A Continuing War_At Home and at Sea, 1803-1804

by John G. Cragg

  “Good men, those, good men!” exclaimed Major Stoner. “Add to the hunt! Captain Hicks has a high position in the family bank, I understand. And Lieutenant Charles is the eldest son of my good friend, Douglas Charles, who has a very pretty estate in Yorkshire, worth, I would guess, eight thousand a year. Very good family.”

  Daphne had been amused that the two men had lost interest as soon as they realized that she was not only a married woman, but also was there with relatives. They seemed to be searching for a young lady to flirt with. She wondered if they could be induced to have an interest in her nieces. Hunting seemed to have unexpected social opportunities that she would need to pursue. However, she had little time to reflect on such matters as the huntsman chose that moment to start the hunt. He set the dogs to seeking a recent scent and everyone else followed on behind. Soon the view-holloa was heard as a fox was spotted near a copse on the far side of the field beside which they were riding.

  The hounds found the scent and headed off across the field, baying loudly. The pack was rapidly followed by most of the hunters, who galloped after them. A smaller, much more sedate group, consisting of all the women with various relatives or suitors accompanying them, followed down the lane they were on, intending to use existing paths, or routes across the fields leading in the direction of the huntsman’s horn but in ways that would not require any jumps.

  After a few minutes, Mr. Moorhouse said to Daphne, “I think we can do better than these hill-toppers.”

  “These what?” Daphne responded.

  “This group who seem intent on following the hunt without any jumping or even crossing fields where the gates may not be evident. That is what they are called.”

  “I agree about this ride. It is a little unadventuresome, isn’t it?”

  Mr. Moorhouse turned off into a field and took a line more or less in the right direction, pushing his horse up to a canter. Daphne followed on Moonbeam. Their track was not as direct as that of the main hunt for Mr. Moorhouse was going between fields in ways that did not require jumping hedges, and he dismounted to open gates rather than trying to jump them. Some low barriers he did jump and Daphne had no trouble getting Moonbeam to follow suit. Even so, the sound of the hunting horn seemed to be getting more and more distant and they could no longer hear the noise of the hounds and the horses. Daphne and Mr. Moorhouse were having a very refreshing ride, but they were not likely, it seemed, to be near the kill when it occurred.

  After a while, judging by the horn, the hunt seemed to have turned towards them. Then they heard the sound that indicated that the fox had gone to ground and that the hounds had lost the scent. Several minutes followed before the horn told them that the hounds had found a scent again and were off along the trail of the fox.

  Soon it was evident that the hunt was coming towards Daphne and her father. They had just jumped a small stream running through a marshy field when they spotted the fox running from the woods at the side of the field they were facing. Moments later, the hounds burst forth hot on the trail of the fox. It was running right at Daphne, and then faltered when it saw her, not sure where to go. That was fatal for the animal. The hounds were on the fox immediately and made short work of destroying it. Much of the hunt emerged from the wood soon after, having actually missed seeing the kill. The newcomers consoled themselves with the aid of the flasks they had brought with them and congratulated themselves on arriving at the right place when so many other people had gone astray, been thrown, or otherwise had reason to abandon the hunt. Daphne and Mr. Moorhouse received great credit and congratulations on having out-foxed the fox so that they were right at the kill. The more sedate group of riders, which Daphne and Mr. Moorhouse had left to pursue their own line, arrived on the scene still later. They might not have been in at the kill, which was just what they had expected, but at least they had not been forced to abandon the hunt either. Lord David did not appear and several riders said that they had seen him showing obvious signs of having been thrown, heading towards the Dipton Vicarage and being in a mood that was quite unsuitable for a vicar.

  Daphne and Mr. Moorhouse rode back to Dipton in the company of several neighbors. The conversation was easy, consisting of comments on the day’s hunting and forthcoming meets. The news that Dipton Hall would hold a Hunt Ball at the end of the season had already been spread among all the riders and they expressed enthusiasm together with curiosity about the details which kept Daphne busy until it was time to go their separate ways. The father and daughter stopped at the vicarage to find out how Lord David was. Only his pride had been injured.

  “You were right to warn me about Dark Paul. He is a hard-mouthed brute, but it serves me right. I should have kept him on a tighter rein.”

  Lord David invited his visitors to tea. In the course of it, Daphne raised the question of the appropriate amount of dowries.

  “Are you trying to marry me off, Lady Daphne?” asked Lord David.” I am very well satisfied with my living which provides enough for all my needs and there are all the little fees that are paid to me which allows me all the indulgences I want. If and when I marry, the dowry will not be a consideration, though I confess more is always preferable to less.”

  “Do you happen to know what other clergymen of your age, but without such a favorable living, might need to be able to marry comfortably?” asked Mr. Moorhouse.

  “Actually, I do. Several of us who were headed for the Church talked about it before we came down from Cambridge. Most seemed to think that a portion of seven or eight thousand pounds would suffice. Why do you ask?”

  Daphne started to stutter some sort of an answer while Mr. Moorhouse remained silent. Suddenly Lord David smiled. “You are thinking of my nieces aren’t you? I can see why you might want them to get married. From what I have seen of my relatives, it must be very tedious living under the same roof with them and my sister. I would need a lot more than ten thousand to take on my sister as a mother-in-law. It is exceedingly generous of Richard to contemplate giving them quite undeserved portions. Of course it would take a good deal more of a dowry, I would think, for anyone to take on my sister, and I would still think him a fool. Good luck with your schemes. You should try your snares on those two young officers we saw today. They looked enough satisfied with themselves that they would not notice that being an Earl’s earl’s granddaughter does not make a woman a pleasant mate.”

  “That is what I was thinking. Would you join us for dinner on Saturday if I can get those two and the major to come to dinner?”

  “Why me?”

  “You would add a touch of glamor to the event without providing a rival for Catherine and Lydia’s affections.”

  “Oh, you are devious, trying to spend the dowries as soon as you have them. What a delightfully scheming mind you do have, Sister Daphne. And would I be wrong in thinking that you have your eyes on Major Stoner for Marianne?”

  “Of course I do not!” Daphne lied, but the glint in her eye and the knowing smile on her lips showed her brother-in-law that he had hit the nail on the head.

  “I shall be delighted to attend and see if you are catching your prey in your net.”

  Mr. Moorhouse changed the subject to whether Lord David felt up to going to the Hunt Dinner in Ameschester.

  “Of course I will go. I don’t want anyone to think that a little spill from my horse should be taken seriously,” was the reply. Daphne and her father said their farewells to Lord David immediately after this exchange. They rode in companionable silence until they reached the point where the driveway to Dipton Hall branched off the main road.

  “You know, my dear,” said Mr. Moorhouse, “I think that in one day your presence has undone slights over which I have felt resentment ever since I moved here.”

  “Nonsense, Father,” replied Daphne, “It is just that you have been too stubborn to realize that people have changed their opinion of you. It is now based on who you are and not where you came from.”

  Chapter IX

  Imp
etuous was again patrolling off the Flemish coast. The Admiral’s inspection of the boats that Giles had captured confirmed that they were worthless to the British cause, though he appreciated getting the guns. He wasn’t helpful in other matters.

  “There is nothing I can do about your Mr. Kirkpatrick, Captain Giles. I don’t have a space for a lackluster lieutenant and his offenses are none of them so clear-cut that he could be court-martialed for them. You’ll just have to try to limit the damage and get him to hang himself more clearly.

  The patrolling was a frustrating business. The winds were largely from the north-west and of such a strength that Giles felt he had to stay clear of the lee shore. When the wind decreased, he found that the procession of landing craft resumed before he could regain the shore. The craft seemed to be travelling in greater numbers than before and were more often accompanied by minor warships. He liked to think that that was the result of his raid, but had to recognize that other commanders had also thought up similar ways of getting at the enemy.

  There were places where Impetuous could get close enough to the shore to fire on the landing craft, but only at very long range. It was pure luck if her guns hit anything at all. That endeavor used up a lot of powder and shot for very little return.

  There were places where the sandbar, usually hidden at high water, was narrow enough that Impetuous could have inflicted a good deal of damage to ships passing on the inside if only she could get at them. During much of their passages up and down the coast, the master, Mr. Brooks, could be found in one of the boats taking careful sounding to see where and how closely Impetuous could safely approach the shore so that the landing craft would be in range. However, most of these places were such that there were only a few hundred yards in which Giles’s frigate could get close enough to do damage. Vessels creeping along the coast would see Impetuous approaching in enough time that they could avoid the stretch in which they were vulnerable by halting before they came in range of Giles’s broadsides. In many other such places that were otherwise suitable, the French had built forts, often of a hurried or temporary nature, whose heavy guns would keep Impetuous too far out to sea for her broadsides to do any harm. Even a night attack was ruled out. If Impetuous snuck in to try to bombard the craft huddled under the protection of the battery at night time, her own gun flashes, supplemented by the blue lights* the fort was bound to send up, would render the frigate vulnerable to heavy shot coming from the fortress’s guns.

  Giles felt more and more frustrated. He was wasting his time while his prey was often just out of reach. He fixed on one particular part of the coast where Impetuous could get close enough to the shore do severe damage, if only it was not guarded by eight heavy guns – at least thirty-six pounders – on a somewhat elevated terrace. The redoubt* had a low parapet over which the guns would fire and all the cannon could be brought to bear on any enemy venturing close to the shore. If Impetuous came close enough so that her broadsides could reach the craft huddling in the protection of the guns, she herself would be in easy range of the battery This fort was a favorite place for the French landing craft and their escorts to gather in the late afternoon, waiting in safety under the shore guns until they could proceed in the morning. If Giles could only silence the fort while he crept close enough to the tightly packed craft, his broadsides would be bound to do a good deal of damage, even if he could not have much confidence in hitting any particular one of the craft.

  Giles did not hurry his plans to take the redoubt. He, in fact, spent quite a few days sailing back and forth just out of range of the fort, sometimes coming close enough for the guns to open fire, though at extreme range, which meant that a hit was most unlikely. Giles spent much of these journeys high in the mast of Impetuous so that he could get a good impression of the layout of the redoubt and the anchorage in front of it. On the basis of his observations, he was able to form a plan that should have a good chance of success.

  Giles intended to land his forces before dawn to take the redoubt so that they could attack at first light. He would wait to attack until the days just before the full moon when there would be no moonlight for a couple of hours before sunrise. The beach immediately in front of the redoubt seemed to be used quite extensively by boats from the anchored craft and the fort, so that area of the shore did not provide him with a good landing spot. Getting to that part of the beach would also expose his boats to the greatest danger of being spotted by the anchored craft. Those considerations ruled out attacking by the most direct route to the fort. Even though the gun platform was situated on only a gentle slope and the parapet was low enough so that the guns could fire over them, the height of the barrier that would have to be scaled in a direct attack was considerably higher at the front than at the sides. Should he attack from the east or the west? He could see no advantage to one side over the other. It came to him that it would be advisable to divide his attack between two separate forces, even though this was against his usual instincts. If his attackers on one side were observed before they could attack, they would draw defenders from the other side and the still undetected force could sweep in and attack the defenders from the rear.

  Impetuous would take up station just out of range of the guns of the redoubt. The signal for the attack on the fort would be Impetuous’s firing a broadside at the anchored vessels. They would still be out of range, but that cannonade should distract the garrison of the redoubt so that the landing parties could reach the walls of the fort before they were discovered. As soon as the redoubt was taken, Impetuous would move closer to the shore and she would continue to fire on the vessels huddling under the protection of the fort. The landing parties, as they returned to Impetuous, would try to start fires on the rafts of boats in the hope of further destroying more of the invasion vessels being moved to the chosen French ports.

  With his plans laid, Giles only had to decide who should carry them out. Since Impetuous might be in danger from French or Dutch warships that could appear at dawn, he would have to remain on board. That, of course, was the usual procedure: the captain remaining with his ship while sending his subordinates on ventures off the ship. Giles realized that he had often not followed that course, since waiting to see whether his plans would succeed, helpless to do anything about dealing with surprises while remaining in his ship, was far more difficult than taking part in a raid himself. He wondered if his past pattern had actually been sheer selfishness, rather than a preference for putting himself in danger if he was ordering others to do so.

  The attack on the south-west side of the redoubt would be led by Lieutenants Milton and Miller. It would consist entirely of seamen. The north-east expedition would have Lieutenants Macauley and Kirkpatrick in charge. They would be commanding the marines who would be supplemented by a party of seamen. Both groups would be carrying ropes with grapnels* so that they could easily ascend the walls of the redoubt, even though these barriers were quite low at the points of attack which Giles had chosen. He congratulated himself for the foresight that had induced him to order Lieutenant Macauley to train his command in the skills of ascending and descending the rigging of Impetuous by all sorts of different routes, so that the marines would not be trapped in the fighting tops if their usual route up the shrouds* should be made impassable by enemy action. Now they could put their climbing agility to other use

  There were still three days until the moon would be best for the attack. Impetuous spent the time cruising back and forth along the coast in the area of the fort so that the observers on shore would get used to seeing her, and might feel that she constituted no danger to them. The waiting weighed on everyone, with the officers snapping at each other and at the midshipmen, and the middies in turn not engaging in their usual larking in the rigging that tended to annoy their superiors even at the best of times. The same was evident among the crew too, who also felt unfairly picked on by the officers. Giles had to check himself when he was tempted to take his irritability out on those who could not snap back at him.
/>   When the chosen night approached, Giles took Impetuous past the redoubt, keeping well out of range of its guns and went along the coast until the fort disappeared just as night was falling. Then he reversed course. The night was overcast, with only a slight lightening of the clouds to tell where the moon was. Using the light of the fort and of the boats anchored in its shadow for guidance, Impetuous glided into position just beyond range of the shore guns. She anchored with as little noise as possible and Giles had a spring* put on the anchor cable so that he could be sure that his guns would bear on the landing craft when the time came. He also had the cable buoyed so that he could cast off the anchor with no delay but still pick it up again later. Looking through their telescopes, neither Mr. Brooks nor Giles himself saw any signs that the noise of their anchoring had been noted by the redoubt or the anchored craft. It wasn’t until two bells of the morning watch that Giles ordered the landing parties into their boats and then waited anxiously for any signs indicating that they had been discovered. The night remained quiet. The overcast seemed to be thickening, judging by how the glow from the moon seemed to be diminishing.

  It was almost six bells before the first slight lightening presaging the new day became evident. Giles studied the sides of the redoubt through his telescope, waiting until he could distinguish some features of the land in front of them before he launched his attack. Having his attackers stumble around in the dark was not likely to lead to success. What he had not reckoned with was that, with the sun rising behind the shore, Impetuous would be illuminated enough to be picked out by sharp eyes on the parapet of the fort. The miscalculation was made evident when the battery ashore opened fire at the frigate.

  Giles still waited to fire his own broadside until the light ashore would be better, trusting his officers to wait for his signal before attacking. The cannon balls from the fort made splashes only a few yards from the frigate. Impetuous was too close to the shore. As Giles focused on the left-hand side of the fort, he saw a ripple of musket fire from the parapet of the fortification, suggesting that the group of attackers on that side had been discovered. He immediately ordered his own broadside to fire and to keep firing even as the flashes of light from the redoubt signaled the next cannonade from the fort. Even while waiting for the balls to arrive, it registered in Giles’s mind that the two rightmost cannon had not fired. Could that be his other attacking party’s doing?