Faye and his officers and crew instantly removed. That done, on the 21st the combined fleets got under way, bound to Brest. Scarcely, however, had the two fleets made sail from the anchorage, than two of the Spanish three-deckers, the Mexicano and Santa-Ana, returned ; the latter after having run on shore and been with difficulty got afloat again. This left Admiral Massaredo with the following 15 sail of the line:

Exclusive of four frigates and three brigs ; making the aggregate number of the combined Spanish and French fleets 59 sail, of which 40 were of the line.

On the 30th, at 2 a.m., the wind coming to the eastward, Lord Keith, with his 31 sail of the line, got under way from Gibraltar, and stood towards the channel, but heard nothing of the object of his pursuit until the 8th of August ; when, being off Cape Finisterre, he was informed by a Danish brig, that on the 6th, she had passed through the combined fleets, steering to the north-east. On the 9th, the British 36-gun frigate Stag, Captain Joseph Sydney Yorke, came into the fleet with information, that she had seen the French and Spaniards off Cape Ortegal, steering, as before, to the north-east. On the 12th, the British fleet arrived in soundings, and at noon on that day, was about 80 miles to the westward of Ushant. On the 14th, Lord Keith detached the Impétueux, Pompée, and Ethalion, to look into Brest; where Sir Edward Pellew found the French and Spanish fleets, which had arrived only on the preceding day, safely moored in the road.

Whatever may have been the errors or mismanagement of Lord Keith while cruising in the Mediterranean, so soon as the British fleet was clear of the island of Minorca, the ships pushed, under all sail, in pursuit of the Franco-Spanish fleet, and actually gained upon it so much, that, had there been another degree of distance to pass over, the two fleets, in all probability, would have come in contact. Those who might dread the result of a meeting, under such a numerical disparity as 40 to 31, should recollect, that a fleet of 30 sail of the line, equipped manned, and commanded like Lord Keith's, was a match for any fleet that could be sent to sea; especially one made up of the ships of two national navies, between which there was little or nor concert, and the fleet of one of which had given so decided a proof that numbers were a disadvantage to it.

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