tinual 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
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