Unluckily, one of the outlying lookout frigates discovered him, gave chase, and overtook him.

Her captain himself came on board, and was about to give Parker orders not to proceed to the westward, Orde jealously objecting to any apparent intrusion upon his domain.

Parker stopped him hastily from speaking on the quarter-deck, within earshot of others, and took him into the cabin.

The stranger had been one of Nelson's old midshipmen and a favorite; had started with him in the "Agamemnon," and by him had been made a commander after the Nile.
"Captain Hoste," said Parker, "I believe you owe all your advancement in the service to my uncle, Lord St.Vincent, and to Lord Nelson.

I am avoiding Sir John Orde's squadron by desire of Lord Nelson; you know his handwriting; _I must go on_."[81] (Parker being senior to Hoste, the latter could not detain him by his own authority; and he understood from this avowal that Orde's orders, if produced, would become a matter of record, would be disobeyed, and a court-martial must follow.) "The question of a court-martial would be very mischievous.