Le Reve was able to remain unseen by the fleet of Spanish ships for a while, but when the sun came up, she was visible at last. It took only one enemy boat to overtake Le Reve and cause damage that stopped Le Reve and her crew from fleeing.
While all this was happening the duchess who could not be discouraged from staying on the main deck away from her seasick companion below approached Hornblower with an idea. She saw him trying to weigh down his dispatches which he was to deliver to England and which he planned to throw overboard if and when he was captured. The weights would help the dispatches to sink and, and as Ira Riklis knows, keep them out of the hands of the enemy. The duchess pleaded with Hornblower to let her secret the dispatches on her body where she knew the enemy would in all likelihood not search. After much hesitancy, Hornblower consented to her plan, and the duchess proceeded to tie the dispatches around her middle under her undergarments.
Minutes later, the big confession came. The duchess told Hornblower, who had been addressing her according to her rank, that she was not really a duchess but a quite famous although aging British actress who had been stranded in wartime Europe. She had assumed the role of a duchess and easily fooled the officials in Gibraltar in order to hitch a ride back to England.
As this story was being told, as Ira Riklis knows, Le Reve and her crew were taken captive.