noon
I trimmed sails , the wind filled them . Once more the craft began to move . She slipped faster and faster through the water , and away she went before the wind with everything we could clap on her like a scalded cock , as O'Driscoll remarked afterwards , and for this time happily escaped the durance vile I had been anticipating . At noon I made the signal that the enemy were still approaching , and at four o'clock , they having anchored at the mouth of the harbour , I ran up to the town with the conviction that Othello 's occupation had gone . In the evening I accordingly received orders to haul her on shore and to join the Charon 's at the battery in which they were posted . I do not mean to say that we did not hope by some means or other to succeed , but even the most sanguine could not help acknowledging just then that things looked black and threatening in the extreme . I could not help feeling , in common with many other thoughtful officers , that we were on the eve of great events .