At that moment the ship blew up. One moment she was dead in the water, flames leaping up from her forehatch; the next moment she was a livid red flash.

Now the darkness seemed more intense.

Ramage suddenly felt sick. The Gascon master's stubborn behaviour, in spite of four warnings, had left him no alternative to opening fire, and he had no particular qualms about the ship being set on fire - the men could always escape in their boats - but blowing up like that, killing those who agreed with their master and those who, given the option, would have surrendered . . .

But there was no time for regrets: he gave orders for the Dido to tack and make her way to the next ship in the convoy. As soon as they were almost alongside her, Ramage called on her to surrender and heave-to. This time the master, having just seen what had happened to his next ahead, shouted his agreement and the Dido went alongside to put a prize crew on board.

As the Dido tacked to get clear and headed for the next merchantman, Ramage looked ahead carefully for the second frigate, but could not see her. 'Where's the other frigate?' he asked Southwick.

'I haven't looked for several minutes, sir, what with that ship catching fire and blowing up.' He opened the nightglass and put it to his eye. After a minute or two he said: 'That's strange, there's no sign of her. Just three more merchantmen, but not a sign of the frigate. D'you think she's bolted?'

Ramage shrugged his shoulders in the darkness. 'Couldn't blame him if he has. There's nothing much he can do to save this convoy.'

Southwick gave one of his famous sniffs but made no comment.

The last three merchantmen surrendered without any fuss, all three obviously intimidated by the fate of their countryman. With the last of the prize crews put on board, Ramage said to Aitken: 'We'll go and see how Hill is getting on with the Sirène.'

It took fifteen minutes to get back up to the Sirène, the Dido having to thread her way between merchant ships which were anyway clumsy sailers but were now being handled by inexperienced midshipmen with very few seamen.

Ramage hailed Hill, who had the frigate hove-to under a backed foretopsail. With the whole convoy now dealt with, Hill might as well carry a despatch to the admiral.

Ramage went to his cabin to write a rough draft of the despatch so that Luckhurst could make a fair copy. The report to the admiral was brief, describing how he had found the convoy, attacked it and captured one frigate and all the merchant ships. He regretted, he said, that a second frigate forming the escort had escaped in the darkness, and a merchantman refusing to surrender and apparently carrying powder had been fired at, catching fire and blowing up. He finished his draft with all the usual formalities and then called Luckhurst to make the fair copy.

He then went out on to the quarterdeck and told Aitken: 'I have a despatch for the admiral which must be taken across to Hill. Also, give him a hail and see if he has enough people. Send Orsini over with the despatch - tell him to make sure Hill is satisfied that he has everything under control.'

Paolo was soon back from the Sirène, reporting that Hill and his Marines had now secured all the prisoners and would be getting under way in about ten minutes, that he did not need more men and that the French were very cowed. 'Most of them saw the merchantman blow up,' Paolo said, 'and that knocked the stuffing out of them.'

Ramage waited with the Dido hove-to until he saw the Sirène's foretopsail sheeted home and braced sharp up as she bore up for Barbados. Then he said to Aitken: 'Set a course for Fort Royal: we still have some unfinished business there.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Early in the forenoon with the sun hot and the wind still light the Dido hove-to off Pointe des Nègres, half a mile from the stranded Achille. Through his glass Ramage could see that the French ship's boats were busy ferrying the crew to the one small beach at the end of the Pointe, leaving them an arduous climb up the cliff before they could make their way back to Fort Royal. More important she was again flying a Tricolour: the surrender was being ignored.

He told Southwick about the colours and added: 'They've given up any hope of getting her off, for the time being anyway. Perhaps they're going to bring in shipwrights to patch her up, and then pump her out until she floats clear.'

'They'll probably make an effort,' Southwick said. 'After all, she's the only ship of the line they've got out here.'

'She's the only ship of any kind they have,' Ramage corrected. 'So they're bound to make every effort to repair her. They haven't a ship to send to France asking for reinforcements!'

'The Navy is short of everything, but I wonder how badly off the Army is.'

'Well . . . they haven't had the losses that the Navy has had, so perhaps they are not in such a bad way,' Ramage said.

'Let's hope they don't bring out any guns and set them up on the cliff to cover the Achille.'

Ramage shook his head. 'We'll attack the Achille tonight. We'd lose too many men if we attacked in daylight.'

The rest of the day was spent planning the attack on the Achille. All the officers were assembled in Ramage's cabin, and he opened the proceedings by saying: 'Tonight we set fire to the Achille. We can only guess how many men they've left on board. Nor do we know whether they're expecting an attack. We must assume they are - they've seen the Dido come back and anchor close by. So we have to plan the boarding on the basis that it will be opposed.

'We'll attack with as many men as we can get in our boats. Three boats will attack over the bow, and three on the quarters: that way we can keep out of the arcs of their guns. Once we have boarded, then we set fire to her. We don't have to capture the whole ship to do that. But what is important is that the fires - I want them set at several places - take hold, and once you can see they can't be put out, then quit the ship as quickly as possible: I don't want any men on board when the magazine goes up!'

Ramage then outlined his plan, giving each of the officers their orders: telling them how many men they were to take in which boat, where they were to board the Achille, and where they were to start a fire. The men were to carry combustibles - cloths soaked in grease, jars of inflammable paint, light battens that would catch fire quickly - as well as lanterns, which would be hidden from sight until they were on board.

The point of the lanterns, Ramage explained, was that they would let the men see what they were doing, once they were on board the Achille, and the candles then could be used to set light to things, helped on by liberal applications of candlewax.

The men could choose whether they had cutlasses or boarding pikes. No one would carry a musket - they were too clumsy for boarders - but all the men would be issued with pistols. At least, he amended, they would be issued with as many pistols as were available.

Oars would obviously be muffled - it was up to the first lieutenant to see that all the oars were bound with keckling - but it was impossible to say whether the boarders would achieve surprise. They must assume they would be opposed, but only with small-arms fire.

'The important thing is setting the fires,' Ramage emphasized. 'I don't want men getting carried away with fighting the French: any fighting should be only to protect the parties as they start the fires. Our job is done once she's burning; we are not trying to carry her by boarding.'

'Should the men carry slowmatch, just in case the lanterns blow out?' asked the gunner.

'Slowmatches, and they might as well have a few false fires - they will light the place up as well as setting fire to things. A few topmen getting aloft and setting off false fires in the courses should help: the canvas is so dry it will burn easily. So remember, you who are carrying topmen in your boats should have false fires and slowmatches, and make sure the topmen know what is expected of them. Any more ideas?'