The Wing and Wing by J. Fenimore Cooper

J >> J. Fenimore Cooper >> The Wing and Wing

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"Well, Winchester, to be frank with you, I should _not_. You are a good
first; and that is an office in which a man usually wants all the head
he has; and I'm not at all certain you have any to spare. I wonder if
one could not hire a felucca, or something larger than a boat, in this
place, by means of which we could play a trick upon this fellow, and
effect our purpose quite as well as by going up to him in our open boats
bull-dog fashion?"

"No question of it at all, sir; Griffin says there are a dozen feluccas
in port here, all afraid to budge an inch in consequence of this chap's
being in the offing. Now one of these trying to slip along shore might
just serve as a bait for him, and then he would be famously hooked."

"I think I have it, Winchester. You understand; we have not yet been
seen to communicate with the town; and luckily our French colors have
been flying all the morning Our head, too, is in-shore, and we shall
drift so far to the eastward in a few minutes as will shut in our hull,
if not our upper sails, from the lugger where she now lies. As soon as
this is done you shall be off with forty picked men for the shore.
Engage a felucca and come out stealing along the rocks as close as you
can, as if distrusting _us_. In due time we will chase you in the boats,
and then you must make for the lugger for protection as fast as you can,
when, betwixt the two, I'll answer for it, you get this Master Yvard, by
fair means or foul."

Winchester was delighted with the scheme, and in less than five minutes
orders were issued for the men to be detailed and armed. Then a
conference was held as to all the minor arrangements; when, the ship
having become shut in from the lugger by the promontory, as expected,
the boats departed. Half an hour later, or just as the Proserpine, after
wearing, had got near the point where the lugger would be again open,
the boats returned and were run up. Presently the two vessels were again
in sight of each other, everything on board of each remaining apparently
_in statu quo._ Thus far, certainly, the stratagem had been adroitly
managed. To add to it, the batteries now fired ten or twelve guns at the
frigate, taking very good care not to hit her; which the Proserpine
returned, under the French ensign, having used the still greater
precaution of drawing the shot. All this was done by an arrangement
between Winchester and Andrea Barrofaldi, and with the sole view to
induce Raoul Yvard to fancy that he was still believed to be an
Englishman by the worthy vice-governatore, while the ship in the offing
was taken for an enemy. A light air from the southward, which lasted
from eight to nine o'clock, allowed the frigate to get somewhat more of
an offing the while, placing her seemingly beyond the reach of danger.

During the prevalence of the light air mentioned, Raoul Yvard did not
see fit to stir tack or sheet, as it is termed among seamen. Le
Feu-Follet remained so stationary that, had she been by compass from
any station on the shore, her direction would not have varied a degree
the whole time. But this hour of comparative breeze sufficed to enable
Winchester to get out of the harbor with la Divina Providenza, the
felucca he had hired, and to round the promontory, under the seeming
protection of the guns by which it was crowned; coming in view of the
lugger precisely as the latter relieved her man at the helm for ten
o'clock. There were eight or nine men visible on the felucca's deck, all
dressed in the guise of Italians, with caps and striped shirts of
cotton. Thirty-five men were concealed in the hold.

Thus far everything was favorable to the wishes of Captain Cuffe and his
followers. The frigate was about a league from the lugger, and half that
distance from la Divina Providenza; the latter had got fairly to sea and
was slowly coming to a situation from which it might seem reasonable and
a matter of course for the Proserpine to send boats in chase; while the
manner in which she gradually drew nearer to the lugger was not such as
to excite distrust or to appear in the least designed. The wind, too,
had got to be so light as to favor the whole scheme.

It is not to be supposed that Raoul Yvard and his followers were
unobservant of what was passing. It is true that the latter wilfully
protracted his departure, under the pretence that it was safer to have
his enemy in sight during the day, knowing how easy it would be to elude
him in the dark; but, in reality, that he might prolong the pleasure of
having Ghita on board; and it is also true that he had passed a
delightful hour that morning in the cabin; but, then, his understanding
eye noted the minutest fact that occurred, and his orders were always
ready to meet any emergency that might arise. Very different was the
case with Ithuel. The Proserpine was his bane; and, even while eating
his breakfast, which he took on the heel of the bowsprit, expressly with
that intent, his eye was seldom a minute off the frigate, unless it was
for the short period she was shut in by the land. It was impossible for
any one in the lugger to say whether her character was or was not known
in Porto Ferrajo; but the circumstance of the blue-lights burnt in the
government-house itself, and witnessed by Ithuel, rendered the latter,
to say the least, probable, and induced more caution than might
otherwise have been shown. Still, there was no reason to suspect the
character of the felucca, and the confident manner in which she came
down toward the lugger, though considerably in-shore of her, gave reason
to believe that _she_ at least was ignorant that le Feu-Follet was
an enemy.

"That felucca is the craft which lay near the landing," quietly observed
Raoul, who had now come on the forecastle with a view to converse with
Ithuel; "her name is la Divina Providenza; she is given to smuggling
between Leghorn and Corsica, and is probably bound to the latter at this
moment. It is a bold step, too, to stand directly for her port under
such circumstances!"

"Leghorn is a free port," returned Ithuel; "and smuggling is not
needed."

"Aye, free as to friends, but not free to come and go between enemies.
No port is free in that sense; it being treason for a craft to
communicate with the foe, unless she happen to be le Feu-Follet,"
observed Raoul, laughing; "we _are_ privileged, _mon brave_!"

"Corsica or Capraya, she'll reach neither to-day, unless she find more
wind. I do not understand why the man has sailed with no more air than
will serve to blow out a pocket-handkerchief."

"These little feluccas, like our little lugger, slip along even when
there seems to be no wind at all. Then he may be bound to Bastia; in
which case he is wise in getting an offing before the zephyr sets in for
the afternoon. Let him get a league or two out here more to the
northwest, and he can make a straight wake to Bastia, after his
siesta is over."

"Aye, there go those greedy Englishmen a'ter him!" said Ithuel; "it's
as I expected; let 'em see the chance of making a guinea, and they'll
strive for it, though it be ag'in law or ag'in natur'. Now, what have
they to do with a Neapolitan felucca, England being a sworn friend
of Naples?"

Raoul made no reply to this, but stood watching the movement in silence.
The reader will readily enough understand that Ithuel's remark was
elicited by the appearance of the boats, which, five in number, at that
instant pulled off from the frigate's side and proceeded steadily toward
the felucca.

It may be necessary now to mention the relative positions of the
parties, the hour, and the precise state of the weather, with a view to
give the reader clear ideas of the events that succeeded. Le Feu-Follet
had not materially changed her place since her jib-sheet was first
hauled over. She still lay about a league a little north-of-west from
the residence of Andrea Barrofaldi, and in plain view of it; a deep bay
being south of her and abeam. No alterations had been made in her canvas
or her helm; most of the first being still in the brails and the latter
down. As the head of the frigate had been kept to the westward for the
last hour, she had forged some distance in that direction, and was now
quite as near the lugger as was the promontory, though nearly two miles
off the land. Her courses were hauled up, on account of the lightness of
the air; but all her upper sails stood, and were carefully watched and
trimmed, in order to make the most of the cats'-paws, or rather of the
breathings of the atmosphere, which occasionally caused the royals to
swell outward. On the whole, she might be drawing nearer to the lugger
at the rate of about a knot in an hour. La Divina Providenza was just
out of gun-shot from the frigate and about a mile from the lugger when
the boats shoved off from the former, though quite near the land, just
opening the bay so often named. The boats, of course, were pulling in a
straight line from the vessel they had just left toward that of which
they were in pursuit.

As to the time the day had advanced as far as eleven, which is a
portion of the twenty-four hours when the Mediterranean, in the summer
months, is apt to be as smooth as a mirror and as calm as if it never
knew a tempest. Throughout the morning there had been some irregularity
in the currents of air; the southerly breeze, generally light and
frequently fickle, having been even more light and baffling than common.
Still, as has been seen, there was sufficient air to force a vessel
through the water; and, had Raoul been as diligent as the people of the
two other craft, he might at that moment have been off the western end
of the island and far out of harm's way. As it was, he had continued
watching the result, but permitting all the other parties gradually to
approach him.

It must be allowed that the ruse of the felucca was well planned; and it
now seemed about to be admirably executed. Had it not been for Ithuel's
very positive knowledge of the ship--his entire certainty of her being
his old prison, as he bitterly called her--it is not improbable that the
lugger's crew might have been the dupe of so much well-acted ingenuity;
and as it was, opinions were greatly divided, Raoul himself being more
than half disposed to fancy that his American ally, for once, was wrong,
and that the ship in sight was actually what she professed to be--a
cruiser of the republic.

Both Winchester, who was in la Divina Providenza, and Griffin, who
commanded the boats, played their parts in perfection. They understood
too well the character of the wily and practised foe with whom they had
to deal, to neglect the smallest of the details of their well-concerted
plan. Instead of heading toward the lugger as soon as the chase
commenced, the felucca appeared disposed to enter the bay and to find an
anchorage under the protection of a small battery that had been planted
for this express purpose near its head. But the distance was so great as
obviously to render such an experiment bootless; and, after looking in
that direction a few minutes, the head of la Divina Providenza was laid
off shore, and she made every possible effort to put herself under the
cover of the lugger. All this was done in plain view of Raoul, whose
glass was constantly at his eye, and who studied the smallest movement
with jealous distrust. Winchester, fortunately for his purpose, was a
dark-complexioned man of moderate stature and with bushy whiskers, such
as a man-of-war's-man is apt to cultivate on a long cruise; and, in his
red Phrygian cap, striped shirt, and white cotton trousers, he looked
the Italian as well as could have been desired. The men in sight, too,
had been selected for their appearance, several of them being actually
foreigners, born on the shores of the Mediterranean; it being seldom
indeed that the crew of an English or an American vessel of war does not
afford a representation of half the maritime nations of the earth. These
men exhibited a proper degree of confusion and alarm, too, running to
and fro as soon as the chase became lively; exerting themselves, but
doing it without order and concert. At length, the wind failing almost
entirely, they got out two sweeps and began to pull lustily; the real as
well as the apparent desire being to get as near as possible to
the lugger.

"_Peste!_" exclaimed Raoul; "all this seems right--what if the frigate
should be French after all? These men in the boats look like my brave
compatriotes!"

"They are regular John Bulls," answered Ithuel, positively, "and the
ship is the spiteful Proserpyne," for so the New Hampshire man always
called his old prison. "As for them French hats and the way they have of
rowing, they act it all for a take-in. Just let a six-pound shot in
among 'em, and see how they'll throw off their French airs and take to
their English schooling."

"I'll not do that; for we might injure a friend. What are those fellows
in the felucca about now?"

"Why, they've got a small gun--yes, it's a twelve-pound carronade, under
the tarpaulin, for'rard of their foremast, and they're clearin' it away
for sarvice. We shall have something doin' 'fore the end of the week!"

"_Bien_--it is as you say--and, _voila_, they train the piece on the
boats!"

As this was said, the felucca was half concealed in smoke. Then came the
discharge of the gun. The shot was seen skipping along the water, at a
safe distance from the leading boat certainly, and yet sufficiently near
to make it pass for indifferent gunnery. This leading boat was the
Proserpine's launch, which carried a similar carronade on its grating
forward, and not half a minute was suffered to pass before the fire was
returned. So steady were the men, and so nicely were all parts of this
plot calculated, that the shot came whistling through the air in a
direct line for the felucca, striking its mainyard about half-way
between the mast and the peak of the sail, letting the former down
by the run.

"Human natur'!" ejaculated Ithuel--"this is acting up to the contract,
dollars and cents! Captain Rule, they shoot better in sport than when
they're in downright airnest."

"This looks like real work," answered Raoul. "A man does not often shoot
away the mainyard of his friend on purpose."

As soon as the crews of the boats saw the end of the yard come down,
they ceased rowing and gave three hearty cheers, taking the signal from
Griffin, who stood erect in the stern of the launch to give it.

"Bah!" cried Raoul--"these are English John Bulls without a shadow of
doubt. Who ever knew the men of the republic shout like so many Italian
fantoccini pulled by wires! Ah! Messieurs les Anglais, you have betrayed
your secret by your infernal throats; now look to hear us tell the
remainder of the story"

Ithuel rubbed his hands with delight, perfectly satisfied that Raoul
could no longer be deceived, though the fire between the felucca and the
launch was kept up with spirit, the shooting being such as might have
done credit to a _bona fide_ conflict. All this time the sweep of the
felucca were plied, the boats advancing at least two feet to the chase's
one. La Divina Providenza might now have been three hundred yards from
the lugger: and the launch, the nearest of the pursuers, about the same
distance astern of the felucca. Ten minutes more would certainly bring
the seeming combatants alongside of each other.

Raoul ordered the sweeps of le Feu-Follet to be run out and manned. At
the same time her guns, twelve-pound carronades, were cast loose and
primed. Of these she had four of a side, while the two sixes on her
forecastle were prepared for similar service. When everything was ready,
the twelve sweeps dropped into the water, as by a common instinct, and a
powerful effort started the lugger ahead. Her jib and jigger were both
brailed at that instant. A single minute sufficed to teach Winchester
how hopeless pursuit would be in the felucca, if not in the boats
themselves, should the lugger endeavor to escape in this manner; it
being quite practicable for her strong crew to force her through the
water by means of her sweeps alone from three to three and a half knots
in the hour. But flight did not appear to be her object; for her head
was laid toward la Divina Providenza, as if, deceived by the artifice of
the English, she intended to prevent the capture of the felucca and to
cover a friend.

Raoul, however, understood himself far better than this supposition
would give reason to suppose. He swept the lugger up in a line with la
Divina Providenza and the boats, in the first place, as the position in
which she would be the least likely to suffer from the fire of the
latter, well knowing that whatever shot were thrown were purposely sent
so high as to do no mischief, and, in the second place, that he might
bring his enemies in a single range from his own guns. In the mean
while, the felucca and the boats not only continued to use their
carronades, but they commenced on both sides a brisk fire of musketry;
the former being now distant only a hundred yards from le Feu-Follet,
exceedingly hard pressed by her adversaries, so far as appearances were
concerned. There being no wind at all, at this juncture, the little
there had been having been entirely killed by the concussions of the
guns, the sea was getting to be fast covered with smoke; the felucca, in
particular, showing more than common of the wreathy canopy over her
decks and about her spars; for in truth powder was burnt in considerable
quantities in different parts of the vessel with this express object.
Ithuel observed, too, that in the midst of this confusion and cloud the
crew of la Divina Providenza was increasing in numbers instead of
diminishing by the combat, four sweeps next being out, each manned by
three men, while near twenty more were shortly visible, running to and
fro, and shouting to each other in a language that was intended to be
Italian, but which sounded much more, in his practised ears, like
bastard English. The felucca was not fifty yards distant when this
clamor became the loudest, and the crisis was near. The cheers of the
boats on the other side of her proclaimed the quick approach of Griffin
and his party; the bows of la Divina Providenza having been laid, in a
species of blind haste, directly in a line which would carry her
athwart-hawse of le Feu-Follet.

"_Mes enfans_," shouted Raoul--"_soyez calmes_--Fire!"

The whole of the five guns, loaded heavily with canister, were
discharged into the smoke of la Divina Providenza. The shrieks that
succeeded sufficiently proclaimed with what effect. A pause of solemn,
wondering silence followed on the part of the English, and then arose a
manly shout, as if, prepared for every contingency, they were resolved
to brave the worst. The boats were next seen coming round the bows and
stern of the felucca, dashing earnestly at their real enemy, while their
two carronades returned the fire, this time loaded and aimed with deadly
intent. But it was too late for success. As Griffin in the launch came
out of la Divina Providenz'a smoke he saw the lugger's sails all opened
and filled with the dying effort of the southerly air. So light,
however, was le Feu-Follet that a duck could hardly have sailed away
more readily from the fowler, than this little craft shot ahead,
clearing the smoke, and leaving her pursuers an additional hundred yards
behind her. As the air seemed likely to stand long enough to place his
party in extreme jeopardy, under the fire of the French, Winchester
promptly ordered the boats to relinquish the pursuit and to rally round
the felucca. This command was reluctantly obeyed, when a moment was
given to both sides for deliberation.

Le Feu-Follet had sustained no injury worth mentioning; but the English
had not less than a dozen men slain or hurt. Among the latter was
Winchester himself; and as he saw that any success which followed would
fall principally to the share of his subordinate, his wound greatly
indisposed him to pursue any further a struggle that was nearly hopeless
as it was. Not so with Raoul Yvard, however. Perceiving that the frigate
had taken the breeze as well as himself, and that she was stealing along
in the direction of the combatants, he determined to take an ample
revenge for the audacity of the attempt, and then proceed on his voyage.

The lugger accordingly tacked, and passed to windward of the felucca,
delivering a close and brisk fire as she approached. At first this fire
was returned, but the opposition soon ceased; and when le Feu-Follet
ranged up past her adversary, a few yards to windward, it was seen that
the English had deserted her to a man, carrying off their wounded. The
boats were pulling through the smoke toward the bay, taking a direction
opposite to that in which the lugger's head was laid. It would have been
easy for the French to wear and probably to have overtaken the
fugitives, sinking or capturing them to a man; but there was a touch of
high chivalry in the character of Raoul Yvard, and he declared that as
the artifice had been ingeniously planned and daringly attempted, he
would follow up his success no further. Perhaps the appearance of Ghita
on deck, imploring him to be merciful, had its influence; it is certain
that not another shot did he allow to be fired at the enemy. Instead of
pursuing her advantage in this manner, the lugger took in her
after-sails, wore short round on her heel, came to the wind to leeward
of the felucca, shivered all forward, set her jigger again, and luffed
up so near what may be called the prize that the two vessels came
together so gently as not to break an egg, as it is termed. A single
rope secured the felucca to the lugger, and Raoul, Ithuel, and a few
more stepped on board the former.

The decks of la Divina Providenza were reeking with blood, and grape and
canister were sticking in handfuls in different parts of the vessel.
Three dead bodies were found in her hold, but nothing having life was
met with on board. There was a tar-bucket filled at hand, and this was
placed beneath the hatch, covered with all the combustible materials
that could be laid hold of, and set on fire. So active were the flames
at that dry season that Raoul regretted he had not taken the precaution
to awaken them after he had removed his own vessel; but the southerly
air continuing, he was enabled to get to a safe distance before they
actually ascended the felucca's rigging and seized upon her sails.

Ten minutes were thus lost, and they had sufficed to carry the boats out
of gunshot in shore, and to bring the frigate very nearly down within
gunshot from the southeast. But, hauling aft all his sheets, Raoul soon
took the lugger clear of her flaming prize; and then she stood toward
the west end of Elba, going, as usual in so light an air, three feet to
the frigate's two. The hour, however, was not favorable to the
continuance of the breeze, and in ten more minutes it would have puzzled
the keenest senses to have detected the slightest current of air over
the surface of the sea. Such flickerings of the lamp before it burnt
entirely out were common, and Raoul felt certain that there would be no
more wind that day until they got the zephyr. Accordingly he directed
all the sails to be hauled up, an awning to be spread over the
quarter-deck, and permission was given to the people to attend to their
own affairs. The frigate, too, seemed to be aware that it was the moment
for the siesta of vessels as well as of men; for she clewed up her
royals and topgallant-sails, brailed her jib and spanker, hauled up her
courses, and lay on the water as motionless as if sticking on a shoal.
The two vessels were barely long gunshot apart, and, under ordinary
circumstances, the larger might have seen fit to attack the smaller in
boats; but the lesson just given was a sufficient pledge to the French
against the renewal of any such attempt, and they scarcely paid their
neighbor's prowess the compliment to watch him. Half an hour later, when
Winchester got back to the ship, limping with a hurt in his leg, and
with his people exhausted and mortified, it was found that the
undertaking had cost the lives of seven good men, besides the temporary
suspension of the services of fifteen more.

Captain Cuffe was aware that his enterprise had failed as soon as he
perceived the lugger under her canvas, playing around the felucca, and
the boats held in perfect command. But when he discovered the latter
pulling for the shore he was certain that they must have suffered, and
he was prepared to learn a serious loss, though not one that bore so
large a proportion to the whole numbers of the party sent on the
expedition. Winchester he considerately declined questioning while his
wound was being dressed; but Griffin was summoned to his cabin as soon
as the boats were hoisted in and stowed.

"Well, Mr. Griffin, a d--d pretty scrape is this into which you have led
me, among you, with your wish to go boating about after luggers and
Raoul Yvards! What will the admiral say when he comes to hear of
twenty-two men's being laid on the shelf, and a felucca to be paid for,
as a morning's amusement?"

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