It had been a quiet day, but as the two smaller vessels approached, the _Alliance_ lost the wind altogether, while the others, with the aid of big oars, came on, took safe positions at short range under her quarters, and opened fire. Captain Barry could bring only three nine-pounders to bear on each of the enemy, while they were delivering heavy broadsides of eight and seven guns, respectively. Captain Barry was so badly wounded by a grapeshot that he was carried below; but just when the surrender of the _Alliance_ seemed inevitable a breeze filled her sails, and swinging around, she ran in between the two enemies, and with broadsides from her eighteen-pounders quickly brought down their flags. One was the sixteen-gun brig _Atalanta_, and the other the fourteen-gun brig _Trepassy_. They lost ten killed and thirty wounded between them. The _Trepassy_ was sent to England with prisoners, and the _Atalanta_ to the United States, but she was recaptured off Boston. The _Alliance_ reached port safely. A little later (June 22, 1781) the _Confederacy_ was captured by the English. She was employed as a government packet to keep open communication with France, but while returning home laden with military supplies a two-decker and a frigate, the _Orpheus_ and the _Roebuck_, overtook her, and her commander, Capt. Seth Harding, had to strike his colors. The last naval action (the _General Monk_ was captured later by a privateer) of the Revolutionary war was fought by the _Alliance_, Capt. John Barry. He had sailed from Havana with a large quantity of specie for the United States. This was March 7, 1782. She had the _Duc de Lauzan_ in company. When not long out of port three British frigates were encountered. The Yankees started to run for it, and the _Lauzan_, a slow sailer, was ordered to throw her guns overboard. However, a French ship of fifty guns hove in sight on the weather bow, and at that Captain Barry waited for the leading English frigate, supposing the Frenchman would join in, of course. A fight that brought glory to Barry and credit to the Englishman followed, but at the end of fifty minutes the Englishman had out signals of distress. As the Frenchman held aloof, Captain Barry was compelled to let the Englishman haul off under cover of his consorts. The English ship was the _Sybille_ (sometimes written _Sibyl_), of thirty-eight guns--a heavier ship than the _Alliance_. She lost thirty-seven killed and fifty wounded, while that of the _Alliance_ was three killed and eleven wounded. The significant feature of this fight is in the wide margin between the two lists of killed and wounded. The Yankees had at last learned to handle cannon effectively. But now the end of the war had come. Four months before this last naval fight of the American Revolution Lord North, the British premier, on hearing of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, had strode up and down his room with his arms frantically waving above his head, while he cried: