Captain Brine was up the coast and down the coast in every direction; and if he could manage to appear at a point where the wind was least likely to allow him to be, by dint of slashing at it in the offing against a head wind, or by creeping in shore with short tacks, he was always more pleased and satisfied, and so were his crew.
The wind was north-east, the ship’s head was south; it was in the month of March, and the weather not over balmy.
“A sail on the weather bow!” cried the lookout from the masthead.
“What is she like?” asked the second lieutenant, who had charge of the deck.
“She looms large, sir,” was the answer.
The information was notified to the Captain, who was on deck in an instant.
Whether the stranger was friend or foe was the next question to be ascertained. Doubts were expressed as to that point both fore and aft. She was a frigate, that was very certain; still, without trying her with the private signal, Captain Brine did not like to haul his wind and make sail away from her. The nearer she drew, the more French she looked. Eighteen guns to thirty-eight or forty, which probably the stranger carried, was a greater disproportion than even the gallant Brine was inclined to encounter. All hands stood ready to make sail at an instant’s notice.
At length the two ships drew almost near enough to exchange signals. “That ship is French, depend on it, sir!” exclaimed the first lieutenant to the Captain.
“I am not quite so certain of that, Digby,” answered Captain Brine. “But if she is not an enemy, she is the Diamond frigate, commanded by Sir Sydney Smith. He has a wonderful knack of disguising his ship. I have known him to deceive the French themselves, and quietly to sail under a battery, look into a port, and be out again before he was suspected. He delights in such sort of work, and is not over bashful in describing afterwards what he has done. We shall soon, however, ascertain the truth. Try the stranger now with our private signals.”
The flags were run up, and in a short time Sir Henry exclaimed, “You are right, sir! She replies, and makes the Diamond’s number. There is another signal now. Sir Sydney orders us to close with him.”