Next morning, observing them still in that direction, without any apparent intention of coming down, the signal was made for a general chace. The weather being squally, and blowing very fresh, the Ca-Ira of eighty guns, formerly the Couronne, was discovered to be without it's topmasts; which afforded Captain Freemantle, of the Inconstant frigate, who was far advanced in the chace, an opportunity of shewing a good proof of British enterprise, by attacking, raking, and harassing that ship, till the coming up of Captain Nelson, in the Agamemnon, by whom it was soon so completely cut up, as to be incapable of getting away: his brave fellows, all the time, who appear to have been miraculously preserved, working the ship about the enemy's stern and quarters, with as much exactness as if going into Spithead. Though the Ca-Ira had thirteen hundred men on board, and Captain Nelson only three hundred at quarters, including himself--for this is his own account and mode of reckoning--he had, after an action of two hours, in which a hundred and ten of the enemy were killed and wounded, not one of his Agamemnons slain, and no more than seven wounded. The Sans Culotte, however, of a hundred and twenty guns, at length coming up, and the British heavy ships being still distant, Admiral Hotham called him off; making the signal for the squadron to form on the larboard line of bearing, in which order they remained during the night. In the morning of the 14th, the Ca-Ira was discovered in tow of the Censeur of seventy-four guns, so far separated from their own squadron as to afford a probable chance of cutting them off. The opportunity was not lost; and, all sail being made to effect that purpose, the enemy were reduced to the alternative of abandoning those ships, or coming to battle. Our advanced ships were so closely supported in their attack on the Ca-Ira and Censeur, that they were effectually cut off from any assistance; and the conflict ended by the enemy's yielding them up: satisfied, after all their boasts, by firing on the British line, as they passed with a light air of wind, and evidently happy that our van ships had suffered too much for the squadron to follow them with any prospect of success. The grand object of their vaunted armament, however, was completely frustrated by this encounter. It could not, Captain Nelson observed, be denominated a battle, as the enemy would not afford any opportunity of closing with them; if they had, from the zeal and gallantry endeavoured to be shewn by each individual captain, there was not the smallest doubt that a glorious victory would have ensued. The French ships had been all fitted with forges; and fired, continually, from some of their guns, hot shot and shells. The diabolical practice of having furnaces in their cockpits, however, was found too dangerous to be long persisted in.