said--

"I should think, Bunting, no captain can need an order to tell him _not_
to open his lee-lower-deck ports in such a sea as this?"

"I rather fancy not, Sir Gervaise," answered Bunting, looking drolly at
the boiling element that gushed up each minute from beneath the bottom
of the ship, in a way to appear as high as the hammock-cloths. "The
people at the _main_-deck guns would have rather a wet time of it."

"Bend on the signal, sir, for the ships astern to keep in the
vice-admiral's wake. Young gentleman," to the midshipman who always
acted as his aid in battle, "tell Captain Greenly I desire to see him as
soon as he has received all the reports."

Down to the moment when the first tap of the drum was heard, the
Plantagenet had presented a scene of singular quiet and unconcern,
considering the circumstances in which she was placed. A landsman would
scarcely credit that men could be so near their enemies, and display so
much indifference to their vicinity; but this was the result of long
habit, and a certain marine instinct that tells the sailor when any
thing serious is in the wind, and when not. The difference in the force
of the two fleets, the heavy gale, and the weatherly position of the
English, all conspired to assure the crew that nothing decisive could
yet occur. Here and there an officer or an old seaman might be seen
glancing through a port, to ascertain the force and position of the
French; but, on the whole, their fleet excited little more attention
than if lying at anchor in Cherbourg. The breakfast hour was
approaching, and that important event monopolized the principal interest
of the moment. The officers' boys, in particular, began to make their
appearance around the galley, provided, as usual, with their pots and
dishes, and, now and then, one cast a careless glance through the
nearest opening to see how the strangers looked; but as to warfare there
was much more the appearance of it between the protectors of the rights
of the different messes, than between the two great belligerent navies
themselves.

Nor was the state of things materially different in the gun-room, or
cock-pit, or on the orlops. Most of the people of a two-decked ship are
berthed on the lower gun deck, and the order to "clear ship" is more
necessary to a vessel of that construction, before going to quarters
seriously, than to smaller craft; though it is usual in all. So long as
the bags, mess-chests, and other similar app