But if the wind gave the sailors who had been on deck all night long a brief chance to rest, it was after all of more advantage to the enemy than to the _Constitution_. For she had had to change her course when the breeze came, and that change was sending her closer to the _Guerrière_, instead of further away. Worse yet, it seemed to the Yankees that their sails had no more than rounded full under the caress of the zephyr than it failed them again, and once more the canvas rattled and slapped the creaking spars. The _Guerrière_ now began firing, and there was nothing to do but once more to stretch out the lines with the kedge anchor and begin anew the tracking the _Constitution_ ahead. For an hour the weary men stretched out their tow-line and hauled it in and stretched and hauled again. Captain Hull had lightened the ship by starting nine or ten tons of water, and the _Constitution_ was just beginning to show a fair gain once more over the enemy when Captain Byron of the _Belvidera_ saw how it was that the Yankees were clawing away, and adopted the same tactics. Immediately this was done the boats from the fleet flocked with men to her deck to help haul in on the line--flocked there with men who were fresh and strong from the decks of the other ships, while the men of the _Constitution_ were worn with the loss of sleep the night before and the fierce efforts of the morning. By 2 o’clock in the afternoon these fresh men had drawn the _Belvidera_ so near that she opened fire, and, although the shots fell short, Captain Hull now supposed he would surely be captured, and so prepared to make a good fight with the first ship in hope of disabling her before the rest could come to help. But the _Belvidera_, not wishing to risk her anchor-carrying boats within range of the _Constitution’s_ guns, was content to claw forward on the Yankee’s quarter just out of range, while the _Shannon_ and _Eolus_ strove to help partially surround the _Constitution_ once more.