: G. A. Henty
: Under Wellington's Command
: Seltzer Books
: 9781455367825
: 1
: CHF 0.70
:
: Erzählende Literatur
: English
: 706
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

Historical novel set in Spain, where the British battled the French in the Napoleonic Wars.The Preface begins: ''As many boys into whose hands the present volume may fall will not have read my last year's book, With Moore in Corunna, of which this is a continuation, it is necessary that a few words should be said, to enable them to take up the thread of the story. It was impossible, in the limits of one book, to give even an outline of the story of the Peninsular War, without devoting the whole space to the military operations. It would, in fact, have been a history rather than a tale; and it accordingly closed with the passage of the Douro, and the expulsion of the French from Portugal.' According to Wikipedia: 'George Alfred Henty (8 December 1832 - 16 November 1902), referred to as G. A. Henty, was a prolific English novelist, special correspondent, and Imperialist born in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, England. He is best known for his historical adventure stories that were popular in the late 19th century. His works include Out on the Pampas (1871), The Young Buglers (1880), With Clive in India (1884) and Wulf the Saxon (1895).'

Chapter 7: A French Privateer.


 

 Terence went off into a deep sleep as soon as he had pulled the sail over his head, but it seemed to him as if but a minute had elapsed when his companion began to stir him up with his foot.

 

"What is it?" he asked.

 

"I am awfully sorry to wake you," Ryan shouted,"but you have had two hours of it, and I really cannot keep my eyes open any longer. I have felt myself going off, two or three times."

 

"You don't mean to say that I have been asleep for two hours?"

 

"You have, and a few minutes over. I looked at my watch as you lay down."

 

"All right! Give me the oar. I say, it is blowing hard!"

 

"I should think it is. It seems to me it is getting up, rather than going down."

 

"Well, we are all right so far," Terence said cheerfully, for he was now wide awake again."Besides, we are getting quite skilful mariners. You had better spend a few minutes at baling before you lie down, for the water is a good three inches over the boards."

 

All day the storm continued and, when darkness began to close in, it seemed to them that it was blowing harder than ever. Each had had two spells of sleep, and they agreed that they could now keep awake throughout the night. It was bad enough having no one to speak to all day, but at night they felt that companionship was absolutely needed. During the day they had lashed together the spars, sail, and the barrel of water--which was now nearly half empty--so that if the boat should be swamped, they could cling to this support.

 

It was a terrible night but, towards morning, both were of opinion that the gale was somewhat abating. About eight o'clock there were breaks in the clouds and, by noon, the sun was shining brightly. The wind was still blowing strong, but nothing to what it had been the evening before and, by nightfall, the sea was beginning to go down. The waves were as high as before, but were no longer broken and crested with heads of foam and, at ten o'clock, they felt that they could both safely lie down till morning.

 

The steering oar was lashed in its position, the sail spread over the whole of the stern of the boat, every drop of