The Surprise came running down the wind, rounded-?to outside the line and lay there with her foretopsail to the mast, looking as easy and elegant as a thoroughbred.
‘Good-?bye, Captain Muffit,’ said Jack, shaking his hand. ‘I do not suppose we shall see one another again before the old gentleman is with us: but we are of one mind, I am sure. And you must allow me to add, that I am very happy to have such a colleague.’
‘Sir,’ said Captain Muffit, with an iron grasp, ‘you do mc altogether too much honour’
The lively pleasure of being aboard his own ship again -her quick life and response after the heavy deliberation of the Indiaman - her uncluttered decks, a clean sweep fore and aft - the perfect familiarity of everything about her, including the remote sound of Stephen’s ‘cello somewhere below, improvising on a theme Jack knew well but could not name.
The frigate moved up to the head of the line, and on his strangely thin quarterdeck - only the more vapid youngsters left and the master, apart from Etherege and Stourton - he listened to his first lieutenant’s report of Linois’s motions. The report confirmed his own impressions: the Admiral had gathered his force, and his apparent delay was in fact an attempt at gaining the weather-?gauge and at making sure of what he was about before committing himself.
‘I dare say he will put about as soon as ever he fetches our wake,’ he observed, ‘and then he will move faster. But even so, I doubt be will be up with us much before sunset.’ He gave directions for making free with all the officer’s coats aboard and walked over to the taffrail, where Mr White was standing alone, disconsolate and wan.
‘I believe, sir, this is your first taste of warfare,’ he said. ‘I am afraid you must find it pretty wearisome, with no cabin and no proper meals.’
‘Oh, I do not mind that in the least, sir,’ cried the chaplain. ‘But I must confess that in my ignorance I had expected something more shall I say exciting? These slow, remote manoeuvres, this prolonged anxious anticipation, formed no part of my image of a battle. Drums and trumpets, banners, stirring exhortations, martial cries, a plunging into the thick of the fray, the shouting of captains - this, rather than interminable waiting in discomfort, in suspended animation, had been my uninformed idea. You will not misunderstand me if I say, I wonder you can stand the boredom.’
‘It is use, no doubt. War is nine parts boredom, and we grow used to it in the service. But the last hour makes up for all, believe me. I think you may be assured of some excitement tomorrow, or perhaps even this evening. No trumpets, I am afraid, nor exhortations, but I shall do my best in the shouting line, and I dare say you will find the guns dispel the tedium. You will like that, I am sure: it raises a man’s spirits amazingly.’
‘Your remark is no doubt very just; and it reminds me of my duty. Would not a spiritual, as well as a physical preparation be proper?’
‘Why,’ said Jack, considering, ‘we should all be most grateful, I am sure, for a Te Deum when the business is done. But at this moment, I fear it is not possible to rig church.’ He had served under blue-?light captains and he had gone into bloody action with psalms drifting in the wake, and he disliked it extremely. ‘But if it were possible,’ he went on, ‘and if I may say so without levity, I should pray for a swell, a really heavy swell. Mr Church, signal tack in succession. All hands about ship.’ He mounted the hammock-?netting to watch the brig that lay outside the line, where all the long file could see her:
a great deal would depend on Braithwaite’s promptness in repeating signals. The hoist ran up, the signal-?gun fired to windward. ‘I shall give them a moment to brood over it,’ he said inwardly, paused until he saw the scurrying stop on the forecastle of the Alfred, just astern, and then cried ‘Ready oh! Helm’s a-?lee.’
This movement brought the Indiamen to the point where the Surprise had turned, while the Surprise, on the opposite tack, passed each in succession, the whole line describing a sharp follow-?my-?leader curve; and as they passed he stared at each with the most concentrated attention. The Alfred, the Coutts, each with one of his quartermasters aboard: in her zeal the Coutts ran her bowsprit over the Alfred’s taffrail, but they fell apart with no more damage than hard words and a shrill piping in the Lascar tongue The Wexford, a handsome ship in capital order; she could give the rest her maintopsail and still keep her station; a fine eager captain who had fought his way out of a cloud of Borneo pirates last year. Now the Lushington, with Pullings standing next to Mr Muffit on the quarterdeck - he could see his grin from here. And there were several other Royal Navy coats aboard her. Ganges, Exeter and Abergavenny: she still had water-?butts on her deck:
what was her captain thinking of? Gloag, a weak man, and old. ‘God,’ he thought, ‘never let me outlive my wits.’ Now a gap in the centre for the Surprise. Addington, a flash, nasty ship: Bombay Castle, somewhat to leeward
- her bosun and Old Reliable were still at work on the breechings of her guns. Camden, and there was Bowes limping aft as fast as he could go to move his hat as the Surprise went by. He had never made a man so happy as when he entrusted Camden’s guns to the purser: yet Bowes was not a bloody-?minded man at all. Cumberland, a heavy unweatherly lump, crowding sail to keep station. Hope, with another dismal old brute in command - lukewarm, punctilious. Royal George, and she was a beauty; you would have sworn she was a postship. His second-?best coat stood there on the quarterdeck, its epaulette shining in the sun: rather large for her captain, but he would do it no discredit - the best of them all after Muffit. He and Babbington were laughing, side by side abaft the davits. Dorset, with more European seamen than usual, but only a miserable tier of popguns. Ocean, a doubtful quantity.
‘Sir,’ said Stourton, ‘Linois is putting about, if you please.’
‘So he is,’ said Jack, glancing aft. ‘He has fetched our wake at last. It is time to take our station. Mr Church, signal reduce sail. Mr Harrowby, be so good as to place the ship between Addingion and Abergavenny.’ Up until the present Linois had been continually manoeuvring to gain the wind, and to gather his forces, making short tacks, standing now towards the Indiamen, now from them. But he had formed his line at last, and this movement was one of direct pursuit.
While the Surprise lay to he turned his glass to the French Squadron: not that there was any need for a telescope to see their positions, for they were all hull-?up -it was the detail of their trim that would tell him what was going on in Linois’s mind. What he saw gave him no comfort. The French ships were crowding sail as though they had not a care in the world. In the van the S?millante was already throwing a fine bow-?wave; close behind Marengo was setting her royals; and although the Belle Poule lay quarter of a mile astern she was drawing up. Then there was the Berceau: how she managed to spread so much canvas after the drubbing she had received he could not conceive - an astonishing feat: very fine seamen aboard the Berceau.
In the present position, with the Indiamen under easy sail on the starboard tack with the wind two points free, and Linois five miles away, coming after them from the
eastwards on the same tack, Jack could delay the action by hauling his wind - delay it until the morning, unless
