Duguay-Trouin successfully enabled the convoy to escape capture but was forced by Mitchell's squadron to strike his colours after a brief naval engagement which saw most of the crew of Diligente either killed or wounded.

On 19 June, Duguay-Trouin successfully escaped from England by boarding a small ship that he purchased from a friendly Swedish sea captain whose vessel was lying at anchor nearby.

During his escape attempt, he was accompanied by four crewmembers: Lieutenant Nicolas Thomas, naval surgeon L'Hermite, Pierre Legendre and the quartermaster of Diligente.

[2] In 1697, the Treaty of Ryswick concluded the Nine Years' War, bringing a halt to the activities of naval officers such as Duguay-Trouin; he temporarily settled down in Saint-Malo.

Both men were subsequently detained and taken to a local police official, Monsieur de Vauborel, who explicitly forbade the two to engage in any further violence.

In the same year he was ennobled by Louis XIV, choosing the motto Dedit haec insignia virtus ("Bravery awarded these honours").

[citation needed] Duguay-Trouin is mentioned in Volume II, "Within A Budding Grove", of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time (previously published as Remembrance of Things Past).