The Alliance having disappeared, there were now but two vessels, the Pallas and the Vengeance, accompanying the Richard. This little fleet continued its course in a southerly direction along the eastern coast of Scotland. On the 19th, three vessels were captured, which were of but little worth. The next day three more were taken. One of them, Captain Cottineau, contrary to orders, ransomed. The others were either retained or sunk. On the 21st, when off Flamborough Head, a remarkably bold English promontory jutting out from the Yorkshire coast, two vessels appeared in sight, one in the northeast, and the other in the southwest. The Bon Homme Richard and the Vengeance pursued, the one in the southwest, while the Pallas was sent in chase of the other. Captain Jones overtook the one he chased. It was a brig in ballast. As a large fleet was then discovered between Flamborough Head and Spurn Head, another remarkable promontory about thirty miles farther south, Captain Jones sunk the brig, and pressed forward in pursuit of the fleet. While eagerly engaged in the chase, night came on. He had, however, got so near one vessel of the fleet as to compel her to run ashore. As the twilight faded away he overtook and captured a brig. The night was long and dark. The affrighted vessels improved every moment in running into such harbors as could be reached. The dawn of the next day revealed another fleet rounding the point of Spurn Head. This fleet was convoyed by apparently a single armed ship. The achievements of Captain Jones’s little fleet had, by this time, spread alarm everywhere. As soon as the fleet caught sight of the Richard and the Vengeance, though there was nothing to distinguish these vessels from others of the innumerable ships which were ever traversing the Channel, suspicions were aroused, and the whole fleet turned to, and fled back into the river Humber, as fast as their wings could bear them. Captain Jones ran the English flag to the masthead of the Bon Homme Richard, and signalled for a pilot. Soon two pilot-boats came off. The pilots supposed the Richard to be an English man-of-war. They were consequently unreserved in their communications. They informed Captain Jones that the fleet, which had run back into the Humber, was convoyed only by an armed merchant-ship, and that a king’s frigate was at anchor within the mouth of the river, waiting to convoy another fleet of merchant-ships to the north. The pilots also communicated to him the private signal they were required to make.