The Last Cavalier by Lauren Yoder

Author:Lauren Yoder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

LI

The Fake English Ship

MADAME LEROUX HAD BEEN completely won over by the handful of gold she saw gleaming between her guest’s fingers. So as not to disturb him, she had arranged for supper to be served in the room next to his. The table, laden with oysters and set with glasses of three different shapes and shiny silverware next to each plate, as well as offering two bottles of Chablis, both uncorked, presented an inviting picture. The old sailor stopped at the door and laughed at the sight of it: “Ah,” he said, “if you expect to eat like this every day while you’re at sea, you are sorely mistaken, my young friend. Although on Surcouf’s ships they do set a good table, we eat beans more often than roast chicken.”

“Well, my friend, when we need to eat beans, we shall eat beans, but in the meantime, since we have oysters, let’s eat oysters. But first—you know my name, only I don’t know yours, and it would be easier to converse if I did. So, what is your name, my friend?”

“Saint-Jean, at your service. On board ship they called me Grand-Hune, because I was a topman. Whenever we fought, that’s where my post was.”

“Very well, Saint-Jean. A glass of Chablis? This Chablis has not crossed the equator, I guarantee.”

Saint-Jean held out his glass as René poured. Then eagerly he began to drink. “Damn!” he said when he’d finished. “And I thought it was just cider. Pour me another glass, comrade, so I can offer it my apologies for behaving so cavalierly with the first.”

René did not need to be asked twice. His intentions were to get Saint-Jean to talk and to speak as little as possible himself. After the Chablis came the Bordeaux, and after the Bordeaux, the Burgundy, and after the Burgundy there was Champagne. Saint-Jean, pure of heart, put up no resistance.

Over dessert, René said, “I believe it is time to tell the rest of your story, how Surcouf managed to finish his cruise on an English ship instead of on the Confiance.”

“When we changed tack so we could heave to, the two ships were no more than two leagues apart. I was at my post on the maintop with a spyglass. I immediately informed the captain that the other ship’s guns were hidden, that it was superbly fitted out, and that its sails were trimmed English-style. We still needed to know what kind of ship it was and how strong, but while the captain and I are talking, the position of the Confiance becomes problematic, because the wind, weak at first, now stiffens so much that soon we are moving along at four knots. So, in order to remove all doubts and to find out all we can about the enemy, we get rid of our small sails and begin to luff at two points to the wind, to move closer to the other ship. Immediately it performs the same operation; if it were not larger than us, one might think it was our shadow.

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