'Hands wear ship,' said Hornblower. 'Lay her on the port tack.'
There was no need to tell the hands to do it quietly; they were as well aware of their danger as anyone. Le Rêve silently rounded-to, the sheets were hauled in and coiled down without a sound; and the sloop, as close to the wind as she would lie, heeled to the small wind, meeting the lumpy waves with her port bow.
'We'll be crossing their course now,' said Hornblower.
'Please God it'll be under their sterns and not their bows,' said Winyatt.
There was the duchess still in her cloak and hood, standing right aft as much out of the way as possible.
'Don't you think Your Grace had better go below?' asked Hornblower, making use by a great effort of the formal form of address.
'Oh, no, please,' said the duchess. 'I couldn't bear it.' Hornblower shrugged his shoulders, and promptly forgot the duchess's presence again as a new anxiety struck him. He dived below and came up again with the two big sealed envelopes of despatches. He took a belaying pin from the rail and began very carefully to tie the envelopes to the pin with a bit of line.
'Please,' said the duchess, 'please, Mr Hornblower, tell me what you are doing?'
'I want to make sure these will sink when I throw them overboard if we're captured,' said Hornblower grimly.
'Then they'll be lost for good?'