Môle Saint-Nicolas. Invested by Pourcely; blockaded by Loring; Noailles escapes by sea; Pourcely takes possession.

In the meantime Colonel Pourcely, at the head of a battalion of the 9th and of numerous bands of cultivators from Jean-Rabel and Bombarde, was closely investing the town of Môle Saint-Nicolas, held by General Noailles. Commodore Loring, who had come to blockade the port of that town, informed the French of the evacuation of the Cap. By a letter dated 10 Frimaire, Year 12 (2 December 1803), he proposed that they capitulate. General Noailles answered him:

Army of Saint-Domingue. Right Division of the North. Headquarters at the Môle, 10 Frimaire, Year 12 of the French Republic (2 December 1803). Louis Noailles, brigadier general, to Commodore Loring. Sir, I have received the letter with which you honored me under the date of 10 Frimaire. I wish to know the terms on which you offer to treat with me. I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, Noailles.

The French general received the commodore’s proposals by dispatch and refused to accept them. He resolved to try his fortune by breaking through the English line by night. He boarded a frigate and loaded two corvettes with all the white families. On the night of 3 to 4 December 1803 he made sail and gained the open sea. The two corvettes were captured. At daybreak Noailles sighted, not far from the coasts of Cuba, an English ship, which he took after a furious fight. He reached Havana, where he died of a wound he had received in the action. On 4 December 1803 Pourcely took possession of the Môle, which he found furnished with a considerable store of war matériel.