Some officers might have been deceived, but Captain Cock was too experienced to be entrapped by so artless a device. He had caused the mails to be brought on deck as soon as the chase began. The bags, heavily shotted, lay beside an open port-hole, and a sailor was told off to throw them overboard the moment the captain gave the signal. The boat drew nearer, and Captain Cock, while it was yet at a safe distance, hailed in Portuguese, which he spoke fluently. The halting accent of the answer told him he had no Portuguese to deal with. He raised his hand. The mails slid into the water; and before the angry Frenchman came on board, despatches and commercial letters were safely delivered at the bottom of the sea. The disappointed tricksters revenged themselves by scuttling the “Townshend,” and Captain Cock had the grief of seeing the ship, which he had fought so bravely, sunk ingloriously in mid-ocean. He and his crew were taken on board “La Clorinde,” where for ten days they were allowed a good deal of freedom, and enjoyed an excellent opportunity of studying the internal discipline of a French ship of war. They were not favourably impressed with what they saw; and the near prospect of a French prison made them gloomy enough. It is easy, therefore, to imagine their feelings when on the tenth day, an English 38–gun frigate, the “Eurotas,” commanded by Captain Phillimore, hove in sight. Captain Cock was convinced from what he had observed on the French ship that however suitable she might be for capturing Packets, she was by no means a match for any English frigate of her own size and class, and he begged to be allowed to remain on deck to witness the action. This was not permitted. He and his brave crew were conducted down into the hold, where they remained listening with exultation to the roar of cannon and the din of musketry. For a long time they had no means of discovering which way fortune was inclining, until Captain Cock, wearied of pacing up and down, threw himself back against the mizzen-mast, and felt it tremble. He listened attentively, and a moment later he heard the crash of its fall. He sprang up and placed his ear to the mainmast. In a very short time that also began “to beat, tremble, and shake,” and ere long a second crash announced its fall. With what impatient eagerness the prisoners heard these evidences of their countrymen’s success may be imagined. They could scarcely believe that “La Clorinde” was not captured, and every moment they hoped to be released. But to their intense disappointment the noise of battle died away, and no tidings reached them.