'Shall we try and set fire to the magazine, sir?' asked Kenton.

'Most certainly not!' Ramage exclaimed. 'You'll only blow yourselves up. No, the magazine goes up as the ship burns.'

'How do we judge when a fire is well set, sir?' asked Martin.

'As soon as it's bigger than you could put out with buckets,' Ramage said. 'There'll probably be a good breeze blowing, so flames should spread quickly. Bear that in mind: where you can, always set a fire to windward of something that is obviously combustible.'

'Scattering some powder around would help, sir,' the gunner said.

'No,' Ramage said decidedly, 'no powder. Too much scope for accidents. We don't want to blow ourselves up.'

'Shall I go with the boarders or stay here?' asked Bowen, the surgeon.

'You stay here,' said a startled Ramage. 'What good could you do on board the Achille?'

'I was thinking that I could attend to casualties on the spot,' Bowen said lamely. His suggestion had been an attempt to join in the excitement, and he had the uncomfortable feeling that Ramage had realized that immediately.

'Very well,' said Ramage, looking round at all the officers. 'If there are no more questions, we may as well get started.'

The moon set soon after eleven p.m. and 150 seamen and Marines were formed up on deck in groups, ready to board the boats, which had been hauled round alongside. In addition to cutlasses, pikes, tomahawks and pistols, many of the men carried the greasy cloths with which they would start fires. Others had shaded lanterns and some carried lighted slowmatch.

The officers were drawn up ready to take command of the boats and their own parties of men. But it was slow work in the darkness preparing for the expedition. The starlight was spasmodic, interrupted by high blankets of cloud, and although the wind was still light from the east and the sea almost calm, it was hot and humid, and any effort soaked a man in perspiration.

Southwick, cheerfully striding round the deck with his great double-edged sword strapped to his waist, was looking forward to the operation because all too often lately - and in the Calypso's last actions in the Mediterranean - he had been left on board while others went off to do the fighting. This time Mr Ramage was leaving the first lieutenant in command of the Dido, Southwick had noted happily, and had put him in command of one of the pinnaces. So now he had twenty-five men in his party, ready to fight or burn the enemy. Although Southwick appreciated the main task was to set fire to the ship he hoped that the French would put up a fight. It was a long time since he had been able to use his sword, and the thought of soon unsheathing it was exciting.

Martin said to Kenton: 'I hope this is going to make up for George Hill getting command of that frigate. That's the second time. It doesn't seem fair, just because he speaks French.'

'If he didn't speak French one of us would get the job,' Kenton said soothingly. 'It's our fault, really, I didn't pay much attention at school - whoever would have thought that speaking French would come in useful? It seemed to be the last thing you'd need at sea. Mathematics and geography, yes: but French and Latin . . .'

Orsini, who had been listening to the conversation, said: 'Well, I speak French and Italian, but I don't get command of the prizes!'

'You're only a master's mate,' Martin said unsympathetically, 'and anyway, your navigation is a bit suspect.'

'It was but it isn't now,' Orsini said defensively. 'I've been working hard at it since we joined the Dido. Mr Southwick is very pleased with the progress I've made.'

'Maybe so,' said Kenton, 'but do you feel confident enough to take command of a frigate?'

'Give me a few good men and let me have the chance,' Orsini said impulsively. 'The trouble is there don't seem to be any frigates left!'

'Be patient,' Martin said, 'the French may send out some more. Or we might find the one that got away.'

'If he's got any sense he's already on his way back to France,' Kenton said. 'That merchantman blowing up probably persuaded him.'

'More likely he saw us in the flash and realized the convoy was being attacked by a ship of the line.'

At that moment Aitken's voice came out of the darkness: 'I hope you have inspected your men and are all ready to embark.'

The three of them assured him they were, and he added: 'Don't be misled by the French landing some of their men: there may be a couple of hundred - maybe a lot more - still left on board. Don't forget, we're not trying to capture the ship; we just want to set fire to it.'

After Aitken had gone, Kenton said: 'If the French have a couple of hundred men still left on board, we've got a fight on our hands. Boarding a ship of the line isn't like boarding a frigate: her freeboard is so much higher. Still, since she's bigger the French have more to defend.'

'And we have more to attack,' Martin said ruefully. 'On the other hand, it hasn't rained for days, so her woodwork is nice and dry. It should be easy enough to start fires.'

'Wood that's been soaked hundreds of times in salt water won't burn too easily,' Kenton warned. 'I'm going to go for sails, if I can.'

'Even rigging should burn well,' Orsini said. 'After all, it's coated in tar, so it won't have soaked up much salt. If you set fire to a few shrouds the flames should run up the masts and set fire to the courses.'

'What we need is a thunderstorm so that lightning strikes her,' Martin grumbled. 'That'd save us a lot of bother.'

It was after midnight when Ramage gave the order to start and led the way down to the boats, boarding the launch and settling himself down in the sternsheets, telling Jackson: 'Shove off. And no talking. You know where to make for, and make sure you don't get in the field of fire of those guns - just in case they spot us.'

'Aye aye, sir,' Jackson said. 'We'll be like ghosts.'

Ramage sat alone with his thoughts. He was still not sure that he was doing the right thing. For the task of destroying the Achille he had two choices: he could bring the Dido in and, as he had done when he attacked her in the first place, sail back and forth across her stern, raking her. That would take hours - destroying a ship by gunfire alone could be very difficult. Silencing her was one thing; destroying her was something quite different. Which left him with boarding her and setting her on fire. That was certain but was far riskier. As far as the Achille was concerned, it was riskier because he had no idea how many Frenchmen had been landed, and therefore how many were left on board. When the Dido had arrived and anchored, the Achille was landing men on the beach. Were they abandoning the ship? Were they the first fifty or were they the last? There was no way of knowing. So they were boarding her not knowing whether there were five hundred men on board or twenty.

That was why he had emphasized to his officers that all they were concerned with was getting on board the ship, setting a few fires, and then getting off as quickly as possible: they were not trying to capture the Frenchman; this was not a regular boarding - as when they had taken the Alerte. They were, he thought wryly, concerned only with arson.

He could make out the black shape of the Achille - she seemed enormous in the darkness. To anyone who loved ships for themselves, it was a sad thought that this handsome ship - for she had a pleasing sheer - was not only wedged on the rocks, but if all went well within half an hour would be only so much charred wreckage floating on the sea. Two thousand large trees, each piece carefully shaped by skilled men, had been used to build her ... his imagination roamed, helped by the darkness.

The men were rowing easily and silently: Aitken had done a good job of making sure that each oar was bound with keckling to stop it squeaking against the thole pins. The men were being careful to dip their oars deeply so they did not 'catch a crab' and make a splash.