1805 by Richard Woodman Read Free Book Online Page A

servants.
    â€˜No, Mullender, you are late . . . Sit down, Sam, and let us eat. The morning’s chill has made me damned hungry.’
    â€˜Thank you. You do intend to attack those craft, don’t you?’
    â€˜Of course. When I’ve had some breakfast.’ He smiled at Rogers who once again looked at though he had been drinking heavily the night before. ‘D’you remember when we were in the
Virago
together we were attacked off the Sunk by a pair of luggers?’
    â€˜Aye . . .’
    â€˜And we beat ’em off. Sank one of them if I remember right. The other . . .’
    â€˜Got away,’ interrupted Rogers.
    â€˜For which you have never forgiven me . . . ah, thank you, Mullender. Well I hope this morning to rectify the matter. Let’s creep up and take that little brig. She’d make a decent prize, mmm?’
    â€˜By God, I’ll drink to that!’ Comprehension dawned in Roger’s eyes.
    â€˜I thought you might, Sam, I thought you might. But I want those bateaux as well.’
    They attacked the skillygolee enthusiastically, encouraged by the smell of bacon coming from the pantry where Mullender was still muttering, each occupied with their private thoughts. Rogers considered a naval officer a fool if he did not risk everything to make prize-money. Since he had never had the chief command of a ship, he thought himself very hard done by over the matter. The event to which Drinkwater had alluded was a case in point. Both knew that they had been fortunate to escape capture when they were engaged by a pair of lugger privateers off Orfordness when on their way to Copenhagen. But whereas Drinkwater appreciated his escape, Rogers regretted they had not made a capture, even though the odds against success had been high. The
Virago
had been a lumbering old bomb-vessel whose longest-range guns were in her stern, an acknowledgement that an enemy attack would almost certainly be from astern! But a pretty little brig-corvette brought under the guns of the
Antigone
would be an entirely different story. With such an overwhelming superiority Drinkwater would not hesitate to attack and the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless Rogers found himself hoping the brig would have a large crew, so that he might distinguish himself and perhaps gain a mention in
The Gazette
.
    Drinkwater’s thoughts, on the other hand, were only partiallyconcerned with the brig. It was the other vessels he was thinking of. They were five leagues south-east of Pointe de Barfleur, on the easternmost point of the Cotentin Pensinsula. The convoy of invasion craft were on passage across the Baie de la Seine bound for their rendezvous at Le Havre. It was here that the French were assembling vessels built further west, prior to dispersing them along the Pas de Calais, at Étaples, Boulogne, Wimereux and Ambleteuse, in readiness for the embarkation of the army destined to conquer Great Britain and make the French people masters of the world.
    Perhaps Drinkwater’s experiences of the French differed from those of his colleagues who were apt to ridicule the possibility of ultimate French victory; perhaps Captain D’Auvergne had alerted him to the reality of a French invasion; but from whatever cause he did not share his first lieutenant’s unconditional enthusiasm. What Rogers saw as a possible brawl which should end to their advantage, Drinkwater saw as a matter of simple necessity. It was up to him to destroy in detail before the French were able to overwhelm in force. There had been much foolish talk, and even more foolish assertions in the newspapers, of the impracticality of the invasion barges. There had been mention of preposterous notions of attack by balloon, of great barges driven by windmills, even some crack-pot ideas of under-water boats which had had knowledgable officers roaring with laughter on a score of quarterdecks, despite the fact