The enemy were all this time chasing, and coming up rapidly with us.
Even Captain Collyer looked anxious. We, however, were all ready for the fight we antic.i.p.ated.
"If we can but keep well ahead of them till night comes on, we may give them the slip," I heard the captain observe to Mr Bryan. "It may be more prudent on the present occasion to fly than to fight, but I am sure that every man will fight to the last if it comes to fighting."
"That they will, sir. I never saw the people in better spirit,"
answered the second lieutenant. "They are like a bull-dog with a captured bone. They are not inclined to yield it without a desperate tussle."
From all I heard I began to think whether I should not go and write a letter home, to tell them that when they received it I should have fallen fighting for my king and country; but then Spellman appeared on deck. He looked so absurd with his lugubrious countenance, and the plasters still on his cheeks, that I burst into a fit of laughter; and, all my apprehensions vanishing, I was in a minute joking away with my messmates as usual.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
The Doris under all sail, with our hard-won prize in tow, kept standing to the northward, the gallant Hercules bringing up the rear, while the French fleet, like a pack of yelping hounds, followed full chase at our heels.
A stern chase is a long chase, and so we hoped this might prove, without an end to it.
Our gla.s.ses, as may be supposed, were constantly turned towards the enemy. They had not gained much on us when the sun went down, and darkness stole over the surface of the ocean. Clouds were gathering in the sky--there was no moon, and the stars were completely obscured. It was in a short time as dark a night as we could desire. The Hercules, looking like some huge monster stalking over the deep, now ranged up past us, and a voice from her ordered us to tack to the westward, and keep close to her. This we did, though we had no little difficulty in keeping together without lights, which we did not show, lest we might have been seen by the enemy.
The next morning, when we looked round, not one of the French squadron was in sight, greatly to the vexation of our prisoners, who had hoped by this time to have seen the scales turned on us. We were out of the frying-pan, but before long we had reason to fear that we had tumbled into the fire.
Two days after this, when morning broke, we found ourselves enveloped by a thick fog. There was but little wind, and the sea was perfectly smooth. Suddenly the distant roar of a gun burst on our ears. It was answered by another much nearer; a third boomed over the waters on the other side of us. Others followed; then fog-bells began to ring--louder and more distinct they sounded; and more guns were fired.
"What"s all that about?" I asked of the boatswain, who was looking out on the forecastle. "Why, that we are in the middle of a big fleet of men-of-war, and if, as I suspect, they are French, and they catch sight of us, they"ll make mince-meat of our carcases in pretty quick time," he answered, squirting a whole river of tobacco juice overboard, a proof to me that he was not pleased with the state of affairs.
"Why, I thought it was a French fleet we escaped from only two days ago," I remarked.
"So it was, and this is another," he answered. "In my opinion we shall never get things to rights till we send to the bottom every French ship there is afloat, and we shall do that before long if we can but get a good stand-up fight--that"s my opinion."
Mr Johnson was right, as subsequent events proved. The fog was so dense that we could not see a single sail, close as we were to them, and we expected every instant to run into one, or to be hailed and probably discovered. The men were sent without noise to their quarters, for of course it was resolved that we should fight our way out from the midst of our enemies.
On we glided. The dim form of a ship was seen on our starboard bow.
Our course was slightly altered, but it was only to get nearer another.
A Frenchman hailed. Captain Collyer answered; what he said I do not know. It seemed to satisfy the stranger. No shot was fired, and we stood on. Still there was something peculiarly solemn and awful in the feeling that any moment we might be engaged in an encounter against the most overwhelming odds.
Again the upper sails of another ship appeared. From their height she was evidently a ship which might have sunk us with a broadside. By seeing this second ship, Captain Collyer was able to ascertain in what direction the enemy"s fleet was standing. As soon as he had done this, our helm was put up, and away we noiselessly glided to the westward.
The bells were soon no longer heard--the boom of the guns became fainter and fainter every minute, and at length we had the satisfaction of feeling that we were well clear of them.
"Depend on it, you have never been nearer inside a French prison or a watery grave than you have been this morning," observed Mr Johnson to me.
"I don"t know that. When I was aboard the lugger, and floating about in the channel, I was rather nearer both one and the other," I answered.
"You thought you were, but, as the event proved, you were not," said the boatswain. "Depend on it, I am right, Mr Merry. If the captain had not been a good French scholar our fate would have been sealed long before this. We never know on what apparently trivial circ.u.mstances our safety depends."
Mr Johnson, it may have been remarked, was never at a loss for an argument or a remark of some sort. His pertinacity in that respect puts me in mind of a certain kind-hearted Royal Duke with whom I once had the honour of dining--a number of naval and military officers being present.
"Captain R---," said he, addressing one of them, "how is your father?"
"Your Royal Highness, he is dead," was the answer.
"Oh! is he? poor fellow! Then, how is your mother?"
"Your Royal Highness, she is dead also."
"Oh, is she? Then which died first?" asked the Duke in a tone which made it very difficult even for the best bred of the company to refrain from laughing.
Without further adventure the Doris and her prize arrived safely in Plymouth Sound.
We waited anxiously for the report of the dockyard authorities, who at length gave it as their opinion that the frigate had got so knocked about that she must go into dock to be repaired. Everybody was in a great hurry to get leave. In consequence of our having been wounded, Grey and Spellman and I obtained it at once, and I invited them to pay my family a visit in Leicestershire on their way to their own homes. I got leave also for Toby Bluff to accompany us.
"I"ll spare him to you. Mr Merry," said Mr Johnson. "Take care you bring him back, for he will one day do credit to the service in his humble path, just as I flatter myself I do credit to it in mine, and I hope that you, Mr Merry, will one day in yours. You"ve made a very good beginning, and you may tell your friends that the boatswain of the ship says so. Let them understand that the boatswain is a very important personage, and they will be satisfied that you are a rising young officer." We got a sufficient amount of prize-money advanced to enable us to perform our journey, which we did partly in post-chaises.
The latter mode of travelling we agreed was by far the pleasantest.
After we left the coach we went along very steadily for a stage or so.
"This is slow work," observed Spellman. "I vote we make more sail."
Looking out of the window he sang out, "Heave ahead, my hearty. There"s a crown for you if you make the craft walk along."
Although the post-boy did not understand my messmate"s language he did our gestures and the mention of the crown, and on we went at a great rate, turning up the dust as the gallant Doris was wont to do the brine, and making the stones fly in every direction.
At last one of the postillions, who entered into our humour, proposed getting a horn for us. We eagerly accepted the offer, and he said he would purchase one from the guard of a coach, who lived near the road a little way on. It was rather battered, and we paid a high price, but when we found that Toby could blow it effectually, we would have had it at any price.
Proud of his acquisition, Toby mounted the box, and, he blowing away with might and main, highly delighted, on we dashed.
I ought to have said that, before we left the ship, Grey and I had presented to us the two small flags we had nailed to the cross-jack yard in the action with the Aigle.
At the last stage we agreed that we would do something to astonish the natives, so we ordered an open barouche, which we saw in the yard, with four horses. We got out our flags, and improvised another for Spellman; these we secured to sticks, which we cut from the roadside. Toby trumpeting like a young elephant, we waving our flags and shouting at the top of our voices, up we dashed in gallant style to the hall door, and I believe did astonish them most completely.
Never, indeed, had the family of Merrys been in a greater commotion than we had the satisfaction of throwing them into by our arrival. It was the holidays, and all my brothers and sisters were at home. Out rushed my father and mother, and Bertha and Edith and Winifred, while my brothers Cedric and Athelstane, and Egbert and Edwin, hurried up from various quarters, and every servant in the house was speedily collected, and everybody laughed and cried by turns, and the post-boys grinned, and I was kissed and hugged by all in succession--Grey and Spellman coming in for their share; till I bethought me that I would create a still greater sensation; so, when good Mrs Potjam, the housekeeper, was beginning to hug me, as was her wont in days gone by, I shrieked out--
"Oh, dear! oh, my wound! my wound!"
My shipmates, seeing the effect produced, imitated my example.
"What, wounded, my dear child? What, have you been wounded?" exclaimed my mother and sisters in chorus.
"Of course I have; and do you think those deep dimples on Spellman"s cheeks--I forgot to introduce him, by the bye. Mr Spellman, midshipman of his Britannic Majesty"s frigate Doris--Mr, Mrs, and the Miss and Master Merrys and their faithful domestics--do you think that those deep dimples are natural? No indeed; a shot went through his cheeks--right through--and those are the scars. See how Grey limps--I forgot, I ought to have introduced him. Mr George Grey, also midshipman of his Britannic Majesty"s frigate Doris, and my esteemed friend and messmate; and for myself, I can scarcely yet use my arm. So you see we are heroes who have fought and bled for our country."
In those days, as there were not so many newspapers as at present, people were compelled to be their own trumpeters more than would now be considered correct. Some also trumpeted over much, knowing that there was not the probability that there is at present of their being found out.
This statement of mine increased, as I thought it would, the respect all were inclined to pay us. Dinner was just going on the table, and when we had satisfied our hunger, all our tongues were busily employed in our peculiar styles in recounting our adventures. The butler and footmen often stopped to listen, and not a little forgot their proper duties.
One placed an empty dish before my mother, into which the cook had forgot to put the poultry; the butler filled my father"s gla.s.s with fish soy, and two of the men bolted tilt against each other and capsized the remains of a sirloin of beef over the carpet with which one of them was hurrying off after waiting to listen to the f.a.g end of one of my narratives.
Toby Bluff was as busily employed in the servants" hall, and from the broad grins on the countenances of the footmen as they returned to the dining-room, I have no doubt that his narratives were of a facetious character.
I never have spent so jolly a time as I did during that visit home. Our wounds did not incommode us; we had everything our own way, and all my family and friends made a vast deal of us.
At length a newspaper arrived, giving an account of the capture of the Aigle, and confirming all I had said, and when, two nights after, we appeared at a country ball, and as we entered the room the band struck up "See the conquering hero comes," we were higher in feather than ever.