better of audacity in
naval warfare, than he had done before, that day. This was the usual
course of things with these two officers; one arguing and deciding
according to the dictates of a cool judgment, and the other following
his impulses quite as much as any thing else, until facts supervened to
prove that human things are as much controlled by adventitious agencies,
the results of remote and unseen causes, as by any well-digested plans
laid at the moment. In their cooler hours, when they came to reason on
the past, the vice-admiral generally consummated his triumphs, by
reminding his captain that if he had not been in the way of luck, he
never could have profited by it; no bad creed for a naval officer, who
is otherwise prudent and vigilant.

The quarter-masters of the fleet were just striking six bells, or
proclaiming that it was seven o'clock in the morning watch, as the
Plantagenet and _le Temeraire_ came abeam of each other. Both ships
lurched heavily in the troughs of the seas, and both rolled to windward
in stately majesty, and yet both slid through the brine with a momentum
that resembled the imperceptible motion of a planet. The water rolled
back from their black sides and shining hammock-cloths, and all the
other dark panoply that distinguishes a ship-of-war glistened with the
spray; but no sign of hostility proceeded from either. The French
admiral made no signal to engage, and Sir Gervaise had reasons of his
own for wishing to pass the enemy's van, if possible, unnoticed. Minute
passed after minute, in breathless silence, on board the Plantagenet and
the Carnatic, the latter vessel being now but half a cable's-length
astern of the admiral. Every eye that had any outlet for such a purpose,
was riveted on the main-deck ports of _le Temeraire_ in expectation of
seeing the fire issue from her guns. Each instant, however, lessened the
chances, as regarded that particular vessel, which was soon out of the
line of fire from the Plantagenet, when the same scene was to follow
with the same result, in connection with _le Conquereur_, the second
ship of the French line. Sir Gervaise smiled as he passed the three
first ships, seemingly unnoticed; but as he drew nearer to the admiral,
he felt confident this impunity must cease.

"What they _mean_ by it all, Greenly," he observed to his companion, "is
more than I can say; but we will go nearer, and try to find out. Keep
her away a little more, sir; keep her away half