we must give the schooner a little morebefore she gets away. They have lowered down the main-sail and Ipresume, intend getting up some head-sail, so as to pay off, and rununder the lee of the brig for shelter. Put the helm up, and run down soas to keep the schooner about two points on our larboard bow. Get thegun round, and pitch it into her."

  As we had supposed, the schooner got a stay up from her bowsprit and toher mainmast head, and hoisted a fore and aft sail upon it, that shemight pay off, and run down to her consort for support; but as we ranthree feet to her one, and now stood directly for her, we were enabledto get close to her, and put several shots into her from our long gun aswe advanced. She did not attempt to round to, to give us her broadside,and our raking shot must have had great effect. When within half a mileof her we rounded to, and gave her our broadside; for had we followedher any further we should have been closer to the brig than might beagreeable. Indeed, we were nearer than we thought, for she hadcontinued to hug the wind, and was so weatherly, that she was not morethan a mile to leeward of us when we rounded to the wind again; but asshe had fore-reached upon the schooner, she was distant from us abouttwo miles. As we rounded to the brig tacked, and we immediately did thesame; and we now had a fair trial of sailing with her.

  "Cross, let the men go down and get what they can to eat," said I, "andget up the grog. We shall have plenty of work before the night is over,I expect."

  "We must make a running fight of it, sir, I expect, for she is too heavyfor us."

  "I shall try her the same way as the schooner, Cross," replied I. "If Ican only knock away some of her spars without losing my own, I shallthen be able to do something; if, on the contrary, we lose our spars,and she gets alongside of us, why then we must fight to the last."

  "I consider that schooner as our own," replied Bob; "she must haul downher colours when no longer protected by the brig."

  "Yes; I wa
s afraid that she would run away to leeward altogether; but Isee she has rounded to, and is no doubt getting up a jury fore-mast."

  I allowed the men to remain an hour at their dinner, and then they weresummoned up. During the hour we found the rate of sailing between usand the brig so nearly balanced, that it was impossible to say which hadthe best of it.

  "Now, my lads, we will wear round, and get a little closer to thisfellow, and see what we can do with him."

  The men were full of spirits and hope, and were as anxious to decide thequestion as I was. In ten minutes we passed the brig within a mile onopposite tacks, and had given her our long gun three times, and hadreceived her broadside.

  "He has long twelve-pounders, I think, sir," said Cross; "smart guns, atall events. There's a fore shroud and a back stay gone; but that's nogreat matter."

  As soon as the brig was three points abaft the beam we tacked, andrecommenced firing. Not a shot was thrown away by my men. I believethe brig was hulled every time; nor was her fire without effect upon us.Our rigging was much cut up; several of her shots had gone through oursails, and we had two men hurt. I was annoyed at this, as we had nosurgeon on board. The assistant surgeon who had belonged to theschooner was at the hospital, and there was not one to replace him whenwe sailed. However, we had one of the men belonging to the hospital--asort of dispenser--who knew very well how to manage anything that wasnot very serious.

  The breeze had gradually died away, and we did not go more than threemiles through the water; and as our sails were much torn, we did nothold so good a wind. The consequence was that the distance between usand our antagonist was, by two o'clock, decreased to half a mile, andthe fight became very warm. Our broadside guns were now called intoplay, and assisted us very much, as we directed them chiefly at hersails and rigging, while our long thirty-two-pounder was fired at herhull, pointed below her water-line. She had the advantage in number ofguns, certainly; but our large shots from the long gun were moredestructive.

  About three we knocked away her fore-topmast, which enabled us to shootahead about a quarter of a mile, and increase our distance, which was aboon to us, for we latterly had suffered very much. We had eight menwounded and one of my poor middies killed; and we had received severalshots in the hull. Now that we had increased our distance, we had abetter chance, as our long gun was more effective than those of thebrig. At five o'clock it fell dead calm, and both vessels lay withtheir heads round the compass; this was also in our favour, as we couldtrain our long gun on its circular bend in any direction we pleased; butthe brig contrived, by getting sweeps out of her bow ports, to bring herbroadside to bear upon us, and the action continued till night closedin.