CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
On deck five hundred men did dance, The stoutest they could find in France. We with two hundred did advance, On board of the _Arethusa_.
Our captain hailed the Frenchman "ho!" The Frenchman then cried out "hallo!" "Bear down, d'ye see, To our admiral's lee."
"No, no," says the Frenchman, "that can't be;" "Then I must lug you along with me," Says the saucy _Arethusa_. SEA SONG.
The information received from McElvina, which induced Captain M--- notto anchor, was relative to a French frigate of the largest class, thathe had great hopes of falling in with. She was lying in the harbour ofBrest, waiting for a detachment of troops which had been ordered toembark, when she was to sail for Rochefort, to join a squadron intendedto make a descent upon some of our colonies. Previously to McElvina'ssailing from the port of Havre, the prefect of that arrondissement hadissued directions for certain detachments to march on a stated day tocomplete the number of troops ordered on board.
McElvina had sure data from which to calculate as to the exact period ofembarkation, and was also aware that the frigate had orders to sail tothe port of rendezvous the first favourable wind after the embarkationhad taken place. In two days the _Aspasia_, for that was the name ofthe frigate commanded by Captain M---, was off Ushant, and the captain,taking the precaution to keep well off the land during the day-time,only running in to make the lights after dark, retained his position offthat island until the wind shifted to the northward: he then shaped acourse so as to fall in with the French coast about thirty miles to thesouthward of the harbour of Brest. It was still dark, when CaptainM---, having run his distance, shortened sail, and hove-to in thecruising ground which McElvina had recommended; and so correct was thecalculation, as well as the information of the captain of the smugglers,that at day-break, as the frigate lay with her head in-shore, with thewind at Nor'-Nor'-West, a large vessel was descried under the land, alittle on her weather-bow. After severely scrutinising the stranger forsome minutes with his glass, which he now handed to McElvina--
"That's she, indeed, I believe," said Captain M---.
"A large frigate, with studding-sails set, standing across our bows,"cried out the first-lieutenant, from the mast-head.
"She'll try for the Passage du Raz; we must cut her off; if we can.Hands, make sail."
The hands were summoned up by the shrill pipe of the boatswain and hismates; but it was quite unnecessary, as the men had already crowded ondeck upon the first report which had been communicated below, and werein clusters on the forecastle and gangways.
"Topmen, aloft! loose top-gallant sails and royals--clear away theflying-jib," were orders that were hardly out of the mouth of thefirst-lieutenant, breathless with his rapid descent from aloft, when thegaskets were off; and the sails hung fluttering from the yards. Inanother minute the sheets were home, the sails hoisted and trimmed, andthe _Aspasia_ darted through the yielding waves, as if the eagerness ofpursuit which quickened the pulses of her crew had been communicatedfrom them like an electric shock to her own frame, and she wereconscious that her country demanded her best exertions.
"Pipe the hammocks up, Mr Hardy," said Captain M--- to thefirst-lieutenant; "when they are stowed we will beat to quarters."
"Ay, ay, sir. Shall we order the fire out in the galley?"
"When the cocoa is ready, not before--there will be plenty of time forthe people to get their breakfast. How does the land bear, Mr Pearce?"
"Saint Island about South East by South, eight or nine miles, sir,"replied the master.
"If so, I think we shall cut him off; and then `fight he must.'"
Both frigates had hoisted their colours in defiance, and as they weresteering for the same point, they neared each other fast; the Frenchvessel, with his starboard studding-sails, running for the entrance ofthe narrow passage, which he hoped to gain, and the _Aspasia_close-hauled to intercept him, and at the same time to avoid thedangerous rocks to leeward, far extending from Saint Island, whose namethey bore.
"Have the men had their breakfasts, Mr Hardy?" said the captain.
"The cocoa was in the tub, sir," answered the first-lieutenant, "readyfor serving out; but they started it all in the lee-scuppers. Theywanted the tub to fill it with shot."
Captain M--- smiled at the enthusiasm of his crew; but the smile wassuddenly checked, as he reflected that probably many of the fine fellowswould never breakfast again.
"If not contrary to your regulations, Captain M---," said McElvina, "asthe crew of the _Susanne_ have not yet been incorporated with yourship's company, may I request that they may be stationed together, andthat I may be permitted to be with them?"
"Your suggestion is good," replied the captain, "and I am obliged to youfor the offer. They shall assist to work the quarter-deck carronades,and act as boarders and sail trimmers. Mr Hardy, let the new men beprovided with cutlasses, and fill up any vacancies in the main-deckquarters, from some of our own men who are at present stationed at thequarter-deck guns."
The frigates were now within gunshot of each other, and it wasimpossible to say which vessel would first attain the desired goal. Theforemost guns of the respective ships which had been trained forwardwere reported to bear upon the enemy, and both commanders were awarethat "knocking away a stick"--i.e., the shots striking the masts oryards of her opponent, so as to occasion them to fall--would decide thepoint. At the very time that Captain M--- was giving directions to firethe main-deck guns as they would bear, the first shot from hisantagonist whizzed over his head, and the action commenced, each partyattempting to cripple his opponent by firing high at his masts andrigging. The frigates continued to engage, until they had closed-towithin half a mile of each other, when the main-topmast of the Frenchmanfell over the side.
This decided the point as to his escape through the passage, which hehad made his utmost exertions to effect, in pursuance of the peremptoryorders which he had received. He now hauled his wind on the same tackas the _Aspasia_, pouring in his starboard broadside as he rounded-to.The manoeuvre was good, as he thereby retained his weather-gage--and thewreck of his top-mast having fallen over his larboard side, he had hisstarboard broadside, which was all clear, and directed towards hisopponent; moreover, he forced the _Aspasia_ to follow him into the bayformed between the Bec du Raz and the Bec du Chevre, where she would inall probability receive considerable damage from the batteries whichlined the coast.
Captain M--- was aware of all this; but his only fear was that his enemyshould run on shore, and prevent his carrying him into port. The_Aspasia_ was soon abreast of her opponent, and their broadsides wereexchanged, when Captain M---, who wished to bring the action to a speedyconclusion, shot his vessel ahead, which he was enabled to do, from hissuperiority of sailing, after the main-topmast of the French frigate hadbeen shot away. It was his intention not to have tacked until he couldhave fetched his antagonist, but the galling fire of the batteries,which now hulled him every time, induced him to go about, and, as he wasin stays, a raking shot entered the cabin windows, and, in its passagealong the main-deck, added ten men to his list of killed and wounded.
Again the frigates, on opposite tacks, poured in their broadsides--thefore-yard of the Frenchman was divided in the slings, and fell, hangingby the topsail sheets and lifts, and tearing the sails, which fell overthe forecastle guns, and caught fire as they were discharged at the samemoment. Nor did the _Aspasia_ suffer less, for her mizen-topmast wasshot through, and her starboard anchor, cut from her bows, fell underher bottom and tore away the cable (a short range of which CaptainM--- had had the precaution to have on deck, as they fought so close inshore). This threw the men at the guns into confusion, and brought theship up in the wind. The cable was at last separated, and flew out ofthe hawse-hole after the anchor, which plunged to the bottom but thiswas not effected, until, like an enormous serpent, it had enfolded inits embraces three or four hapless men, who were carried with dreadfulvelocity to the hawse-hole, where their crushed
bodies for a timestopped it from running out, and gave their shipmates an opportunity ofdividing it with their axes.
Order was eventually restored, and the _Aspasia_, who had been raked byher active opponent during the time that she was thrown up in the wind,continued her course, and as she passed the stern of the French frigate,luffed up and returned the compliment. The latter, anxious in hiscrippled state for the support of the batteries, which had alreadyseriously injured his opponent, continued to forge inshore.
"We shall weather her now;--'bout ship, Mr Pearce. Recollect, mylads," said Captain M---, when the ship was about, "you'll reserve yourfire till we touch her sides; then all hands to board."
The _Aspasia_ ranged up on the weather quarter of her antagonist--Pearce, the master, conning her by the captain's directions, so that thefore-chains of the French vessel should be hooked by the spare anchor ofthe _Aspasia_. The enemy, who, in his disabled state, was not in asituation to choose whether he would be boarded or not, poured in adouble-shotted and destructive broadside; and it was well for CaptainM--- that his ship's company had received the reinforcement which theyhad from the _Susanne_, for the French frigate was crowded with men, andbeing now within pistol-shot, the troops, who were so thick on deck asto impede the motions of each other, kept up an incessant fire ofmusketry, cutting the _Aspasia's_ running rigging, riddling her sails,and disabling her men.
"Hard a-port now!" cried Pearce, and the vessels came in collision, thespare anchor in the _Aspasia's_ fore-chains catching and tearing awaythe backstays and lanyards of the enemy's fore-rigging, and, with aviolent jerk, bringing down the fore-topmast to windward. At thismoment the reserved broadside of the _Aspasia_ was discharged, and thetwo frigates heeled over opposite ways, from the violent concussion ofthe air in the confined space between them. While yet enveloped in thesmoke, the men flew up on deck, as they had been previously directed byCaptain M---, who leaped upon the quarter-deck hammocks of his ownfrigate, and, holding with one hand by the mizen-topmast backstay, withhis sword in the other, waving to encourage his men, waited a second ortwo for the closing of the after-parts of the vessels, before he led onhis boarders.
The smoke rolled away through the masts of the French frigate, anddiscovered her captain, with equal disregard to his safety, in nearly asimilar position on the hammock rails of his own vessel. The rivalcommanders were not six feet apart, when the main-chains of the twovessels crashed as they came in collision. The French captain drew apistol from his belt and levelled it at Captain M---, whose fateappeared to be certain; when, at the critical moment, a hat, thrown fromthe quarter-deck of the _Aspasia_, right into the face of the Frenchman,blinded him for a minute, and his pistol went off without taking effect.
"Capital shot, that, Willy!" cried McElvina, as he sprang from thehammocks with his sword, "giving point" in advance, and, while stilldarting through the air with the impetus of his spring, passing itthrough the body of the French captain, who fell back on his ownquarter-deck, while McElvina, fortunately for himself, dropped into thechains, for, had he a hundred lives, they would have fallen a sacrificeto the exasperated Frenchman: but the smugglers had followed McElvina;and Captain M---, with the rest of his ship's company, were thronging,like bees, in the rigging, hammocks, and chains of their opponent. Fromthe destructive fire of the French troops, many an English seaman felldead, or, severely wounded, was reserved for a worse fate--that offalling overboard between the ships, and, at the heave of the sea, beingcrushed between their sides. Many a gallant spirit was separated fromits body by this horrid death as the strife continued.
Possession was at length gained of the quarter-deck; but the carnage wasnot to cease. The French troops stationed in the boats on the booms,formed a sort of pyramid, vomiting incessant fire; and the commandanthad had the sagacity to draw up three lines of his men, with theirbayonets fixed, from one side of the vessel to the other, abreast of thegangways, forming a barrier, behind which the crew of the French hadretreated, and which was impenetrable to the gallant crew of the_Aspasia_, who were only provided with short cutlasses.
Captain M---, as he saw his men falling on every side, and every attemptto force a passage unsuccessful, although accompanied with heavy loss oflives, found himself, as it were, in a trap. To force his way throughappeared impossible--to retreat was against his nature. McElvina, whohad been fighting by his side, perceived the awkward and dangerouspredicament they were in, and his ready talent suggested a remedy.Calling out loudly, "Susannes! away there!--follow me!" an orderinstantly obeyed by his men, he disappeared with them over the hammocks,leaping back upon the quarter-deck of the _Aspasia_.
"Curses on the smuggler, he has run for it. At them again, my Britonsnever mind," cried the first-lieutenant, leading on the men against thephalanx of bayonets. But it was not as the first-lieutenant hadsupposed; for before the cutlasses of the seamen had time again tostrike fire upon the steel points which opposed their passage, McElvinareappeared in the fore-rigging of the French vessel, followed by hissmugglers, who attacked the French troops in the rear, with a loud yell,and an impetuosity that was irresistible. The diversion was announcedby a cheer from Captain M--- and his party abaft, who, rushing upon thebayonets of the Frenchman, already in confusion from the attack ofMcElvina, forced them down on the main-deck, and in a few minutes thehatches were secured over the remainder of the crew, and the tricolouredensign disappeared from the gaff; and announced to the spectators in thebatteries on shore, that "_Britannia ruled the waves_."
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