llerophon, dated Superb,
Quiberon Bay, July 7, 1815.

"Having sent every ship and vessel out from this bay, to endeavour to
intercept Buonaparte, I am obliged to send the chasse-maree, which has
been employed in my communications with the Royalists, with this
letter, to acquaint you that the Ferret brought me information last
evening, after the Opossum had left me, from Lord Keith, that
Government received, on the night of the 30th, an application from the
rulers of France, for a passport and safe conduct for Buonaparte to
America, which had been answered in the negative, and, therefore,
directing an increase of vigilance to intercept him: but it remains
quite uncertain where he will embark; and, although it would appear
by the measures adopted at home, that it is expected he will sail from
one of the northern ports, I am of opinion he will go from one of the
southern places, and I think the information I sent you yesterday by
the Opossum is very likely to be correct; namely, that he had taken
the road to Rochefort; and that he will probably embark in the
frigates at Isle d'Aix; for which reason I am very anxious you should
have force enough to stop them both, as the Bellerophon could only
take one, if they separated, and that might not be the one he would be
on board of. I have no frigate to send you; if one should join me in
time, I will send her to you, and I hope you will have _two_
twenty-gun ships with you. I imagine, from what you said in your
letter by your barge, that you would not have kept the Endymion with
you, especially as the Myrmidon would have rejoined you, by the
arrangements I sent down by the Phoebe for Sir John Sinclair to take
her place off the Mamusson; therefore, I trust that my last order to
Captain Hope will not have deprived you of his assistance, but hope it
may have put him in a better situation than before. The Liffey is
seventy or eighty miles west from Bourdeaux, and the Pactolus, after
landing some person in the Gironde, goes off Cape Finisterre, where
the Swiftsure is also gone; and many ships are looking out in the
Channel and about the latitude of Ushant.

"Buonaparte is certainly not yet gone; I presume he would naturally
await the answer from our Government, which only left London on the
1st; my own opinion is, that he will either go with a force that will
afford him some kind of security, or in a merchant vessel to avoid
suspicion.

"The orders from the Admiralty, received la