Then she went a-sailing again, under Captain Charles Stewart, as good an officer as Hull and Bainbridge; but it was more than two years after her last battle before she had another chance to show what sort of a fighter she was. It is a curious fact that some of the hardest fights of this war with England took place after the war was at an end. The treaty of peace was signed on Christmas eve, 1814, but the great battle at New Orleans was fought two weeks afterward. There were no ocean cable then to send word to the armies that all their killing was no longer needed, since there was nothing to fight about. It was worse still for the ships at sea. Nobody then had ever dreamed of a telegraph without wires to send word out over the waste of waters, or even of a telegraph with wires. Thus it was that the last battle of the old _Constitution_ was fought nearly two months after the war was over. The good old ship was then on the other side of the ocean, and was sailing along near the island of Madeira, which lies off the coast of Africa. For a year she had done nothing except to take a few small prizes, and her stalwart crew were tired of that sort of work. They wanted a real, big fight, with plenty of glory. One evening Captain Stewart heard some of the officers talking about their bad luck, and wishing they could only meet with a fellow of their own size. They were tired of fishing for minnows when there were whales to be caught. "I can tell you this, gentlemen," said the captain, "you will soon get what you want. Before the sun rises and sets again you will have a good old-fashioned fight, and it will not be with a single ship, either." I do not know what the officers said after the captain turned away. Very likely some of them wondered how he came to be a prophet and could tell what was going to take place. I doubt very much whether they believed what he had said. At any rate, about one o'clock the next day, February 20, 1815, when the ship was gliding along before a light breeze, a sail was seen far away in front. An hour later a second sail was made out, close by the first. And when the _Constitution_ got nearer it was seen that they were both ships-of-war. It began to look as if Captain Stewart was a good prophet, after all. It turned out that the first of these was the small British frigate _Cyane_. The second was the sloop-of-war _Levant_. Neither was a match by itself for the _Constitution_, but both together they thought themselves a very good match. It was five o'clock before the Yankee ship came up within gunshot. The two British ships had closed together so as to help one another, and now they all stripped off their extra sails, as a man takes off his coat and vest for a fight.