given us so convincing a taste of
their quality; it had therefore been arranged that, upon shoving off,
the boats should be formed into two divisions for the purpose of
attacking the batteries and spiking the guns. This, accordingly, was
now done, the launch and first cutter forming the starboard division,
destined to attack the battery on the western headland, while the yawl
and the second cutter, led by the master, constituted the port division,
the mission of which was to silence effectively the battery on the
eastern headland of the harbour. The first lieutenant and the master
made a few brief final arrangements, and then the divisions separated,
each steering for its own proper headland, the senior officer leading
and the other following close behind, so as to show as inconspicuously
as might be on the dark surface of the water, and thus, if luck favoured
us, take the Frenchmen unawares.

Meanwhile, the night was passing rapidly away; for we had scarcely got
clear of the frigate when seven bells of the middle watch was struck,
and, it being then the middle of August, we might expect daylight very
shortly, when a surprise would at once become an impossibility; the word
was therefore passed for the oarsmen to give way at top speed, and away
we all went, as if for a wager, the two divisions heading respectively
south-west and south-east, in the hope that we might get close enough in
with the land to escape detection, and even possibly to land, before the
coming dawn betrayed us.

Now, although we were travelling at racing pace, our progress was
practically noiseless, the only sounds being the dip of oars in the
water and the lap and gurgle of the water about the boats' bows, Captain
Vavassour having already had the oars of these boats fitted to work in
rope grummets shipping over a single stout pin, instead of in the usual
rowlocks, and since much care had been used to render the grummets
tight-fitting, while the leathers had been well greased, there was none
of the usual rattle of oars in rowlocks,--a sound which in quiet weather
may often be heard at an almost incredible distance,--nor, thanks to the
greasing of the leathers, was there any creaking or grinding of the oars
against the pins; and of course no conversation was permitted beyond an
occasional whispered order to the coxswain.

In this fashion, then, we pulled shoreward, the distance to be traversed
being about three miles; and when at length the dawn