rass
grow under his feet. If the thing was to be done, let it be done at
once; and the British tar is never a laggard when there is fighting
or adventure to be had!

Julian and Humphrey volunteered for the service. Humphrey was a
favourite with the sailors, having been employed almost constantly
in carrying messages to and from the fleet, or in helping to land
transports. He was as expert now in the management of a boat as the
best of the jack tars, and was eager to take part in the daring
enterprise which was to be carried out that night.

Six hundred sailors, collected from different vessels, were to be
told off for the task. They set to work with hearty goodwill,
muffling their oars, and preparing for their noiseless advance into
the harbour. The guns would roar ceaselessly overhead. That would
do much to drown any sound from the water. Still, care and caution
would have to be exercised; for the batteries of the fortress
commanded the harbour, and the ships lay beneath their protecting
guns. If the little flotilla betrayed its approach by any unguarded
sound, it might easily be annihilated before ever it could approach
its goal. So that the task set the hardy sailors was not without
its distinct element of peril, which was perhaps its chiefest
attraction.

The shades of night gathered slowly over land and sea. It seemed to
Humphrey and some of those waiting in the boats as though night had
never fallen so slowly before. But their eyes were gladdened by the
sight of the soft fog wreaths which crept over the water as the
dusk fell, lying upon it like a soft blanket, and blotting out the
distance as much as the darkness could do.

It was not a heavy fog. The sailors were in no danger of losing
their way as they rowed, first for the harbour mouth, and then for
the two French warships at anchor beneath the batteries. But it was
thick enough to hide their approach from those on land. It was not
probable that even the crews of the vessels would be aware of their
close proximity till the word to board was given. Unless some
accidental and unguarded sound betrayed their advance, they might
in all likelihood carry all before them by a surprise movement.

Julian was in the same boat as the officer in command of the
expedition. His intimate knowledge of the position of the war
vessels would be of use in this murk and darkness. Humphrey took an
oar in the same boat; and the little fleet got together, and
commenced its sil