The Leopard, on this manly reply, ranged alongside of the Chesapeake, and commenced firing upon her. The Chesapeake was unprepared for action, and lost three of her men, and eighteen more being wounded, Commodore Barron ordered his colours to be struck. The commander of the Leopard sent an officer on board, mustered the crew, found the men whom he wanted, and then abandoned the ship. The Chesapeake returned immediately to Hampton Roads, whence she had sailed, and carried with her intelligence which set the whole United States in a flame, more especially as it was proved that three of the men thus seized were American citizens, who had been impressed for the British service and afterwards escaped. The president, on this information, interdicted by proclamation the entrance of any armed British vessel within the harbours or waters of the United States; and an envoy was sent to London to demand satisfaction for this outrage, and security against any further aggression. Vice-Admiral Berkeley was in consequence recalled; two of the men who had been taken as deserters were sent back to America, and a proclamation issued forbidding any further search in national ships of neutral nations for deserters. But this did little, as the celebrated orders in council were published by the British government in November, which prohibited neutrals, except on humiliating terms, from trading with France or her allies; which, in fact, was equivalent to excluding them from almost every port in Europe. Napoleon retaliated, of course, by his Milan decree, which rendered every vessel trading with Britain, or submitting to search by her, liable to confiscation if found near his ports or by his cruisers. Thus were the neutral ships of America still endangered by both belligerent powers. In return for these vexatious measures, congress, in December, passed a bill laying an embargo; “so that all American vessels were prohibited from sailing to foreign ports, all foreign vessels from taking out cargoes, and all coasting vessels were required to give bond to land their cargoes in the United States. This embargo was strongly opposed by the federalist party, and great were the complaints of a total stop being thus put to foreign commerce. All, however, hoped for a favourable result from a measure which, if it were seriously felt by the United States, would, it was believed, be still more seriously felt by their enemies.”[72] This embargo failed to obtain any concession from France and England, and being in itself so injurious to the commercial interests of the United States, was repealed in 1809, at which time, however, congress interdicted all commercial intercourse with France and England.