‘No, no, don’t you believe it, Mr White,’ said Jack. ‘They have tanned my hide many a time, I can tell you. No, no Linois is only reculing pour mew sauter, as he would say. You shall not be disappointed, I believe we may promise you a brisk cannonade in the morning So perhaps you might be well advised to turn in directly and get all the sleep you can I shall do the same, once I have seen the captains.’
All that night they lay to, with stern-?lanterns and top-?lights right along the line, each watch in turn at quarters and fifty night-?glasses trained on Admiral Linois’s lights as he worked up to windward In the middle watch Jack woke for a few minutes to find the ship pitching heavily his prayer had been answered, and a heavy swell was setting in from the south. He need not dread the Frenchmen’s distant fire. Accuracy, long range and a calm sea were birds tarred with the same feather.
Dawn broke calm, sweet and clear over the troubled sea, and it showed the French and British lines three miles apart. Linois had, of course, spent all the night in beating up, so that now he had the weather-?gauge without any sort of a doubt - now he could bring on the action whenever he chose. He had the power, but did not seem inclined to use
it. His squadron backed and filled, rolling and pitching on the swell. After some time the S?millante left her station, came down to reconnoitre within gunshot, and returned:
still the French hung aloof, lying there on the beam of the English line, with their heads north-?west; and the heat of the day increased.
The swell from some distant southern tempest ran across the unvarying north-?cast monsoon, and every few minutes the sharp choppy seas sent an agreeable spray flying over the Surprise’s quarterdeck. ‘If we engage her from the leeward,’ observed Jack, with his eyes fixed on the Marengo, ’she will find it damned uncomfortable to open her lower ports.’ She carried her lower guns high, like most French line of battle ships, but even so, with her side pressed down by this fine breeze and with such a sea running, her lower deck would be flooded - all the more so in that she was somewhat crank, somewhat inclined to lie over, no doubt from want of stores deep in her hold. If Linois could not use his lower tier, his heaviest guns, the match would be more nearly even: was that the reason why he was lying there backing and filling, when he was master of the situation, with a convoy worth six millions under his lee? What was in his mind? Plain hesitation? had he been painfully impressed by the sight of the British line lying to all night, a long string of lights, inviting action in the morning instead of silently dispersing in the darkness, which they would surely have done if yesterday’s bold advance had been a ruse?
‘Pipe the hands to breakfast’ he said. ‘And Mr Church, be so good as to let Killick know that if my coffee is not on deck in fifteen seconds he will be crucified at noon. Doctor, a very good morning to you. Ain’t it a pure day? Here is the coffee at last - will you take a cup? Did you sleep? Ha, ha, what a capital thing it is to sleep.’ He had had five hours in his wool-?lined well, and now new vigorous life flowed through him. He knew he was committed to an extremely dangerous undertaking, but he also knew that he should either succeed or that he should fail creditably. It would be a near-?run thing in either event, but he had not launched himself, his ship, and fifteen hundred other men into a foolhardy enterprise: the anxiety was gone. One of the reasons for this was the new feeling right along the line of battle: the captains had handled their ships well and they knew it; the success of their manoeuvre and Linois’s retreat had done wonders for the fighting spirit of those who had been somewhat backward, and now there was a unanimity, a readiness to fall in with the plan of attack, that delighted him.
However, he knew how early-?morning sprightliness could anger his friend, and he contented himself with walking up and down, balancing his coffee-?cup against the heavy motion of a ship hove-?to, and champing a ship’s biscuit dipped in ghee.
Breakfast was over, and still the French squadron made no move. ‘We must help him to make up his mind,’ said Jack. The signals ran up: the British line filled on the starboard tack and stood away to the westward under topsails and courses alone. At once the frigate’s motion became easier, a smooth, even glide; and at once the French ships in the distance wore round on the opposite tack, slanting down southwards for the Indiamen.
‘At last,’ said Jack. ‘Now just what will he do?’ When he had watched them long enough to be sure that this was not an idle move but the certain beginning from which all things must follow he said, ‘Stephen, it is time for you to go below. Mr Stourton, beat to quarters.’
The drum, more stirring even than a trumpet, volleyed and thundered. But there was nothing to be done: the Surprise had long been stripped for battle, her yards puddened and slung with chains, splinter-?netting rigged, powder filled and waiting, shot of all kinds at hand, match smoking in little tubs along the deck; the men ran to their stations and stood or knelt there, gazing out over their guns at the enemy. The French were coming down under easy sail, the Marengo leading: it was not clear what they meant to do, but the general opinion among the older seamen was that they would presently wear round on to the same tack as the Indiamen, steer a parallel course and engage the centre and van in the usual way, using their greater speed to pass along it; whereas others thought Linois might cross their wake and haul up to engage from leeward so that he could use his lower guns, now shut up tight behind their port-?lids, with green water dashing against them. At all events they and all the frigate’s company were convinced that the time of slow manoeuvring was over - that in a quarter of an hour the dust would begin to fly: and there was silence throughout the ship, a grave silence, not without anxiety, and an urgent longing for it to start.
Jack was too much taken up with watching his line and with interpreting Linois’s movements to feel much of this brooding impatience; but he, too, was eager for the moment of grappling and of certainty, for he knew very well that he was faced with a formidable opponent, capable of daring, unusual tactics. Linois’s next move took him by surprise, however: the Admiral, judging that the head of the long British line was sufficiently advanced for his purposes, and knowing that the Indiamen could neither tack nor sail at any great speed, suddenly crowded sail. It was a well-?concerted manoeuvre: every French ship and even the brig blossomed out in a great spread of white canvas: royals appeared, studdingsails stretched out like wings, doubling the breadth of the ships and giving them a great and menacing beauty as they ran down upon the merchantmen. For a moment he could understand neither their course nor their evolution, but then it came to him with instant conviction. ‘By God, he said, ‘he means to break the line. Lee: tack in succession: make all practicable sail.’
As the signal broke out, it became even more certain that this was so. Linois was setting his heavy ship straight at the gap between the Hope and the Cumberland, two of the weakest ships. He meant to pass through the line, cut off the rear, leave a ship or two to deal with what his fire had left, luff up and range along the lee of the line, firing his full broadside.
Jack snatched Stourton’s speaking-?trumpet, sprang to the taffrail and hailed his next astern with all his force:
‘Addington, back your topsail. I am tacking out of the line.’ Turning he cried, ‘All hands about ship. Hard over. Harrowby, lay me athwart the Marengo’s hawse.’
Now the long hard training told: the frigate turned in a tight smooth curve with never a check, moving faster and faster as they packed on sail after sail. She tore through the water with her lee-?chains deep in white foam, heading close-?hauled for the point where her course would cut the Marengo’s, somewhere short of the British line if this speed could be maintained, He must take her down and hold the Marengo until the van ships could follow him, could reach him and give the Surprise their support. With her speed it was possible, so long as he lost no
