ten
o'clock
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 .