Invasion

closing rapidly, the wind astern allowing any course she chose. When the other ship veered towards the shore Teazer did likewise. At this rate it would be over before they made Cap Levi even though the Frenchman had put up a fine show.

Then, half a mile short of the cape and with Teazer only a few hundred yards astern, the vessel sheered towards the land and, in the gathering darkness, rounded to and calmly let go her anchor. Incredulous, Kydd was about to give the orders for a final reckoning when the mystery resolved. In a flurry of gunfire, bright flashes stabbed from the squat fort on the promontory above. In the gloom he had overlooked Fort Levi. The guns were of respectable calibre and quite capable of smashing Teazer to a ruin well before he and his crew could secure their prize. It was all over.

Circling out of range, Kydd knew he should give best to the Frenchman now sheltering under the guns of the fort and move on. But his blood was up and he would not give in. Boats after dark—a cutting-out expedition! The French would imagine that he would give up and sail away during the night and therefore would wait patiently for morning before making for Cherbourg—but they would be in for an unwelcome surprise.

The night was moonless, impenetrably black and relatively calm; perfect conditions. The fort obliged by carelessly showing lights that were ideal navigation markers and Kydd set to with the planning.

He reviewed his forces: the barque would be manned by a prize-crew only and should not present a serious difficulty for a prime man-o'-war's boarding party. The main object was to crowd seamen aboard in sufficient quantity that sail could be loosed and set before the fort could react. Too few, and with three masts to man, there would be a fatal delay. So it must be every boat and all the hands that could be spared.

There would be two main divisions: the armed boarders as first wave over the larboard bulwarks and the seamen to work the ship over the starboard. It was essential to have the best men in the lead, those who would not flinch at mounting the rigging in the dark and with the initiative and sea skills to know what needed doing without being told.

'Mr. Hallum, are ye familiar with the barque rig?'

'Er, no, sir.'

'Then I'll take command in the boats.' There were no barque-rigged vessels in the Royal Navy and although the major difference was only in the fore-and-aft-rigged mizzen Kydd felt it was probably asking too much of this staid officer. And, of course, he himself had made a voyage to Botany Bay as the reluctant master of a convict-ship barque in the days of the last peace.

There was no point in delay. Divisions for boarding were quickly apportioned and equipment made ready— cutlasses, boarding pistols, along with a fresh-sharpened tomahawk for every fourth man to use in slashing through boarding nettings and the like.

Faces darkened by galley soot, the Teazers awaited Kydd's order. He peered into the blackness once more: nothing to see, no sound. They could wait for the last moment before moonrise just before midnight, but little would be gained by sitting about.

'Get aboard!' he whispered. Men tumbled into the boats silently, nesting their weapons along the centre-line and taking up their oars.

The pinnace left the comfort of the ship's side, lay off in the inky blackness and waited for the barge and cutter to take position. 'On me,' Kydd called, in a low voice and the small flotilla set off for a point somewhere to the south of the twinkling lights of the fort where the barque must lie.

They pulled in silence, rags in the thole pins to muffle the clunk of oars and nothing but the swash of their passage to disturb the night. He'd spell the men before they—

Away to the right but frighteningly close, a scream in French—a boat out rowing guard! A musket banged into the night and another. Then a deeper-voiced command had the French boat's crew pulling for their lives—directly away.

Keyed up for a desperate clash at arms, Kydd couldn't understand why they were running. Then he saw. Starting as a wisp of flame, which mounted quickly then cascaded down in a flaming mass, bundles of straw had been lit and thrown over the walls of the fort. More fell and their flaring leaped up until the dark sea was illuminated by a pitiless red glare with themselves utterly revealed at its centre.

'Turn about!' Kydd bellowed, to the boats behind him. 'Go back!'

Disbelieving, they hesitated. Then the guns of the fort opened up and the reason for the guard-boat's departure was apparent; it had hastily cleared the field of fire for the artillery and now the cannon thundered vengefully into the night at Teazer's fleeing boats.

Kydd flopped wearily into his cabin chair, his face still smeared with soot. 'Be damned t' it!' he muttered. 'To be beaten after such a handsome chase. At the least we got away with our skins.'

Renzi was in the other chair, looking grave. 'It seems the Revolutionary Army does not know much about night firing over sea, Tom. You were fortunate.'

'Aye—but the Frenchy captain was a canny one. No codshead he—I should have smoked it. ' He frowned, and added sorrowfully, 'I should so have liked to set the English crew free, Nicholas. It's a hard enough life they face now.'

Renzi nodded, staring down. Then he lifted his gaze to Kydd. 'There's conceivably still a prospect of a successful outcome, should we be so bold.'

'A direct assault on 'em by daylight? I think not. If I'm seen to hazard men's lives on a merchantman it's to be understood as I'm prize-takin' to the neglect of my orders.'

'Quite. But I'm not referring to courage before cannon and blade, rather the devious application of cunning and deceit to attain the same object.' At Kydd's puzzled look, he continued, 'A stratagem as may secure your ship without need for overweening force, that asks the enemy to allay his fears and put down his arms . . .'

'Nicholas, ye're being hard to fathom. Are you saying we should creep up as they're not looking, then—'

'Not at all. Heaven forbid we should think to skulk about like your common spy,' Renzi said, with a shudder. 'What crosses my mind is that we could perhaps turn our recent experience to account and . . .'

As dawn's early light stole over the little bay Teazer crept around Cap Levi once more, her crew quietly at quarters and Kydd on her quarterdeck, tense and edgy. If Renzi's stratagem failed they would be sailing to disaster and it could only be his responsibility.

The bay opened up and the barque was still there. Now at two anchors it was heaved around ready for a rapid