Dragon, who quickly repeated the signal to Lord Bridport's fleet. The admiral immediately made sail towards Brest to ascertain the truth of the information, and on the 27th at noon found that the French fleet had really eluded his vigilance. Lord Bridport instantly sent despatch-vessels home, and ordered all reinforcements to join him off Cape Clear ; whither, after sending two other small vessels, with the important information, to Lord Keith off Cadiz, and to Earl St.-Vincent at Gibraltar, the admiral himself departed with all possible speed.

On the 30th, Lord Bridport arrived off Cape Clear, and soon found his force augmented to 26 sail of the line. Among the small vessels that joined his lordship, was the hired armed lugger, Black-Joke ; which, on the 27th, when 20 leagues west of Ushant, had fallen in with and captured, the French chasse-marée Rebecca, of four swivels and seven men, just out of Brest, having on board a capitaine de frégate with despatches for Ireland. This was of course a ruse, and a successful one it proved ; as it fixed the British admiral to the Irish coast, when, according to the concurrent testimony of several respectable merchant-masters, the Brest fleet had, on the 30th, reached the latitude of 46° and the longitude of 9°, and was left steering south-west with a fine wind at north.

But, then again, the Paris journals persisted in declaring, that the destination of the armament was Ireland ; and some of them augmented the number of troops on board the fleet to 25,000. Perhaps, too, it was a part of the plan, for the malecontents in Ireland, to circulate reports now and then, that a strange fleet had made its appearance on the coast. The British admiralty, however, having a large disposable line-of-battle force, had sent, and continued to send, strong detachments to the coast of Spain and the Mediterranean ; but the time for striking the blow had undoubtedly gone by.

The chief command of the British naval force along the coast of Spain and in the Mediterranean still remained with Admiral Earl St.-Vincent ; but, owing to his lordship's indifferent state of health, the active part of the duty fell upon the second in command, Vice-admiral Lord Keith. During the first four months of the year, the vice-admiral, with a squadron sometimes of 11, but at no time exceeding 15 sail of the line, and a single frigate or so, or perhaps none at all, lay at anchor about eight mile's from Cadiz, blockading 19 Spanish sail of the line, 17 of which at least were sea-going ships, four frigates, and one or two corvettes. Even the occasional trips, that the British were obliged to make to Tetuan for water, failed to rouse the Spaniards from that state of inactivity which habit had seemingly rendered the chief enjoyment of their lives. Whenever the British came to the anchorage, the ships of war in Cadiz harbour exhibited the same quiescent appearance as when last seen.

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