It was then that Elvina realised he was deliberately playing for time. The towrope that had been provided and which had lain waiting all the afternoon proved to be too short.
Others were procured only to snap unaccountably as soon as any strain was put on them.
The French Commodore began shouting instructions and the men in the ship shouted back.
The Captain, peculiarly flustered it seemed to Elvina over a very small matter compared with what they had all been through last night, gave orders and countermanded them so that the men ran first in one direction, then in another and finally achieved nothing.
‘What is Lord Wye waiting for?’ she wondered.
She looked out to sea and knew that any hope of rescue by an English ship was quite out of the question. The English might have a free pass
