Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/241

 Rh toil, for ever since the appearance of the French fleet every available man had been busy in the intrenchments. Four frigates and two smaller vessels were burned, and one frigate and another vessel sunk, to keep them from falling into the hands of the enemy. There was great anxiety in Newport, but on the 9th of August came relief. An English fleet of thirty-six sail, under Lord Howe, appeared off Point Judith. Count d'Estaing sailed out the next morning to meet it, undergoing a brisk cannonade from the shore batteries. The English fleet fell back, pursued by the French. The 10th was a day of suspense. On the 11th a violent storm arose, and both fleets were scattered before it.

It was the French fleet that reappeared first. “Now all our hopes were vain,” writes the Hessian quartermaster; “we already, in our thoughts, saw ourselves in the hands of our enemies, for our force was too small to withstand so strong a corps, from the side of the land and of the sea.” Suddenly, to the joy and surprise of the garrison, the fleet sailed away.

For a week longer Sullivan remained in front of the intrenchments of Newport, while his army of militia melted away. On the evening of the 28th he fell back to the northern end of the island, and was followed by the English on the morning of the 29th. The Americans turned, however, inflicted a check on their pursuers, and on the night of the 30th left the island without being further molested. The expedition had been grossly mismanaged. The losses on each side, in the affair of the 29th, were between two and three hundred men. Of these, one hundred and twenty-eight