Blue At The Mizzen Part 12

'Oh, as for that,' said Horatio, 'Poll mentioned it when I went below for a flannel rag, and I told her to be easy - it was the Captain's orders.'

'Ah, the Captain's orders..." said Davies, and he sighed with relief.

Shortly after this the Captain's orders came on deck again in the form of a rather small, still immaculately neat midshipman called Wells, who smiled nervously at Hanson and said, 'The Captain sends me with orders for Mr. Somers. We are to weigh.'

'You will find him in the head,' said Hanson.

Very shortly the word came aft, and rea.s.surances with it. They were to prepare for weighing: they were to drift with the ebb and then spread the close-reefed fore-course until they were round the headland. The ship was filled with intense activity: but a calm and relatively placid activity. They knew where they were now - Surprise was to steal away on the ebb, according to the Captain's long-considered plan - steal away with the lowering sun in the casual watcher's eye - and then, once round the headland, make sail and bear away on this fine easterly offsh.o.r.e breeze in whatever direction he desired, carrying the country's ruler and his mate. With great zeal but with even greater discretion they weighed the best bower and the kedge, taking great care that there should be no clashing as the anchor was catted and fished, yet finding time to watch Ringle's boat come across for Mr. Reade, who hooked himself rapidly down the frigate's side without the least ceremony, urged his men to a frenzy of activity and instantly set about getting the schooner into a similar state of discreet motion.

Night: and this being the dark of the moon, an actual instant brilliance of stars. But neither O'Higgins nor Cousin Eduardo was the least degree concerned with astronomy or navigation; and both, as hardened guerrilleros, knew the value of sleep. They smoked a cigar apiece on the quarterdeck, tossed the still glowing stubs into the spectacular wake and went straight to bed, leaving Jack Aubrey to show Daniel, Hanson and Shepherd (a midshipman whose intelligence was beginning to develop) the moons of Jupiter, not indeed as objects of beauty or curiosity, but as valuable elements in fine navigation.

The next morning, at a particularly cheerful breakfast, O'Higgins begged Jack to keep well out to sea when they were at the height of Concepcion. 'My dear sir,' said Jack, 'that is not likely to be much before five in the afternoon.'

'Indeed? Yet I thought you had been driving along at a furious pace. But then I know very little of the sea.'

'Well, we did manage a little more than ten knots: we could have made more sail, but I understood that you wished us to come off Valdivia in the last hour or so of the sun.'

'So I did, of course: and no doubt you have portioned it out.'

'So I have. Nothing whatsoever is sure at sea, nothing at all. But the barometer is steady; the breeze has every appearance of remaining true; and if we do not see Valdivia before the sun has set, I will give ten guineas to any church or charity you choose to name.'

'Come, that is encouraging,' said O'Higgins with an eager smile, 'and I will do the same if you succeed.'

This very soon, and by the usual channel, became known throughout the ship: although there was scarcely a man aboard who had not left Gibraltar heavy with gold - several years' pay at the least - most had used their not inconsiderable ingenuity to get rid of it. True, some had made really important allocations home: but in any case the ship's company's old sense of values had revived, and when they heard that ten guineas, ten guineas, were at stake, they kept the barky at it with the same zeal that they showed when there was a chase in sight. The officers and reefers were also very busy, but there was scarcely one but Harding who was such a good seaman as the older hands, and no one who knew the barky better. All orders were antic.i.p.ated, and when at about five o'clock in the afternoon Stephen and Jacob made their perfunctory rounds - two of the usual hernias that would yield only to rest, and a couple of obstinate poxes -and drank their habitual cup of tea with Poll and Maggie, they heard Captain Aubrey's very powerful voice telling the Supreme Director down there on the quarterdeck that the blur of smoke one point on the starboard quarter was Con-cepcion.

'I am heartily glad of it,' replied O'Higgins, directing his voice upwards with all the force he could manage. 'And I hope all my people have settled in comfortably.'

Jack Aubrey had always meant to take in topgallants and even topsails well before standing in for Valdivia, at about the time Cape Corcovado bore due east; but the favourable wind, the current, and above all the people's zeal showed him the Cape on the larboard bow long before it had any right to be there, long before the sun was low as he could wish. He shortened sail, and when everything was neat, quiet and properly coiled down he said to the Supreme Director, 'Sir, it occurs to me that you and Colonel Valdes might like to practise climbing into the top in preparation for our closer view of Valdivia a little later, when the sun is nearer the horizon?'

'I should be very happy,' said O'Higgins: and Colonel Valdes could hardly say less: but they concealed their happiness quite remarkably as they climbed up and up, with a wooden stoicism, until they reached the modest height of the maintop.

'We can go much farther up, you know,' said Captain Aubrey.

'Thank you, I can see perfectly well from here,' said O'Higgins, rather shortly: and Colonel Valdes asked whether telescopes might be sent up. In the case of those unaccustomed to going aloft, there was the danger of an involuntary, purely muscular, trembling of the hands if one were required to go up and down repeatedly. He was perfectly ready to stay in the top until the true reconnaissance should begin: it could not be long now - he could already make out several familiar stretches of the sh.o.r.eline, and the sun was no great way from the horizon.

Rather than distress them by remaining in the top, Jack vanished over the seaward side and returned to his cabin, where once again he studied what O'Higgins had brought in the way of charts, views and town-plans of Valdivia. The charts were of consequence only to the seamen, but those of the views that could be rolled up he tucked into his bosom and a fairly large panorama could be carried on deck by hand. There, he saw Daniel and Hanson taking the bearings of many a peak. Hanson, by this time, was one of the nimblest topmen in the ship and Jack said to him, 'Mr. Hanson, be so good as to sling this over your back and deliver it to the gentlemen in the top: if you take the windward shrouds I will take the leeward.'

At present O'Higgins and Valdes were a good deal easier in their minds, and since this was country they both knew quite well they pointed out many of the small villages and churches along the sh.o.r.e.

'It will not be long now,' said the Director looking eagerly southwards. Nor was it. One small cape: another, and there was the half-ring of fortifications guarding the port of Valdivia: the whole of it and the more distant town brilliantly lit by the lowering sun.

Jack called down a low order and a backed forecourse reduced the ship's way quite remarkably. The two Chileans searched port and town with their telescopes: a port empty but for some smacks and a trading brig; moderate activity on the far side of the fortification.

The Director-general and Colonel Valdes had seen a great deal of fighting, conventional and otherwise, and when Valdes named two hundred and fifty men as the force he thought adequate for taking the place, Jack believed him - though it seemed trifling for such an expanse of solid masonry and embrasures for so many guns on the ma.s.sive dark walls.

'Sir,' said O'Higgins, turning towards him, 'may I ask your opinion? I dare say you have had more experience of attacking fortified ports than we.'

'Well, sir,' said Jack, 'the seaward approach is obviously quite different from the way soldiers might envisage the affair on land. I have been looking at that important fortress, the outermost part of the defensive chain, with some people walking about in front of it. It occurs to me that if its defenders are not uncommonly seasoned and courageous the place ought to be taken by a two-sided attack; and if that fort were taken, the two arcs of the semi-circle would find it extremely difficult to cooperate, to mount a counter-attack. Look at the slope of the sh.o.r.e.'

They discussed this for some little while, the Chileans, who knew the quality of the troops in Valdivia, clearly coming round to Jack's view of the matter.

'Very well,' said O'Higgins, in his decisive way, 'I shall beg Captain Aubrey to carry us back to Concepcion as quickly as possible - could the ship hold two hundred and fifty men?' he asked, turning to Jack.

'Not in any comfort, sir: but if this beautiful wind lasts, and I think it will, they will not have to suffer long. And there is always the Ringle to take a score or so. Furthermore, I may add that I can contribute at least a hundred thoroughly experienced able-seamen, accustomed to the naval side of the attack I have in mind.'

'That would indeed be a very welcome contribution, most gratefully accepted.'

'Very handsome, upon my word,' said Valdes.

'Now,' went on O'Higgins, 'if we can but get down on deck in safety, and if the ship can slip quietly away towards Concepcion, I should be most obliged if you would give us your general notion of a combined plan of attack by sea and land.'

'Very good, sir: I think that for the actual descent, Colonel Valdes should take precedence.' And raising his voice to its usual pitch. 'Pa.s.s the word for my c.o.xswain and Davies.' Then some seconds later. 'Lay aloft, lay aloft, there, and guide the gentleman's feet. Now, Colonel, this is the lubber's hole, and if you will lower yourself through it, powerful hands will guide your feet to the horizontal cords that act as steps.'

Valdes made no audible reply but he bowed and very cautiously let himself half-way down. 'Handsomely, now, handsomely,' called Jack and the look of extreme anxiety faded from the Colonel's face as competent hands seized his ankles and set his feet on the ratlines.

'Now, Excellency, it is your turn,' said Jack, 'and may I suggest that when you have rested and looked at the charts again, we should sup and then discuss the possibilities?'

'Very happy,' replied O'Higgins, with a face even graver, more concerned than the Colonel's.

However, they were both cheerful, seriously cheerful, when the supper table was cleared and they sat with charts and views spread out before them, and coffee at their sides with brandy for those that liked it.

'Now, sir,' said Jack, 'since you have asked me to begin, I shall start by saying that the gunner and I have overhauled his stores and that materially the scheme that I shall propose is feasible. In essence it is this: having embarked your men at Concepcion - they will be men picked for courage, agility and freedom from seasickness - we, the schooner and the frigate, will return a little before dawn, landing all the soldiers and the seamen accustomed to mining, blowing up and destroying gun emplacements, at this point, Cala Alta. The boats will return to the ship, which will then make sail and proceed to a station off the fort, which she will most deliberately bombard from ranges suited to the accuracy of the defenders. But at no time will she fire on the great gate leading to the mole. During this bombardment the soldiers and seamen will advance along the path on the inland side, and I think the intensity and the noise of the bombardment will prevent the defenders - the comparatively unseasoned and inexperienced defenders, as Colonel Valdes tells me -from noticing their approach. But whether or no, the seamen's task is to fire rockets and stinkpots into all embrasures, filling the whole place with vile, unbreathable fumes and stench, and to mine all emplacements with guns in them. All this time the soldiers will keep up a steady fire, shrieking and bawling like fiends...'

'What is fiends?' whispered Valdes in Stephen's ear.

'Demonios.'

Then followed a whispered Spanish conversation in which Valdes described a pillar in a cathedral of his childhood which showed devils tormenting the d.a.m.ned in h.e.l.l, uttering shrieks as they did so.

When this was over, Stephen's closer attention returned to Jack Aubrey's discourse: '... and my reason for leaving the northern wall and its gate-house untouched is that I am convinced that the defenders, unless they are hardened grenadiers, will very quickly sicken of the bombardment and the sulphurous fumes and stench, and seek to escape by rushing out of the gate and running along the mole to the next strong-point or the one beyond if not to the town itself, or at least to the store-houses, and as they flee we can pepper them with the grape and then pursue..."

He paused: the Chileans looked at one another, and O'Higgins, sure of the reply, said, 'Colonel, may we hear your opinion?'

'Excellence,' said Valdes, 'it seems to me an eminently feasible operation.'

'I entirely agree. Dear Captain Aubrey, may I beg you to desire your people to sail the ship back to Concepcion as rapidly as may be convenient?'

'By all means, sir. But as I believe you noticed, we altered the frigate's appearance - remarkable to any seaman - and to return to Concepcion with any speed we must restore her mainmast. The one in the middle,' he added.

'Certainly: the central mast - can it indeed be changed at sea?'

'With a strong crew and a moderate sea, yes: but it takes time, and you might think it prudent to send your orders in to Concepcion by the schooner. She will get there much sooner: and when we arrive, if all goes well, your men should be waiting on the quay.'

'They shall be written at once, in emphatic words suited to the meanest intelligence: and as I recall the men are to be picked for courage, agility and freedom from seasickness.

'Exactly so, sir: and as soon as they are written, I shall entrust them to Mr. Reade, who commands the schooner, with orders to proceed to Concepcion without the loss of a minute, there to embark the troops named in the margin, and to return with the utmost despatch. And as soon as he is under way, it may interest you to see a brutish, stump-masted, unmemorable frigate transformed into something truly glorious by the towering mainmast of a thirty-six-gun ship! And then when all is a-tanto and belayed we shall set out with a press of sail for Concepcion.'

Out and back again, still on this glorious and even strengthening west wind, a splendid piece of sailing - so splendid that it reconciled the sombre infantrymen crammed into the two vessels, so that at times they burst into song. They had a likeable, fairly intelligent set of officers to whom the largest plan of Valdivia had been shown, spread out in the gunroom, while the fairly simple plan of attack was explained again and again. Two of the officers knew Valdivia well and they pointed out the store-houses at the end of the mole, with the treasury behind them.

A little before dawn, with Mars rising astern, the galleys in both crafts were heated to something not far from incandescence and the cooks and their mates served out a royal breakfast to all hands, not a crock nor a pot nor a square wooden plate being left unfilled.

By now the mountains were filling a quarter of the sky; a few scattered lights could be seen ash.o.r.e. Surprise's and Ringle's officers were very busy in getting their boats over the side, formed into two trains, ready to be manned. Jack, right forward with his night-gla.s.s, saw the Cala Alta clear, and the central fortification looming up behind it. He had already reduced sail: the ships' people were extraordinarily silent, almost the only sound coming from the breeze (much less insh.o.r.e) whispering through the rigging and from the water running gently down the side.

With the Cala Alta close on the larboard bow Jack called 'Let go' and a kedge was lowered into the sea, bringing the ship up just abreast of the rock. The boats put off one by one: five dark lanterns in each: the seamen ran them beyond the tide mark: the silent lines formed up, glimmering light between each band: Harding, in charge of the detachment of heavily laden seamen, said, 'Give way,' and they stepped out, followed by the soldiers.

'Kedge,' called Jack. 'Hands to the braces.'

The frigate's yards came round, her sheeted sails took the wind, and she moved forward, faster, faster, and the main fortress came abreast of the larboard beam: lightless, blind, except for a single window. He glanced aft: no sign of the marching column yet. 'Mr. Beeton,' he called to the gunner. 'What do you make it?"

'A trifle above five hundred yards, sir.'

'Try a sighter, mid-high.'

'Aye-aye, sir: mid-high it is.' And the gunner's voice was cut off by the bellow of his gun and the shriek of the recoiling carriage. The wind swept the smoke forward and all eyes strained to see the impact. Nothing could the most eager make out in the darkness, but almost at once the windows came to life, row after row of lamp-lit squares.

'Fire as they bear,' said Jack, still in little more than an undertone: and louder, 'A rolling fire, there.'

This was not a time for broadsides, nor yet for the regular fore to aft of target practice: 'I do not wish to strain the ship's timbers,' he said in a much louder voice to the Chileans behind him. And louder still. ' 'Vast firing - Mr. Wells,' - to his attendant midshipman - 'tell the officers commanding the guns that I am going to move up a hundred yards or so.' By this time the fort was replying with a crackle of musketry and the odd bullet pa.s.sed overhead.

'Mr. Daniel,' he called, 'move her up, if you please, until we can see the gate-house and the mole.' Then to the guncrews, 'Fire at will.'

Now there were as many as three great flashes, hungry darts of flame, at once, lighting the wall; and it was clear that the fire was having its effect - two windows beaten into one, fallen masonry, a small blaze inside a room, the whole outer wall pock-marked. The lit windows began to move aft, the guns still firing briskly: but they had not gone beyond Surprise's mizzen mast before a violent explosion shook the back of the fortress, followed by musket-fire and then three more explosions, even deeper.

The gate-house came in sight, well in sight, and now the Surprise, swinging slightly to larboard, could send a cross-fire into the shattered centre. This she did, while on the far side the mining and the musketry increased until the noise reverberating from the mountains behind the town was perfectly shocking.

'One would say a heavy artillery battle,' said Colonel Valdes.

'Mr. Wells,' called Jack, 'run and tell them not to touch that G.o.d-d.a.m.ned gate-house.'

Now the musketry from the fort diminished: and the mining increased.

'It is unbelievable that they should have carried all that powder,' observed Stephen.

'Any minute now,' said Jack. 'Mr. Daniel, lay me for the mole, just abaft those two smacks, the instant that door opens, and stand by to make her fast. Mr. Somers - Mr. Somers there: let the armourer and his mates serve out cutla.s.ses, pistols, boarding axes...'

A great roar all along the deck drowned his last words. The gate-house doors burst open and a dense crowd of men rushed out, trampling one another and racing along the mole.

'Reload with grape,' called Jack, and they had half a dozen rounds before the ship ground against the dolphin of the mole.

'Starboard watch make fast fore and aft. Larboard, charge.'

By this time the soldiers behind the fort had seen the flying garrison on the mole and they joined the pursuers. The seamen flung down their heavy crowbars and sledgehammers and caught up with wonderful speed. 'Surely,' gasped Stephen, as he ran, 'it is very strange that the zeal of the pursuers should be greater than that of the prey?'

Strange or not, it was true: the fugitives had no sooner reached the next fort than those who were not killed had to run again, often being caught and knocked down. And so it went, fort after fort, until the miserable remnant ran clean away up into the town, leaving the entire port and all its naval equipment to the victors' discretion.

In this case the victors showed no discretion whatsoever. Some of the Chilean soldiers knew the port well, having worked there, and they showed their allies a perfectly extraordinary treasure of rope, sailcloth, blocks, firearms great and small, timber, powder, ammunition, medicine-chests, and, what pleased them even more, the treasury. It had armoured doors, of course: but the seamen, running - running - back for some of their heavier tools, made short work of armoured doors, or the pillars that supported them.

Inside there were four large chests of silver and a moderate chest of gold: curiously enough they were only closed with a hasp, and on seeing their contents a soldier who had been in the Surprise said they had all risked their lives to gain this wealth and that in his opinion it should be shared out equally at once: now, now, equally and at once. His opinion was supported by several men there, but O'Higgins said, 'A fig for your opinion,' and shot him dead.

With so much death in the forts, all along the mole and in the lesser fortifications this made no great impression; but it did restore order, and Captain Aubrey suggested to the Supreme Director that the right and natural place for all these things was Valparaiso, to be conveyed in the Surprise as far as the chests were concerned, while the huge acc.u.mulation of marine stores lying outside the magazines, lofts and victualling buildings should travel in the two large smacks lying just beyond the frigate outside the mole.

Once the treasure-chests had been moved across the yard on rollers (cut from new topmasts) to the Surprise and taken aboard by those ingenious cranes improvised by seamen, zeal began to flag. People (particularly soldiers) looked at the ma.s.sive cables with distaste and showed a disposition to creep away. Stephen, however, asked Jack to have the head of a barrel containing Chilean aguardiente taken off for Dr. Jacob, and he called upon all hands, in both necessary languages, to form in lines and to advance in turn. This they did; and each man pa.s.sing Jacob was given a cup from the barrel; then moving on to Stephen he received a very considerable dose of prime coca, with its usual accompaniments.

Within a remarkably short s.p.a.ce of time (so long as time in the ordinary sense still existed in their circ.u.mstances and their very recent, very violent past) the atmosphere changed entirely: strength returned, and good humour with it. The daunting heaps lessened, dwindled, vanished entirely into the smacks, amicably chartered with the help of the golden chest; and the cobbles lay bare under the indifferent moon.

'Cousin,' said Colonel Valdes, embracing him, and they standing alone in the five-acre yard, 'that was a glorious victory: a most glorious victory.'

Interchapter 'My dear Christine, if you will allow so free an expression,' wrote Stephen Maturin, 'we won a famous victory in Val-divia not long since, when Captain Aubrey and his seamen, with General O'Higgins and his soldiers, having destroyed the main fortress, drove the royalists out of Valdivia, secured their immense stock of naval stores and their treasure, returning in triumph to Valparaiso, to rejoicing, cheering crowds, to fireworks and music, three separate bull-fights, and of course to dancing. None of our people was killed; their few wounds are healing well; and all hands are delightfully elated, at least in part because of their coming wealth when the prize-money from the captured treasure is shared out. I too was elated with them - happiness is charmingly contagious - and I celebrated the occasion by indulging myself in an emerald. As you may know, my valued friend and colleague Amos Jacob is descended from a family of merchants dealing in precious stones: he understands and loves them, and like many of his calling he has acquaintances or connexions in Golconda and other places where gems are found, including Muso in the Andes, no very great way from here, so justly renowned for its emeralds. I therefore desired him to procure me a specimen: and here it is.' He turned the oblong stone in his hand: a splendid wealth of green, but finest of all from its perfect face. 'I shall wrap it in jewellers' cotton wool, enclose it in a packet for Sir Joseph that must leave this evening and beg you to accept it as a small token of my esteem - a trifling return for Ardea goliath.'

Here he paused, shook his head, and walked up and down the room, glancing at his watch. Up and down: it was most unlike Jack Aubrey to be late, and although the Indian runner did not mean to set out much before dawn, he was uneasy.

He sat down again, returning to his letter. 'But now, my dear, I grieve to say that our joy has diminished to something not very far from grief. The triumph at Valdivia, after the first explosion of popular joy, gave way to a singular but ever-increasing jealousy and resentment. It was the victory of what is seen as the English and of O'Higgins, the one the hereditary enemy of Spaniards (and republicans or royalists the ma.s.s of Chileans are essentially Spanish) either as buccaneers or raiders like Drake and national enemies in times of war, and the other disliked, even hated, by many of the leading men in the various juntas for curbing their pretensions, for his love of law and order, and for his opposition to a dominant Church. To some degree this growing resentment unites the juntas, but just to what extent I do not know because Jacob is away, gathering information: yet it is a fact that the treasure we captured has not been shared out, the seamen have not been paid, and that for some days past I for one have met with open rudeness in the streets of Valparaiso. O'Higgins, his personal friends and guard have retired to Santiago or perhaps beyond: and we have no news. What is more, and perhaps worse, is that Sir David Lindsay, resenting an incivility, has been challenged by one of his own officers: they are now on the ground.'

'I am losing my wits entirely,' he murmured to himself, drawing a careful line round those parts of his letter that were suitable only for Sir Joseph, and in encoded form: the line was not finished before he heard a step, a knock, and he called out, 'Come in.'

It was Hanson. 'Oh sir,' he cried, much upset. 'He was. .h.i.t. The Captain sent me: the surgeon said there was no hope.'

There was indeed no hope. 'Aorta,' said the Chilean medical man, motioning towards the great dark pool under Lind-say's body.

'No hope?' asked Jack, and when Stephen shook his head, 'Mr. Hanson, double up to the ship again and tell Mr. Hard-ing that I should like four stout hands and a stretcher to carry Sir David's body down: and a sheet to cover him.' To Stephen. 'We shall bury him Navy-fashion, the way he is used to.'

This caused a movement of uneasiness among Lindsay's remaining Chilean friends - his opponent and the seconds apart from Jack had disappeared - and one of them said to Stephen, 'The Prefect of the port will have to view the body, and approve the burial.'

'It is the custom,' said Stephen with grave emphasis. 'The ancient naval custom.' The word had such force for the Spaniards that their murmuring ceased: they stayed until the stretcher came up from the port and then when Lindsay was laid on it and covered, the military men and sailors saluted as he was carried away, while the few civilians took off their hats: though one, standing next to Stephen, murmured that this would no doubt offend the prefect extremely.

Jack told Harding to slip his moorings and to take the ship to twenty fathom water outside the mole. There, when he had taken everything that should go to Lindsay's family, he called for the sailmaker and two round shot and when Lindsay was shrouded Navy-fashion, Jack buried him before the a.s.sembled crew with the full ceremony and honours due to his former rank, saying the ritual words as he went over the side.

Then the Surprise, doing away with the formal signs of mourning, returned to the harbour, returned to her former place. 'In almost any breeze this allows me to get out to sea,' he said privately to Stephen, 'I have already seen enough to make me uneasy, and I have no doubt you have seen much more.'

'Yes,' said Stephen, 'and I am only waiting for Jacob to come back with fuller information about the southern juntas to know whether I should officially advise you to withdraw from the political enterprise entirely and devote yourself to pure hydrography or not. The Chonos Archipelago is virtually unknown.' And who knows what unknown wonders its flora and fauna may reveal, he added inwardly.

They were in the cabin, drinking tea, and after a long silence Jack said, 'Stephen, what I am going to say will probably sound sentimental to you, but several of those young fellows I have been training show every sign of becoming first-rate seamen, and for this reason among a host of others, I have been turning a plan over and over in my head. As you know, it was only the treasure of Valdivia that like a fool I handed over to the authorities: the naval stores we turned to our own uses, as far as our needs went, and the barky is now almost entirely new-rigged, stuffed with powder and shot, worn cables replaced, sailcloth to clothe a ship of the line, prime victuals overflowing. So my plan is to attack Callao and to cut out Esmemlda. I put it to Lindsay but he said it was impossible: the fortresses would sink us before ever we came to grips. And coming to grips with a ma.s.sively built 5O-gun frigate was no task for aS-gun Surprise, even supported by the Asp. He was fundamentally opposed to the plan - called it foolhardy, which surprised me, knowing how many times he had been out. But I shall say no more about him, poor soul.'

'G.o.d rest him.'

'No more... So that, Stephen, is what I mean to do. Do you like my plan?'

'My dear, I am tolerably good at carrying out a suprapubic cystotomy. You are an expert in maritime warfare. Your opinion in the first case would not be worth a straw: nor would mine in the second. If you are content, I am content.'

Nevertheless Captain Aubrey went on arguing his case. 'It was true that Peru was a neutral state, a Spanish colony: but Peru had repeatedly invaded the independent republic of Chile, and if the Spanish viceroy succeeded next time, the infant Chilean navy (so promising and zealous) would be wiped out. There was everything to be said for...'

'Beg pardon, sir,' said a midshipman, 'but with Mr. Somers' duty the Lisbon packet is rounding the cape with someone very like Dr. Jacob waving a red handkerchief in the bows.'

'Thank you, Mr. Glover: pray tell him that I should like a signal thrown out inviting her to come alongside.'

Jack went on prosing away about the advantages of surprise, almost certainly superior gunnery and attention to duty until at last they heard the gentle glancing impact of the packet against the fender, the usual shrieks and cries of those throwing and catching ropes, and Jacob appeared. 'By G.o.d, sir,' he cried, addressing Jack, 'now the fat is in the fire! The burying of poor Sir David - G.o.d rest his soul -before an official enquiry was perfectly illegal and has given the prefect just the excuse he wanted: the ship will be impounded at nightfall - it is known as far down as Villa-nueva, where the local junta has handed out arms.'

'Has the order to seize the ship been given?'