The light breeze still held, although, if it reached the _San Antonio_, it did not seem to move her, and, with the help of it, by degrees they came to within half a mile of the caravel.

Then the wind dropped altogether, and there the two ships lay.

Still the set of the tide, or some current, seemed to be drawing them towards each other, so that when the night closed in they were not more than four hundred paces apart, and the Englishmen had great hopes that before morning they would close, and be able to board by the light of the moon.
But this was not to be, since about nine o'clock thick clouds rose up which covered the heavens, while with the clouds came strong winds blowing off the land, and, when at length the dawn broke, all they could see of the _San Antonio_ was her topmasts as she rose upon the seas, flying southwards swiftly.

This, indeed, was the last sight they had of her for two long weeks.
From Ushant all across the Bay the airs were very light and variable, but when at length they came off Finisterre a gale sprang up from the north-east which drove them forward very fast.

It was on the second night of this gale, as the sun set, that, running out of some mist and rain, suddenly they saw the _San Antonio_ not a mile away, and rejoiced, for now they knew that she had not made for any port in the north of Spain, as, although she was bound for Cadiz, they feared she might have done to trick them.