'By that time the boatkeeper, who at the moment is astern in the cutter, fast asleep, will with Jackson's help have the cutter ready alongside the larboard quarter. As soon as I hear from Stafford that the fuses are burning steadily, I shall order "Abandon ship", and we get down into the cutter and row seaward very quickly. Seaward because the French will find it harder to fire at us with muskets from over their bow, and because it is darker to seaward.

'If there is any problem with the fuses, we'll leave Stafford behind to deal with it because he has such nimble fingers.'

Again that brought laughter and some teasing of Stafford, and when the men were quiet again Ramage said: 'From now on, no more talking; sound carries on a night like this, and we want the sentries and lookouts in that 74 to remain merely curious why a couple of their brigs are coming up to them; we don't want 'em too suspicious. Not until we're alongside, anyway, when we'll allow them to begin to wonder!'

He looked across at the Muscade and then ahead at theFrenchmen. It was time to take in the courses.

'Man the main and fore clew garnets, buntlines and leechlines', he called, and within minutes the Merle's two biggest sails were furled on the yards. It was as if a great door had been opened forward: now he had an uninterrupted view of the sea and sky and the land: the orange disc of the moon, the hard black, wavy shadow of hills and cliffs, and the hint of a white line where waves were breaking and swirling among the rocks, like a hinge between the sea and the sky.

The French ship of the line was getting large now: first her royal masts, thin and spidery, rose above the dark hills behind; then Ramage could make out her topmasts and yards. And as he watched he could see out of the corner of his eye the Muscade exactly in position in relation to the Merle; both brigs were approaching the apex of the triangle.

Were ten minutes enough for them to get clear in the boats? He began to wonder, and the more he thought about it the more he wished he had added another five minutes. Southwick, for example, was not as nimble as the young seamen, and he would insist on being the last down into the gig.

What kind of explosion would 150 tons of powder make, plus seventy-five tons on the other side? And - he realized his mistake in forgetting it - all the powder in the French ship's magazine: that would go up too, and she was unlikely to be carrying less than fifty tons. There would be something approaching a tidal wave; they would have to watch out for it as they fled. To be pooped by the tidal wave you caused yourself would be the crowning, or drowning, irony.

He could make out almost every detail of the Frenchman now: the rigging was black lace, like fishing nets drying on stakes, the yards the bare boughs of a tree in winter. The ship was swinging slightly from odd wind currents bouncing off the hills, or eddies as the sea rebounded from the base of the cliffs. Just enough of a swing that neither he nor Southwick would be able to approach on a course parallel with the Frenchman's centreline; they would have to come in at a slight angle so that they could avoid her jibboom and bowsprit if she swung, jinking by putting their helms over at the last moment so the brigs turned inwards, like two arms clasping a package.

The French ship was all black: she swung just enough for him to see that she had no strake of light colour or white to pick out the sheer. Her portlids were closed so the guns were neither loaded nor run out. Her yards were not square - but then she was French, and if she stayed there at anchor for a week, they would still be almost a'cockbill. Southwick will already have noticed that!

She was lying to a single anchor; that was obvious from the slight swing, but Ramage thought he could make out the cable on the larboard bow. That too would make sense if she anticipated wind and swell from the south.

No shout and no challenge. Had the brigs been ships of war they would have had to be ready to answer the night challenge - lanterns arranged in a particular pattern - with an answer that differed only in the positions of the lanterns; but merchant ships were issued with neither challenge nor reply.

'Are you ready there at the fuses, Stafford?'

'Aye aye, sir; we have two lanterns.'

He looked up at the mainyard and, making a trumpet with his hands, called softly: 'Man the fore and maintopsail clewlines and buntlines ... Hands stand by the sheets ...'

The ship of the line was now fine on the starboard bow.

'That's as far as she swings to starboard?' he asked Jackson.

'Yes, sir. I've been steering on that.'

'You may have to come up a point at the last moment -'

'Sir - look at the Muscade!'

Stafford was calling urgently from the hatch and Ramage looked over to find Southwick's brig drawing aft and heeling over to larboard. No, not just drawing aft but being left astern!

She was listing, not heeling; the end of her mainyard must be almost in the water. Had she sprung a sudden leak? Was she capsizing? But even as he watched, almost rigid with apprehension, Ramage saw she was up by the bow and was not listing more: she seemed immovable. Obviously she had just sailed into a rock or on to a reef with enough force to lift up her bow; then she must have rolled over enough to heel the ship.

Suddenly the yards swung fore and aft and Ramage saw her topsails fluttering like shaken towels as sheets were cut and braces let fly to ease the pressure on the canvas and the masts.

Ahead the French 74 was anchored not more than five hundred yards from the Merle, and as he recovered from the shock of the Muscade and decided it was too late to worry whether there were reefs between the Merle and the enemy, Ramage realized that his nutcracker plan was ruined; the nutcrackers had lost one arm; there was now no way of squeezing from both sides.

Five hundred yards to go ... Should he bear up and beat out of the gulf, picking up Southwick and his men as he went? If so he had to give the order to Jackson at this very moment - and he had to get both topsails and courses drawing again.

No, the fact that Southwick's brig had hit a rock was no reason why a French 74 should escape destruction, and the nutcracker plan was not the only way of doing it.

In fact, it was a dam' silly way: from her very shape and the thickness of futtocks and planking, the sides of a ship of the line were enormously strong; not only were all her guns arranged along her sides, firing out through the gunports, but that was where she was designed to receive all the punishment in the usual battle of broadsides.

Any ship of war's weakest point was her bow: there the stays came down from the masts to the bowsprit and jibboom; wrench away those two spars and there was a good chance of bringing down the foremast. And the ship, because of the batten-and-canvas bulkheads, was open from bow to stern. The bow itself was strong enough to withstand a heavy sea, but everyone feared being raked - having a broadside (or even a single gun) fired through the bow or into the stern so that the shot swept the unprotected length of the ship.

Very well, that 74's bow was like a bull's nose, the most tender spot.

'Calypsos!' Ramage yelled, 'change of plan! We're not going alongside, we'll just -' But he broke off; there was no time to finish the sentence without creating confusion.

It was essential at times like this to remember that the ship's bow turned the opposite way to the wheel order.

'Hard a' port!' he snapped at Jackson, and as the American spun the wheel the brig's bow began to swing to starboard towards the French 74's jibboom, which stuck out like a fishing rod from a river bank, moving gently across the horizon.

As soon as he was sure the brig was really swinging he said calmly: 'Now up with the helm, Jackson, and jam us athwart his hawse!'