Les Stevenets night had fallen;
but for the previous hour the sky had been gradually clearing, so that
by the end of the second dog-watch it was a fine, clear, star-lit night.
The wind, too, was distinctly moderating; while the sea, although still
very high, was longer, more regular, and not quite so steep as it had
been; in a word, the gale had broken, and by midnight we were once more
under courses and single-reefed topsails. By the end of the middle
watch we were able to shake out the reefs in our topsails and set the
topgallantsails, after which we hove about and headed south once more,
passing well to windward of the Isle de Seins and its outlying reefs
about noon next day.

CHAPTER SIX.

WE CAPTURE A DUTCH FRIGATE.

About a fortnight later, being at the time off Cape Ortegal, cruising
under short canvas, we sighted at daybreak a brig in the offing, to
windward, steering south, under a press of sail. She was, at the moment
of discovery, some eight miles distant, and from her general appearance,
and especially from the cut of her canvas, we judged her to be French,
and a man-o'-war. We accordingly at once made sail, and hoisted the
private signal, of which no notice was taken; we therefore concluded
that our suspicions relative to her nationality were well founded, and
crowded all sail in chase. No sooner was this act of ours perceived by
the stranger than--the weather being fine, and the wind a moderate
breeze from West--she hauled her wind and, bracing sharp up, endeavoured
to make her escape to windward; the weather conditions, however, were
ideal for the frigate, and we overhauled the brig so rapidly that by ten
o'clock in the forenoon we were within gunshot of her; whereupon we
hoisted our colours and fired a shot across her forefoot as a polite
hint to her to heave-to. Her reply to this was to pour in her broadside
of seven 8-pounders, the shot from which flew over and between our
masts, doing us no damage whatever. Upon perceiving which, and noticing
also that we were about to return the compliment by firing our starboard
broadside at her, she hurriedly ran up the French ensign and as
hurriedly hauled it down again, at the same time backing her mainyard in
token of surrender. We thereupon closed with her and took possession,
our prize proving to be the fourteen-gun brig _Gironde_, bound from
Brest to Toulon. We transferred her crew of seventy to the frigate, and
sent her home in charge of Mr G