A flag of truce came from the shore to the Admiral on the 4th, and returned back the same day. On the 6th, the day being fine, we weighed anchor and stood across the bay of Cadiz, with the intention of landing near the town of St. Mary's. The dispositions having been made for landing, the ships of war, intended to cover the debarkation, were moving towards the shore, and a cutter had gone so near as to be fired upon. The first division of troops were in the boats, and had rowed off for the shore: we were all in readiness, and were receiving our ammunition; I had just got mine in six parcels, of ten cartridges each, when a flag of truce, which we had seen coming from the harbour, reached the Admiral's ship; and before I had got the half of the cartridges into my pouch, a signal was made by the Admiral, for the boats to return, and put the troops on board their respective ships, the design of landing being relinquished.--We were struck with the suddenness of the change. The flag of truce returned to the shore; and a report was spread, that the place had been ransomed by money; but whether there was any truth in this, or whether any political concession had been made, can not be known. There was one thing, however, and possibly it might be the only thing that prevented our landing; the plague was raging in Cadiz at the time. I have been somewhat minute in detailing this circumstance; but it has always appeared to me, a very striking occurrence in Providence; for, in a very few minutes, the war vessels would have opened their broadsides upon the troops and batteries on shore; the troops in the boats would soon have been under the enemy's fire, and probably have effected a landing; and, if hostilities had once commenced, it is difficult to tell, but the enterprise might have been pushed, until Cadiz had been taken, and their fleet of war-ships captured or destroyed, unless the Spanish force had been too strong for us. This event once more awakened me, by a sense of apparent danger. The prospect of having to contend with what troops might be in the field, and of having to attack fortified places, and the likelihood, that desperate efforts would be made to gain our purpose, before the Spaniards should have time to collect a large force in the field, made me apprehend that the undertaking was one of no ordinary danger. My conduct on this occasion was similar to what it had been on former occasions. I prayed for mercy and preservation. I still had no hope for eternity, but what was to arise out of future reformation of character, a reformation which was yet to begin. As formerly, I now again resolved to set about it:--but we left the bay of Cadiz on the 7th, and returned to Tetuan bay on the 12th, and part of the fleet put into Gibraltar: and the danger I had dreaded being thus past, the resolution it had excited was soon departed from.