Under the Meteor Flag Part 30

Pa.s.sing each other in such disagreeably close proximity, we had of course a perfect view of the French frigate, and a most superb craft she certainly was. A bran-new ship, to all appearance: she seemed to have been at sea scarcely long enough to wash the varnish off her teak and mahogany deck-fittings. The planks of her deck were almost snow-white, and some little taste and trouble appeared to have been expended in a successful effort to impart a graceful effect to the decorations about the front of her s.p.a.cious p.o.o.p, beneath the over-hanging pent-house of which appeared her handsome steering-wheel, with four men hard--a great deal _too_ hard, it seemed to me--at work at it. She showed eighteen ports of a side, all closed, and carried her due proportion of carronades on her forecastle and quarter-deck. Her masts, magnificent sticks, and her short stout yards were bending like fishing-rods under the tremendous strain of her new canvas, which appeared as though it had not yet fully stretched into its proper shape; and every rope was coiled down in its proper place with the most scrupulous neatness. But, oh!

the confusion and jabber and excitement of her crew. As she shaved past us, every man on deck jumped upon the hammock-rail and had his separate say to us--whether it were a word of caution, of congratulation at our escape from being run down, or of objurgation, it was quite impossible to tell; but, from the threatening character of their actions, I judged it to be the latter. There was only one calm individual among the whole, and he was the first lieutenant. He stood by the mizzen-rigging on the port side, clinging to a belaying-pin, and he vouchsafed us not so much as a pa.s.sing glance, his whole attention being given to his spars and rigging, on which he kept his eyes anxiously fixed. The skipper, on the other hand, seemed to be more excited than any one else.

When my eye lighted upon him he was grasping the p.o.o.p-rail with his right hand and shaking his left fist at us. Just then our eyes met, when, to my surprise and disgust, he turned to a marine near him and pointed at me, at the same time apparently giving the man an order. The fellow raised his piece and fired, and the next instant I felt a violent blow accompanied by a sharp burning pain in my left arm, which dropped helplessly at my side, broken between the elbow and the shoulder.

All this pa.s.sed in a single moment of time; the next instant we were vividly recalled to a sense of our own danger. As we rose upon the next wave our port quarter was exposed to its advancing crest, and there was only time to shout to all hands to "Hold on for your lives!" before it came hissing up, and, arching over us quite six feet above our low bulwarks, tumbled on board, a regular comber, filling us to the gunwale, bursting in the companion-doors, flooding the cabin, smashing one of our boats to atoms, and washing away everything that was not securely lashed. By something approaching a miracle, none of the men were swept overboard; and as soon as I had ascertained this by a hasty glance round the deck, directly I got my head above water, I gave the order for the fore-lug to be loosed and set. The men wanted no second bidding; they knew that if we got p.o.o.ped a second time it would be all over with us; and in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time we had the sail set, and were bowling away to leeward after the Frenchman.

Our position was now very much the reverse of an enviable one; as, being compelled for safety's sake to run dead before it, we were exactly in the line of fire between the two ships, which continued to bang away at each other from time to time, quite regardless of the possible consequences to us; and their shot came hissing past us and over us so closely that it was manifestly imperative upon us to shift our berth without loss of time. Giving orders, therefore, that the spare mizzen should be bent and set, and the craft brought to once more--but on the starboard tack this time, so as to afford us an opportunity to knot the shrouds on the larboard side, carried away by the French frigate--I left little Smellie and Tom Hardy on deck to see to its execution; and, summoning the a.s.sistant-surgeon to my aid, retired below to have my wounded arm coopered up.

My friend Sawbones had just arrived at that stage of his operations which required him to torture me almost beyond my powers of endurance by grinding the two broken bone-ends together to get them in proper position, when we felt a violent concussion, accompanied by a loud explosion on deck, speedily followed by vociferous cheering; and the next moment down trundled that young scamp Smellie, his face beaming all over with a broad grin, as he exclaimed,--

"Hurrah, Chester, I've done it! Did it _myself_, Hardy will tell you so."

"Did _what_, for goodness' sake?" groaned I, as the medico, under the influence of a terrific roll, gave my arm a most awful wrench. "What did you fire for?"

"Fired at the Frenchman, of course," replied he, somewhat disconcerted.

"I understood that you agreed we should have a shot at him, so we gave him one from long Tom. I pointed the gun myself; and--only fancy!-- knocked away his mizzen-topmast, which brought down his main-topgallant- mast with it; and there he is now in a pretty mess. My eye! _that_ was a close one," he added, as a twelve-pound shot sung close over our heads, without hitting anything however.

"It sounds remarkably as though he were anxious to return the compliment, if he can," said I. "You had better go on deck again and hurry the men up with that mizzen; and round-to as soon as you possibly can. If one of those shot happen to plump on board us we shall probably have cause to remember the circ.u.mstance."

The lad darted up the companion-way again, three stairs at a time; and very shortly afterwards I heard him shout down to me,--

"I say, Chester, the mizzen is bent and all ready for setting; shall we hoist away?"

"Watch for a good opportunity," I shouted back, "and as soon as it comes, down with your helm, and sway up the sail at the same time."

"Ay, ay; we will do so," was the response.

A few minutes elapsed; and then I felt the little craft rising up, up, up, until it seemed as though she were about to turn a summersault with us; there was a _thud_ at her stern, and a heavy _swish_ of water on her deck as the crest of the sea struck her and broke over the taffrail, and then Tom Hardy's voice exclaimed,--

"Now--_now's_ your time, sir! Jam your helm hard-a-port, you d.i.c.k! hard over with it, man; that's your sort. Now, sway away upon these here mizzen halliards; down with your fore-lug; ease up the fore-sheet there, for'ard; up with the mizzen, lads; bowse it _well_ up; that's well; belay. Haul your fore-sheet over to wind'ard, and make fast. There!

that's capital. Now let's see what we can do to these here shrouds."

From all of which, and the altered character of the little craft's motion, I learned that the ticklish manoeuvre of rounding-to had been safely executed.

A quarter of an hour afterwards the medico finished me off, and I was able, with Hardy's a.s.sistance, to go on deck again and take a look round before turning into my hammock to nurse my wounded arm.

We were now hove-to upon the starboard tack, with our head to the southward; the English frigate had pa.s.sed us, and was by this time some two miles to leeward, on our port quarter, the Frenchman still leading, though he had lost ground considerably, and he seemed yet to be in the thick of his trouble with the wreck of his spars. The bow and stern- chasers of the two ships were still playing merrily away, but without any very marked result, as far as we could see; and shortly afterwards we lost sight of both ships in the thick weather to leeward, and saw no more of them.

We were not long in getting our larboard mizzen shrouds knotted and set up afresh; and as soon as this was done we watched our chance and wore round once more, with our head to the northward--I remaining on deck to watch the operation--after which I was glad to get into my hammock and seek relief to my wounded fin.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE FRENCH FRIGATE.

The gale lasted through the night and all next day, moderating about sun-down, however, sufficiently to allow of our setting our fore and main-lugs close-reefed, and keeping away upon our course. The wind continued to drop after that all through the night, the sea also going down rapidly; and next day we were able to shift our canvas, setting the lateens in place of the lugs; after which we bowled gaily along without further adventure, pa.s.sing Ushant on the evening of the fourth day after the gale had blown itself out, and arriving at Spithead somewhat within the next forty-eight hours.

The anchor let go, Smellie and I jumped into the gig, and, taking the despatch-box with us, pulled ash.o.r.e, landing at the Sally-port. From thence we proceeded, first to the admiral's office, and afterwards to the "George" in High Street, where I ordered a post-chaise; and then the pair of us sat down to a hastily-prepared dinner while the carriage was in process of fitting-out.

In consequence of my representations to the admiral, he had ordered the "Vigilant" into harbour immediately, to refit and make good the slight damage inflicted on us during the gale in the Bay of Biscay, and, when the post-chaise was announced, Smellie only remained long enough to see me fairly under way, when he returned on board to take the little hooker into harbour, and superintend the operation of refitting.

It was not quite six p.m. when we shoved off from before the door of the "George," and dashed away up the High Street, and soon afterwards the chaise was bowling along at a spanking pace over the dry, white, dusty road in the open country--the landscape flooded in the lovely golden haze of a fine summer evening, and the air heavy with the perfume of flowers and the sweet, health-giving smell of rich pasture-lands, long chestnut-avenues, and thick pine plantations. The mingled odours of the country--so different from the strong smell of the sea-breeze--the sight of the slanting sunbeams glancing through the boles and branches of the venerable trees dotted here and there in clumps along the roadside; of the verdant hedges with their rich cl.u.s.ters of delicate dog-roses and trailing honeysuckle or wild convolvulus; of the groups of sleek cattle feeding in the fields, contemplatively chewing the cud under the shade of some over-hanging tree, or browsing along the roadside; of the knots of rosy, sun-tanned children playing about the village-roads or on the green, and turning to stand open-mouthed and stare at the chaise as we dashed past; of the pretty cottages nestling in a bower of greenery, each with its tiny flower-garden in front, and a thin wreath of blue smoke curling up from its chimney into the still evening air; of the picturesque villages, with their ancient church-spires pointing heavenward; and of the stately country-seats of the gentry, surrounded by n.o.ble trees, the growth of centuries, the deer cl.u.s.tered beneath their umbrageous branches, with their s.p.a.cious flower-terraces and long avenues of limes, arching chestnuts, or venerable oaks, reaching from the house to the distant road, and terminating in snug little ivy- covered lodges and heavy ornamental iron gates with ma.s.sive stone piers, moss-grown, and surmounted by time-worn and weather-stained stone sculptures of the arms of the family; the drowsy chime of the church- clocks; the barking of dogs; the lowing of cattle; the voices of herdsmen or field-labourers singing as they wended their weary way homeward after the labour and heat of the day--the sound softened and mellowed by distance; all combined to render that journey one of the most pleasant and enjoyable I had ever undertaken, notwithstanding the pain and discomfort which I experienced from my wounded arm.

The evening pa.s.sed on; the lovely, silent twilight insensibly deepened into night; the stars twinkled forth, one by one, in the pure, clear, deepening blue overhead; the road gradually widened; the houses along its sides became more and more frequent, the atmosphere thickened; the horizon ahead grew luminous; lights appeared and rapidly increased in number, soon they were glancing on both sides of us; a dull, heavy roar became audible, and finally, as the church-clocks were striking the hour of midnight, the chaise pulled up before the door of my uncle's house in Saint James's Square; and I had arrived in town.

As the post-boy let down the steps and threw open the carriage-door for me to alight, I could see through the fanlight over the door that there was a light in the hall, so I felt pretty certain that my uncle had not yet retired. I ran up the steps and gave the bell-handle a tug which speedily brought old Timothy to the door.

"Has Sir Peregrine retired yet, Tim?" said I.

"He has not, sir," replied the ancient, "but I much doubt if he will see any one at such a late--Why, I declare, if it ain't Master Ralph! Come in, sir; come in. Sir Peregrine is in the libr'y. Won't he be glad to see you, just! He's always looking through the paper to see if there's any news of the 'Juno,' or if your name is mentioned, sir. This is an unexpected visit, though, Master Ralph; I hope there's nothing wrong, sir."

"Oh dear, no! quite the reverse I hope, Tim, my boy. I've been sent home with despatches. Now, lead the way to the library, if you please."

This short confabulation pa.s.sed in the hall while Tim was relieving me of my cloak and hat. He now preceded me to the library, at the door of which he knocked, and then, flinging open the portal, he announced me.

"Master Ralph, Sir Peregrine."

I pa.s.sed into the lofty apartment, its walls lined from floor to ceiling with well-stocked book-shelves, and found the worthy knight seated in his own particular old easy-chair, with one foot--ominously swathed in flannel--reposing upon another; his specs on his nose, and the gazette in his hand.

He looked round with a start as my name was mentioned, shaded his eyes with his hand for an instant, as his eyes fell upon my advancing figure, and then--forgetting all about his gout--started to his feet with both hands outstretched.

"Why, Ralph! My dear boy, where--_con_found this gout! It _always_ attacks me at exactly the wrong moment--but never mind; what cloud have you dropped from?"

"From no cloud at all, my dear sir, but just from an ordinary post- chaise, in which I have come up from Portsmouth. How are you, sir? I hope you have nothing worse than the gout to complain of. Wish you were free of _that_, for it must be very troublesome."

"Troublesome enough, my boy, you may take my word for that; but the present attack is luckily very trifling--a mere fleabite, in fact. And how are you? You don't look particularly bright, rather the reverse, indeed; and what is the matter with your arm?"

Thereupon I gave him a hasty outline of my story, so far at least as the cruise in the "Vigilant" was concerned; and then old Richards, the butler, brought in the supper; serving it, by Sir Peregrine's orders, in the library, so that we might not be disturbed or my yarn interrupted by pa.s.sing from one room to another.

We sat until close upon three o'clock a.m., my uncle forgetting all about bed in his anxiety to hear full particulars of my doings since I had last parted from him. At length, however, he glanced at the clock upon the mantelpiece, and at once pulled me up short.

"There, there! that will do for to-night, my dear boy. I've forgotten everything in listening to you, and have allowed you to talk all this time instead of sending you straight off to your bunk, as I ought to have done, and you with a broken arm, too. But I am delighted to have heard all that you have told me--the gazette tells one nothing--and I can afford you the satisfaction of knowing that your name has attracted attention in the right quarter; Sir James has spoken to me about you on more than one occasion; and your promotion is certain. If you go on as you have begun, Ralph, I predict that you will mount the ratlines rapidly. Now, we will breakfast at ten o'clock, if that will suit you, and then I will go with you myself to the Admiralty with the despatches.

My gout? Pooh! I'll lay a crown it will be gone by the time I turn out in the morning; and if it is not, it is not bad enough to keep me at anchor here when I can perhaps do you a good turn. I'll introduce you to Sir James; I should like him to see for himself the sort of lad you are. Now; good-night! Tim will attend to you. G.o.d bless you, my boy."

I trundled off, Timothy leading the way with a light in each hand for the room which I had formerly occupied, and, having undressed with the a.s.sistance of my somewhat garrulous attendant, tumbled into the luxurious bed, and immediately fell into a sound sleep.

The arrangement of the previous night was duly carried out, Sir Peregrine's gout having, as he had predicted, been merciful enough to afford him a respite.

We drove to the Admiralty, and I sent in my despatch-box. My uncle also sent in his card.

Half an hour elapsed, Sir James happening to be engaged when we arrived, and then Sir Peregrine was admitted to the august presence. Another half-hour pa.s.sed, at the expiration of which time I also was invited into the sanctum. My uncle introduced me; Sir James uttered a few complimentary phrases upon my past conduct, informed me that "he had his eye upon me," presented two fingers for me to shake, gave his entire hand to my uncle, and we were dismissed. As we pa.s.sed through the outer office it was intimated to me that my presence would be required there at noon next day.

"That's a good job well over," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed my uncle, as we once more seated ourselves in the carriage and drove off. "You are in high favour, let me tell you, my boy," he continued. "Lord Hood has referred to you in very flattering terms in his despatches, in connexion with that hare-brained escapade of yours at Bastia; and Sir James has a.s.sured me of the very great satisfaction with which he views your conduct, and has promised moreover that he will take the earliest possible opportunity to show his appreciation of it. Now, where shall we go? I suppose you do not feel very much in cue for sight-seeing, with your wounded arm, eh? Very well; then we'll drive to my tailor's--you want a new gang of rigging put over your mast-head badly, my boy, and then we'll go home and you shall rest a bit. I have a few friends coming to dinner this evening; but you need not join us if you do not feel equal to it, you know."

The "new gang of rigging" was duly ordered, and faithfully promised for next day at noon--Sir Peregrine insisting upon its being charged to his account--and then we returned to Saint James's Square.

With the dinner-hour my uncle's guests arrived, some twenty in number; and, as I rather fancied the dear old gentleman would be glad if I were present, I put in an appearance. My suspicions were no doubt well founded, as it turned out that one of the guests was no less a personage than my new acquaintance of the morning--the great Sir James himself.

The old boy was a good deal less taut in the backstays than he had been in the morning, giving me his whole hand to shake on this occasion.