Won from the Waves

by William Henry Giles Kingston

“Well, do you write the official letter, and I will support it,” said the general, “and if necessary I will run up to town and see my official friends. Harry will get a longer spell on shore to recover from the hurts he received from those rascally highwaymen. I cannot compliment the police of your county for not catching them though. I always felt when riding about, the unpleasant possibility of having a bullet sent through my head.”

Harry said the search for them was not over, however, and that Mr Groocock especially was taking every means in his power to discover them, though, for his part, as they had failed in their attempt, unless to prevent their attacking anyone else, he had no wish to have them brought to justice, as it might compel him to remain on shore as a witness.

Little was the general aware when he made this offer that Sir Ralph had expressly got the young men appointed to different ships, and had taken care that Headland’s should be destined for a foreign station. How far, had he known this, he would have ventured to counteract the baronet’s arrangements it is difficult to say.

The next morning Harry joined the Aurora. The same day he paid Headland a visit on board the Thisbe, which had just come out of dock and been brought alongside the hulk. She was a remarkably fine corvette of eighteen guns, just such a craft as a young officer would be proud to command, and, from her build, both he and Headland thought she would prove very fast.

Within a week Harry found himself superseded, and appointed first lieutenant of the Thisbe.

Orders came down the next day to hurry on with her equipment, and Portsmouth was again alive with preparations for war.

Lord Whitworth’s final interview with Napoleon had taken place. The First Consul had stormed, and threatened, and insulted the English ambassador. All doubts as to his intentions vanished. The whole of England was aroused, for her shores were threatened with invasion. The militia were called out, and volunteers rapidly enrolled. A few months later, the great minister of England, his tall, gaunt figure dressed in regimental scarlet, might have been seen in his character of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, at the head of 3000 volunteers, drilling them as he best could. Not only he, however, but every Lord-lieutenant of England and Scotland was endeavouring to prepare his countrymen to drive the invaders from their sacred shores back into the Channel should they audaciously venture to cross it. In a short time, nearly 400,000 men, providing their own clothing, receiving no pay, and enjoying no privileges, sprang up at a word—a noble congregation of citizens, united as one individual soul, ready to fight to the death as long as a Frenchman remained in arms on their native soil.

As soon as war was declared, the general bade his naval friends farewell. “Though laid on the shelf so far as foreign service was concerned,” he observed, “it would be found, he hoped, that there was still some life left in him for duty at home.”

The Thisbe was rapidly got ready for sea. Though any men who had sailed with Captain Headland were willing to join her, there was great difficulty in procuring hands, and he knew too well the importance of having an efficient crew, to take any but the best men.

The Thisbe at length sailed with sealed orders, though still short handed. Unless she could obtain the remainder of her crew by taking them out of any homeward-bound vessels or fishing-boats, she was to put into Plymouth to make up her complement. She was to avoid, however, touching anywhere, and to proceed, if possible, with all despatch on her voyage southward. She lost sight of the Needles just as the sun sank into the ocean. A light breeze to the northward filling her sails, she made some progress during the night, but as morning approached, a thick fog came on, and she lay almost becalmed on the glass like sea. It was Harry’s morning watch. Look-outs were stationed aloft to catch the first glimpse of any sail which might be near, though their hulls and lower rigging would be hidden by the mist. It was a time when vigilance was doubly necessary, for it was possible that an enemy’s cruiser might have ventured thus far towards the English coast in the hopes of capturing any homeward-bound merchantmen in ignorance of the war.