The following day the “Constitution” was holding a course to the southward from the coast of Spain toward Madeira. A group of her officers stood upon her quarter-deck, watching the scud flying to leeward. They were rather a discontented lot. They had been to sea two months, and beyond a few merchant prizes they had nothing to show for their cruise. It was not like the luck of “Old Ironsides.” What they craved was action to put a confirmatory test to the metal they were so sure of. The fo’c’s’le was grumbling, too; and the men who had been in her when she fought the “Guerriere” and the “Java” could no longer in safety boast of the glory of those combats. Had they but known it, the “Elizabeth,” 74, and the “Tiber,” 38, in command of Captain Dacres, who had lost the “Guerriere,” were but a few hours astern of them; and the “Leander,” 50, the “Newcastle,” 50, and the “Acasta,” 40, whom they had so skilfully eluded at Boston, were dashing along from the westward in pursuit. The seas to the eastward, too, were swarming with other frigates (in couples), who were seeking her no less anxiously than she was seeking them. Stewart was not so easily disheartened as his officers. He knew that the “Constitution” was in the very midst of the ships of the enemy. Had he not known it he would not have been there. He came on deck during the afternoon in a high good humor. He was a believer in presentiments, and said, jovially,-- “The luck of the ‘Constitution’ isn’t going to fail her this time, gentlemen. I assure you that before the sun rises and sets again you will be engaged in battle with the enemy, and it will not be with a single ship.” The morning of the next day dawned thick and cloudy. Though well to the southward, the air was cold and damp. The wind was blowing sharply from the northeast, and the choppy seas sent their gray crests pettishly or angrily upward, where they split into foam and were carried down to mingle with the blur of the fog to leeward. Occasionally, in the wind-squalls, the rain pattered like hail against the bellying canvas and ran down into the lee-clews, where it was caught as it fell and whipped out into the sea beyond. Two or three officers paced the quarter-deck, looking now and then aloft or to windward to see if the weather were clearing. Saving these, the fellows at the wheel, and the watch on deck, all hands were below on the gun-deck, polishing their arms or loitering in the warmth near the galley, where the cooks were preparing the mid-day meal.