nine o'clock
Give way , Wychecombe , give way , and let us get home again . '' In fifteen minutes from that instant , Sir Gervaise was once more on the poop of the Plantagenet , and the barge in its place on deck . Greenly was attending to the duties of his ship , and Bunting stood in readiness to circulate such orders as it might suit the commander-in-chief to give . It was now nine o'clock , and it was not easy to distinguish objects on the ocean , even as large as a ship , at the distance of half a league . By the aid of the glasses , however , a vigilant look-out was kept on the French vessels , which , by this time , were quite two leagues distant , drawing more ahead . It was necessary to fill away , in order to close with them , and a night-signal was made to that effect . The whole British line braced forward their main-yards , as it might be , by a common impulse , and had there been one there of sufficiently acute senses , he might have heard all six of the main-top-sails flapping at the same instant .