The Gathering Storm (22 page)

'Don't be so damned womanish, Mr Hayter. Y'must
convince the fellow to take the chance. We are desperate,
say to him, and will drown if he don't save us.'

James did not like to be called 'womanish', but he did as
he was told, and renewed his efforts. In English, urgently,
to the group on the shore: 'Remain lying down, as if injured.'
And in French, hailing the chasse-marée: 'We have injured
men, and they must be treated or they will die! Please help
us, and take them off!'

Presently a small boat was hoisted out and lowered, and
two men and a young officer began to pull toward the shore,
the boat pitching and tossing hazardously.

'This will not do,' Rennie said, in a low, urgent tone. 'A
small boat will not answer. You must induce them to bring
the vessel itself—'

Over him, very firmly, James: 'If several of us get into that
boat, sir, we can overpower the crew of the chasse-marée by
a surprise assault. As we did at the fort with those guards.
That is all we may hope for under the circumstances.'

'But you will need all four of you that have muskets. How
will you explain—'

Again over him: 'No, sir. One guard, myself, with a musket.
And three men posing as injured – with hidden bayonets.
Whittle, Thoms, and Denton.' Indicating three young and
strong able-seamen.

As the boat neared the shore, Rennie hesitated, looking
at the boat and then at his people. A breath, and then he
nodded. 'Very well. That must be our plan, then.'

The three supposedly injured men – who were very
dirty and wet, and looked suitably bedraggled – were given
bayonets to hide in their clothes and carried limp by their
shipmates down to the boat, that had now beached. James
explained the situation in rapid French to the young
officer, and helped get the prostrated men into the boat,
then got into the boat himself. With seven men now
aboard the little boat was laden very heavy, and nearly
capsized as it headed out through the waves to the chasse-marée,
which had anchored, her head to the wind.

Rennie watched them go and was filled with trepidation
and doubt, which he concealed.

'Will they succeed, sir?' A voice at his side. Richard Abey.

'Yes, Mr Abey, in course they will.' With stout conviction,
lifting his chin. 'I have every confidence in Mr Hayter.' Turning
to the assembled men. 'We shall prevail today, never fear.'

They all watched the boat as it neared the chasse-marée.

'Mr Abey.'

'Yes, sir?'

'What became of our standing officers? D'y'know where
they are held?'

'They were kept separate from the rest of us after we
surrendered, sir. I do not know why.'

'Could they have been held in the ship, I wonder? Could
they have remained aboard?'

'Perhaps that is possible, sir. I think they were marched
forrard to the fo'c's'le.'

'Very good. Thankee, Richard. If they was still aboard –
luck may be with us.'

On the beach they waited when the boat reached the chasse-marée,
and the occupants went aboard, the injured lifted and
carried. Long moments, then a furious eruption of activity
on deck, men running and clashing, and the
crack
of a single
musket shot.

Silence, and the chasse-marée rode the lifting sea. Those
on the beach stared motionless. And at last came a voice.

'We have her! We have took her!' Lieutenant Hayter,
appearing at the starboard rail.

'Thank God.' Rennie rubbed his hand through his sparse
hair. 'Thank God he has done it.'

'We are going to bring her in as far as we dare! Wade out
to us, and we will throw you lifelines, so that you may haul
yourselves aboard!'

By the time all of
Expedient
's people had been taken aboard
the chasse-marée, it was mid-afternoon, and Rennie was
anxious to depart the vicinity of the fort. He had ordered
the crew of the vessel bound hand and foot and taken below.
It was very cramped below, and with so many men now
aboard the vessel she was low in the water and sluggish in
answering the helm. Rennie was anxious that naval order
should obtain, as soon as they were under way, and having
discovered what little food was aboard, he ordered a late
dinner, and then instituted a system of watches.

Lieutenant Hayter had ascertained, in conversation
with the master of the vessel, that she was attached to the
dockyard at Brest, and had been sent to the landing
place of the fort, beyond the headland and the cliff which
the Expedients had descended. The chasse-marée had
carried a party of dockyard artificers, who were to make
repairs.

'Repairs?' James had asked him. 'What repairs could naval
artificers carry out at a military fort?'

'Well ... they were to repair the gallows there, I understand.'

'Good God. So they meant to hang us?'

'I do not know, Lieutenant.'

'Is our ship in the harbour at Brest?'

A brief hesitation, then: 'Yours is the frigate?'

'Yes, the
Expedient
.'

'She is there, moored near to the dockyard. Many people
at Brest wished to see her burned and destroyed, but she is
to be repaired, I believe.'

James conveyed this information to Rennie, in the cramped
space he had taken as his 'great cabin' below, beneath the
low framed skylight. Rennie nodded, eating a slice of blue
cheese, and came to his decision. He had found the master's
charts, and now tapped the largest.

'We will sail east, then double the Pointe des Espagnols,
and run south into the depth of the roadstead, as if we had
business at some farther landing place there. Then in the
second dog watch, as the light fades, we will come about
and run north, creep into the harbour itself, and find
Expedient
.'

'Very good, sir. You like this cheese?'

'It is very fair, as cheeses go. You do not care for it?'

'It is food, in least.'

'What is the fort called, where we was held? Did the master
tell you, James?'

'He did, sir. It is called the Fort du Diable.'

'The devil it is.' And he chuckled. 'Very good, very good.
Did you require the master to give you his hat and coat, as
I asked?'

'They are here, sir.' Giving them to Rennie.

'I will just shift into them, and we will go on deck and
sniff the wind, hey?

'Very good, sir.'

'I want you there with me in your present disguise, in case
we should meet another vessel and be obliged to speak.'

'Then – shouldn't I wear the junior officer's coat, sir? A
military sergeant on the deck of a dockyard vessel will not
look—'

'Yes, yes, I had not considered that.' Over him, with a
frown. 'Change coats with the young man, and then join me
on the deck right quick.'

'Very good, sir.'

* * *

Evening, and the chasse-marée ran north toward the thickets
of masts in Brest Harbour, the headland of the Pointe des
Espagnols to larboard in the fading light. They had seen
other vessels during the afternoon, but none wished to
speak, and they had sailed unmolested to the limits of the
roadstead.

Lieutenant Hayter, dressed in the uniform of the young
lieutenant, peered through that officer's long glass.

'Can y'see
Expedient
?' Rennie, at his side.

'Nay, I cannot. She is concealed among many mooring
numbers, sir.'

'Hm. But we will find her, I am in no doubt.'

'Yes, sir. But I wonder how we will safely approach her,
when night falls? We have no boats – well, only a very small
gig – and this vessel is too large to manage in so crowded
an anchorage, in darkness. We will likely get athwart hawses,
or even fall aboard other ships.'

'We will brail up our canvas and deploy the sweeps,
and proceed very careful. There ain't a density of cloud, and
there will be moonlight beside, and riding lights. We shall
find her.'

'There will likely be an armed crew aboard her, don't you
think so?'

'We are many, and they will be few, James.'

'We have four muskets and as many bayonets, against who
knows what odds?'

Rennie turned to look at his lieutenant, and grew severe. 'I
don't understand you, Mr Hayter. You have took to womanish
ways. Doubt, hesitancy, caution. A desire to see calamity and
misfortune, where none exists.'

'Really, that ain't quite fair, sir, when I—'

'Not
fair
! We have a task before us that requires clarity
of purpose, and a stout heart. I will not have petulant maidservant's
talk in my hearing. Mr Leigh and Mr Abey will
attend me and remain at my side, if you will not stiffen your
spine, and speak manly and sensible.'

'I ... I ... very good, sir.' And he had to bite his tongue,
tremulous with rage.

Expedient
's people were assembled on deck to double-man
the long sweeps, eight on each side. Rennie ordered the
lugsails and yards lowered rather than brailed up or reefed,
and the chasse-marée proceeded by manpower alone.

Night had fallen as they approached the anchorage, and
when the chasse-marée was hailed from the decks of various
moored ships – as she was several times during the next glass
– James simply replied:

'Dockyard vessel! Artificers aboard!'

Which response was in every instance satisfactory, since
the vessel was allowed to pass without hindrance deeper and
deeper into the harbour.

James grew increasingly uneasy as they went. He wished
to say to his captain that the alarm must certainly have been
raised hours ago at the fort, and very probably the chasse
marée herself missed by now, and that if they continued to
move about the harbour they would almost certainly be
apprehended, and dealt with very severe. However, James
had no wish to be called 'womanish' a third time, and so he
kept quiet.

A few minutes after, it was Rennie himself who voiced
those very fears. Now from the shore could be heard the
sound of great activity. Platoons of soldiers marching,
the barking of dogs, and shouts of command. Lights flickered
along the harbour wall.

Rennie took a deep sniffing breath, peering anxiously at
the shore, and:

'We must find
Expedient
right quick, or be took ourselves.'

They had by now traversed the nearly entire width of the
anchorage, narrowly avoiding a dozen ships. A shape loomed
out of the blackness, and James, in a hoarse, carrying whisper:

'Oars!'

The sweeps lifted from the water, and the chasse-marée
gliding with barely a ripple.

'I know those lines.' Rennie, quietly.

'Aye, sir.'

It was their ship. It was
Expedient
. The chasse-marée glided
right alongside the greater ship, fended herself off with
sweeps, then was manoeuvred in under the starboard chains.
Now from above, a French voice:

'Who is there? Who are you?' A face appeared at the rail,
in the glow of a lantern.

'Dockyard,' called James.

'
Ah, oui
.' The face and the lantern. 'You are very late. Too
late.'

'We were delayed by all the upheaval ashore. Some kind
of search, I don't know.'

'
Alors
, they never tell us anything out here. But you are too
late now. Come back tomorrow, will you, when we are ready
to start dismantling the rigging?'

'We have been sent to come aboard tonight, so we may
begin work at first light.'

'First light? Why so early?' Grumbling.

'Because that is the arrangement made by the shipwright!
Mon Dieu!
'

'Oh, very well. Come aboard. There is nothing to eat, you
are too late.'

'Well done, James.' Rennie, in his lieutenant's ear, all
irritation with him forgotten.

With the chasse-marée moored alongside, tethered to a
stunsail boom, Rennie, James, Lieutenant Leigh and the other
Expedients all went aboard. As they came up the side ladder
into the waist, Rennie whispered to James:

'Let us first ascertain how many they are, and then decide
how to tackle them.'

'Very good sir.'

The guard aboard the ship consisted of a sergeant of the
militia – the man who had hailed them – and a platoon of
irregulars. The sergeant appeared to be resentful of this duty.
His men – in his view – were the flotsam and jetsam of the
port. In a brief conversation with James – as the Expedients
assembled on deck – he described himself as protecting 'a
worthless hulk'.

'Worthless? Nay, that is why so many men have been sent.
To commence the repair.'

'But surely the repair has been cancelled?' Puzzled. 'As I
understood, the whole damned ship was to be stripped out,
the rigging and masts dismantled, and then she was to be
broke up.'

'Broke up? Then you have been misinformed, Sergeant.
Tell me, have her powder and shot, and her stores, been
removed?'

'Well, that is all to be commenced tomorrow, as I thought
you knew ...'

'
Oui
,
oui
, of course. Where are your men, at present?'

'They are below.'

'
Ah. Bien
.' A bayonet to the sergeant's throat. 'You will
oblige me by keeping silent, and you will not be harmed.'

'Christ, who are you!'

'Keep silent.' Pressing the tip of the blade into the
sergeant's throat.

James beckoned to the others who were armed, and the
sergeant was bound and gagged. Presently the armed party
went below, and took the platoon of irregulars entirely by
surprise at their supper. Plainly these were not men who had
ever expected to make up a guard in anything but name.

'Why was she not better protected, James?' wondered
Rennie, as they came on deck and went aft.

'The dockyard lieutenant who commanded the chasse-marée
said she was to be repaired, I am certain of it.' Glancing
up at the rigging. 'Sir, should not we inspect the ship below,
first? Make an assessment of—'

'Yes, yes, presently.' Rennie crossed from the starboard
rail to the larboard on his quarterdeck, and peered aloft.
Then: 'Yes, the navy, and the whole maritime organisation
here at Brest, is plainly in a condition of disarray and division,
James. One faction don't wish for what t'other does. That
is the confusion, I think. And I should say that was so
throughout the port.'

'And – that will aid us, will it not?'

'To escape? Aye, certainly. While they search for us in
confusion ashore, little dreaming we are afloat in our own
ship. Aye.'

'Sir? Captain Rennie?' Richard Abey, ascending the ladder
from the waist.

'Well?' As his acting lieutenant came aft.

'We have found Mr Loftus, sir, and the other standing
officers. They were confined in the orlop.'

'Very well, thankee, Mr Abey. That is welcome news.'

'They were supposed to assist with the repair, sir, then the
decision to repair was lately overturned, and they were locked
away.'

'In irons?'

'No, sir. But they were bound up very painful, and left in
the sail room without food or water.'

'Is Dr Wing with them?'

'Yes, sir. He is attending to them now, sir.'

'And his own condition?'

'He is very furiously angry, sir. Raging angry. "It is infamous
– wretched infamous!"'

'Ah. You have his voice very accurate, Mr Abey. But he is
otherwise unharmed?'

'His wrists are very chafed, and his ankles – but he ain't
really hurt, sir. Only angry.'

'We may thank God they all survive. Where is Mr Leigh?'

'He is inspecting the hold, sir.'

'Very good. You will join him.' And as the youth made his
obedience and turned to go: 'Mr Abey ...'

'Sir?'

'Take care not to mimic the doctor anywhere proximate
to him, hey? In fact, ye'd better not do it at all, any more.'

'Very good, sir.'

As Richard departed, Rennie turned to James. 'We should
release those fellows in the chasse-marée. They will be
damned uncomfortable by now, trussed up below.'

'D'y'mean release them from their bindings, sir, or let
them go altogether?'

'Good God, we can't just let 'em go, James.' A sniff.

'Then – how may we safely untie them, sir?'

'Well well – they had better be made comfortable, in least.
I don't wish us to be seen as tyrants and torturers. That ain't
our way, in the Royal Navy.'

'I will see what can done for them.'

'Very well. But first there is the more pressing matter of
the overall condition of the ship. Ask the boatswain to come
and see me. I want him to tell me whether or no we are able
to weigh and make sail, with the ship so badly damaged and
in need of repair. I pray God he will tell me – yes.'

'Aye, sir.'

And I will like to hear a report from Mr Storey about our
guns, and gunners' stores. Say so to him, will you?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Then we'd better have a report from Mr Trent about our
victualling stores. Oh, and by the by, impress upon the people
they must move about the ship as quiet as mice, no loud
talk.'

'Very good, sir. Erm ... anything else?'

'What? No no, James. Carry on, if y'please.'

James touched his hat, and went below, and Rennie paced
aft, looking aloft, a post captain once more in command of
his ship.

The wind had died to nothing, and now the hush of the
anchorage was broken only by the distant shouts and
tramping of boots ashore – and a great confusion of activity
along the harbour wall.

Rennie peered there, found a glass at the binnacle, raised
it, and:

'In course ... in course ... they are getting into boats to
search for the chasse-marée.' He lowered the glass and
hurried below.