sight of her enemy, about two miles off right ahead, and apparently going a point free. At noon, after an interval of fog, the weather got more clear, and the Requin was seen bearing east by north, distant three miles and a half, and at 4 p.m. south by east three miles. At 8 p.m. the return of thick weather again concealed the two vessels from each other; but at 10 h. 20 m. p.m. the rising of the moon discovered the Requin in the south, three and a half miles off. The Wizard was once more at her sweeps, and at 11 p.m. fired a gun, to excite the attention of any British cruisers that might be off Cape Bon. This she repeated two or three times. At midnight the wind freshened up, and enabled the sailors again to suspend their labours at the sweeps, but still not a hammock could be moved below.

On the 14th, at 4 a.m., Cape Carthage bore west-south-west four miles, and the Requin was right ahead distant about two miles and a half, steering for the bay of Tunis. At 5 a.m. the French brig anchored close under Fort Goleta in Tunis bay ; where, as it was a neutral port, the Requin lay as safe as if in the harbour of Toulon. The Wizard now did all she was empowered to do : she ran under the stern of the fugitive, tacked, and hove to ; and, besides reading " Le Requin " upon her stern, observed that the French brig was much cut up by shot about, the hull and lower rigging. At 6 a.m. the Wizard filled and made sail out of the bay ; and very soon the hammocks were piped down, and her truly gallant crew enjoyed that rest which, during four successive nights, had unavoidably been denied to them.

In this extraordinary chase, the two vessels ran 369 miles in 88 hours, making an average of rather more than four knots per hour ; which was as fast as the light and variable state of the wind, during the greater part of the time, would admit. Then had run 109 miles when the Requin brought to to engage ; and engage she did, till she was beaten, fairly beaten, by a brig, a trifle inferior, but say equal, to herself in force. The usual excuse of being charged with despatches cannot seemingly apply to this case ; or why did Captain Berard at length become the assailant ? The truth is, the Requin would have captured the Wizard if she could, but found herself unequal to the task : nay, more, the French brig found that her own surrender must ensue, if she did not make use of the only available quality in which she excelled, quickness of sailing. This property carried with it, as we have seen, another advantage: the French crew were under no necessity, at every fall of the breeze, to tug at the sweeps ; nor were they, night by night, kept from their natural rest. In a pursuit before a light wind, where every inch of canvass is out, and where the chased is only a short distance, ahead, the chaser is obliged to be always on the alert, that she may be ready to shorten sail the instant her enemy begins to take in : whereas the chased knows no such alarms ; a head wind is

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