Patrick O'Brian - The Letter of Marque

But he was sorry he had let his impatience - his almost choking fury on occasion - be seen, and now, reaching for the decanter of madeira, he said, 'I tell you what, Stephen: let us eat up our bouillabaisse when we have had a whet, and then, until we hail the Tartarus, we might play your piece.'

'Very well," said Maturin, a simple pleasure showing on his usually by no means simple face. 'Killick, ahoy. Aho. Let the feast appear as soon as Adi can fry his croutons.'

The piece, Stephen's own variations on a theme by Haydn, was correct and fluent but it was not particularly interesting until the last sheet, where Stephen and Haydn came together in a curious hesitant phrase whose two beats of silence were singularly moving. The violin played it first, and while the 'cello was answering they heard the hail from no great way off: 'The ship, ahoy. What ship is that?' and the full-voiced reply just overhead 'Surprise'.

The 'cello made its pause, completed the phrase, and the two combined to work it towards the full close. The door opened and Pullings stood there with the news: Jack nodded, and they played on to the deeply satisfying end.

'Tartarus is just to windward, sir,' said Pullings, when they put down their bows.

'I am most uncommon glad to hear it,' said Jack. 'Pray let the Doctor's skiff be lowered down - Stephen, you will lend me your skiff? - and Bonden will pull me over. Killick, my good blue coat.' He took his chart of St Martin's from the locker and said in an undertone, 'Stephen, should not you come too?'

'I believe not,' said Stephen. 'I must not advertise the tenuous connection I have with intelligence; whatever details there may be to be settled in that line, we can arrange between ourselves. But I should like to accompany the attack on this occasion, if it is agreed to be made.'

'Welcome aboard again, sir!' cried Babbington. 'Doubly welcome, since I did not look to see you this tide.'

'You very nearly did not, neither,' said Jack Aubrey. 'A needle in a haystack would not bear the comparison, on such a thick night; but a stitch in time saves nine, as you know very well, and we set out betimes. Shall we go below?'

In Babbington's little cabin he looked quickly round for signs of Fanny Wray but saw nothing except a piece of sailcloth with the words Heaven Preserve our Tars in rather shaky cross-stitch. 'So you were expecting me?' he said.

'Yes, sir. A cutter brought me word from the Admiral that it was possible, wind and weather permitting, that you might appear on the thirteenth and I was to cooperate with you in any operation you might contemplate against the Diane, at present lying in St Martin's.'

'She is still lying there, ain't she? She has not sailed?'

'Oh no, sir. She is lying there against the quay, moored to bollards head and stern. She does not mean to sail till the dark of the moon, the thirteenth.'

'You are sure of that, William? Of her lying there, I mean.'

'Oh yes, sir. When we stand inshore of a morning I often go aloft and look at her. She has had her yards crossed this week and more. And as for the thirteenth - why, we never interfere with the fishing-boats, and there are some that bring us crabs and lobsters and capital soles, coming to the blind side at dusk, before we stand off for the night. They know very well what the poor old Dolphin is worth, for all her fresh putty and paint and gingerbread-work, and just how the Camel transport and the Vulture slop-ship are armed, and they beg us to keep well out in the offing on the thirteenth, and to take no notice, because the Diane is new and fast and has scantlings like a forty-gun ship - carries heavy metal - would sink any one of us with a single broadside - crew admirably well trained with both great guns and small-arms - her tops full of riflemen like those in the Redoutable who killed Lord Nelson. And in any event a heavy corvette is going to wait for her off the cape and see her well clear of soundings in case she should run into Euryalus, due to come up from Gib about the middle of the month. They may exaggerate our fate a little, but I think they speak in real kindness. They were very fond of Fanny, who did most of the talking in French - a splendid accent, very like that of Paris, I am told.'

'Shall I have the pleasure of seeing her this evening?"

'Oh no, sir. I packed her off by the cutter. I really could not in conscience carry her into action, could I, sir? I remember clearly, though it was at least an age ago, when we were in the Sophie, that the Doctor told me there was nothing worse for the female frame than gunfire. I am so sorry he did not come across.'

'He thought he might be out of place in a council of war.'

'I should have liked to tell you both my good news. But perhaps you would be so kind as to tell him from me.'

'I should be very happy to do so, if you will let me know what it is.'

'Well, sir - I am ashamed to mention it before far more important things, but the fact of the matter is, I am to be made post.' He laughed from pure happiness, adding 'With seniority from the first of next month.'

Jack sprang to his feet - a lifetime at sea shielded his head even now from the low beams above it - and grasped Babbington's hand. 'Give you joy with all my heart, William,' he cried. 'I have heard nothing that has given me so much pleasure this many and many a day. May we not drink a glass to your coming flag?'

As they drank it Babbington said 'I know very well it is mostly parliamentary interest - did you see they made my uncle Gardner a peer last week? Lord, the Ministry must be hard up - yet even so it makes me wonderfully happy. It makes dear Fanny very happy too."

'I am sure it does. But do not carry on at that rate about interest. You are a far better seaman and a far better officer than at least half the men on the list.'

'You are too kind, sir, too kind altogether. But I am not to be prating of my own affairs for ever. May I ask you, sir, whether you do contemplate any action against the Diane, and if so how I may best cooperate with you?'

'Yes, I certainly do contemplate an action - have been contemplating it pretty hard for some time. I will tell you the main lines of my plan: and I can speak without any kind of reserve, now you are to be made post. Yet even so, I will say this, William: you are the senior King's officer in this squadron, and if there is anything in my scheme you do not like for your ships or your men, tell me plain. We can settle it between us before the full council."

'Very well, sir. But it would be strange indeed if we did not agree.'

Jack looked at him affectionately. What Babbington said was true: but it was even more wholly true now that he was sure of promotion. 'Well now,' he began, 'my idea is to cut her out: all the more so now that you have told me about the corvette that is to meet her off the cape.' He spread out his chart. 'If you have an intelligent master in the squadron, William, get him to check these soundings: they are the only things likely to have changed. Now we anchor the Surprise here' - pointing to the south side of Cape Bowhead - 'with a spring on her cable; and if we can place her just right - when we come to details, you must tell me the exact set of the tides inshore on the twelfth -'

'The twelfth, sir?'

'Yes. I hope that the night before they sail most of the officers will be bowsing up their jibs ashore, which will prevent their being knocked on the head or encouraging their men to any wild extreme.'

'Brilliant,' said Babbington, who could conceive of no man spending the night before sailing as far as Margate in any other manner.

'If we can place her just right, then, this rise in the land protects her from the fort covering the isthmus. We drop anchor at say three-quarters flood. The boats pull off round the cape. They may be challenged at the breakwater. They will probably pass, but if they do not and we hear a musket, we start bombarding the isthmus: or rather Tom Pullings does, since I mean to lead the boarding-party myself. He does so in any case if I and the boats send up a blue light, meaning we are about to board. He blazes away like smoke and oakum, which will divert the enemy's attention - it was the isthmus that we invaded before - and give the boats time to cut the Diane out, sail her clear of the batteries at the bottom of the bay if the breeze is fair or tow her if it is not. Indeed, tow her in any event, for this sort of thing must be done quick. By that time the tide should be just on the ebb, which will be a great help. What I should like your squadron to do is to bring the ships in close in case of an emergency and to provide four boats to help in the towing.'