When a ship surrenders the fact is usually intimated by her hauling down her flag, but in Lord Cochrane's spirited attack on the French fleet in Basque Roads in 1809, two of the French ships, the _Varsovie_ and _Aquilon_, made the token of submission by each showing a Union Jack in her mizen chains; and in other instances during the war French ships hoisted a Union Jack as the signal of their having struck. Of course when a ship has surrendered the fire of both ships ceases. In an action off Lissa between British ships and a Franco-Venetian squadron, the French ship _Flore_ surrendered to the British frigate _Amphion_. Immediately afterwards the Venetian frigate _Bellona_ bore up and commenced a heavy fire against the _Amphion_, and some of the shot struck the captured ship on the other side. Supposing, erroneously, that the shot came from the British ship, one of the officers of the _Flore_, in order to make more clear the fact of her having absolutely surrendered, took the French ensign, halliards and all, and holding them up in his hand over the taffrail to attract the attention of the _Amphion's_ people, threw the whole into the sea. Having captured the _Bellona_ also, the captain of the _Amphion_ temporarily left the surrendered ship while he pursued another of the enemy, the _Corona_, which he also captured. When thus engaged, however, he was mortified to see his first prize, the _Flore_, notwithstanding her emphatic act of submission, dishonourably stealing away, and she actually effected her escape into the harbour of Lessina. Captain Hoste, who commanded the British squadron, afterwards sent a letter by a flag of truce to the captain of the _Flore_, demanding restitution of the frigate in the same state as when she struck her flag and surrendered to the _Amphion_; but the commander of the French squadron replied by a letter, neither signed nor dated, denying that the _Flore_ had struck, and falsely asserting that the colours had been shot away. The letter was sent back and the demand repeated, but no answer was returned.