She captured a vessel of war, however, in the Pictou, a schooner of 14 guns. Following the coast, Capt. Stewart returned to Boston. As he reached the capes, he fell in with the Juno, 38, and Tenedos, 35, both under the orders of Capt. Upton, which vessels pushed him hard, chasing him into Marblehead. After remaining a short time in this port, the frigate went out and proceeded to Boston, giving the blockading force the slip.

Dec. 17th, 1814, Ironsides went out again with Stewart, and substantially the same set of officers and men. She now went off Bermuda, thence via Madeira into the Bay of Biscay. England was now at peace with all the world but America. From the Bay of Biscay the old barky6a went off Lisbon to look for Englishmen, and came near chasing an English 74 up to the rock. This ship, the Elizabeth, hearing in Lisbon that the good craft was off the coast, came out immediately in quest of her, but the bird had flown. While off Lisbon, a large ship was run alongside of, in the night, and after some bailing, two or three shot were fired into her, to compel answers, when it was ascertained she was a Portuguese.

Defeated in his hopes of finding any thing where he was, and quite aware of the imprudence of staying long in any one place, Feb. 20th, Stewart up helm and stood off to the southward and westward, for twenty or thirty leagues. At 1 P.M. of that very day, a stranger was made on the larboard bow, and to leeward. The Constitution hauled up a little and made sail in chase. It was not long before another vessel was seen to leeward of the first, which, at 2 P.M., was made out to be a ship. All three vessels were now standing on the same tack, on bowlines, gradually nearing each other. At 4 P.M., the nearest of the strangers up helm and ran down to speak his consort, which was the commanding vessel, as it appeared in the end. Seeing this, Old Ironsides squared away in chase, setting every thing that would draw, alow and aloft. For an hour or more the two weathermost ships were thus running off, nearly dead before the wind, while the most leewardly vessel was luffing to close.

It may render the relation more clear if we at once say, that the two strangers proved to be the Cyane, 20, and Levant, 18, British vessels of war; the former mounting 34 and the latter 22 guns. The Cyane was commanded by Capt. Falcon, and the Levant by the Hon. Capt. Douglas, a son of Lord Douglas, who was the child that gave rise to the celebrated “Douglas cause,” at the close of the last century.

Stewart could see that the nearest vessel was frigate-built, and had reason to suppose that both were enemy's ships of war. They had made signals to each other, and the ship to leeward soon ran off before the wind also, but under short canvas, to allow her consort to close. It is now understood that the ship to windward had signalled to the commanding vessel, an American frigate which was “superior to one, but inferior to us both,” and that Capt. Douglas kept away, under the impression that a night action might enable him to get some advantage in manoeuvering. Stewart, who could not know this, supposed their object was to escape, and he crowded on his old craft until her main-royal mast came down. The chase gained after this accident.

At half-past five the two English ships were so near together that it was impossible to prevent a junction, and Old Ironsides, then rather more than a league distant from them, began to strip and clear for battle.