The heavy sea that was now running rendered the task of taking possession of the prize exceedingly difficult; nevertheless, by the exercise of the utmost skill and care, the first and second cutters, under the command of Mr Howard, our second lieutenant, and O'Brien, one of the midshipmen, at length managed to get alongside and put a prize-crew of thirty-two men on board her.  The boats quickly returned to the ship with the intelligence that the prize was the twenty-six-gun privateer _Belle Marie_ of Saint Malo, carrying a total crew of two hundred and thirty men, of whom eighty-seven were at the moment away in prizes, forty of them being on board the British East Indiaman _Masulipatam_--the ship which had by this time passed out of sight in the southern board.  The weather conditions being unfavourable for the transfer of the Frenchmen from the prize to the frigate, without the loss of a great deal of valuable time, Captain Vavassour hailed Mr Howard, instructing him to confine the prisoners below, and then, with the aid of the carpenter's crew which we were about to send him, to repair damages as well as he could, and make the best of his way to Portsmouth.  It was almost dark by the time that all the necessary arrangements were completed and the boats once more hoisted in, when we wore round and shaped a course which we hoped would enable us to intercept and recapture the Indiaman before she could reach Saint Malo.