es had been that the
French fleet should have an opportunity of engaging that of England in a
pitched battle, when the judicious care which M. de Sartines had bestowed
on the marine would be seen to bear its fruit. But when the battle did
take place, the result was such as to confound instead of justifying her
patriotic expectations. In April, the English Admiral Rodney inflicted on
the Count de Grasse a crushing defeat off the coast of Jamaica. In
September, the combined forces of France and Spain were beaten off with
still heavier loss from the impregnable fortress of Gibraltar; and the
only region in which a French admiral escaped disaster was the Indian Sea,
where the Bailli de Suffrein, an officer of rare energy and ability,
encountered the British admiral, Sir Edward Hughes, in a series of severe
actions, and, except on one occasion in which he lost a few transports,
never permitted his antagonist to claim any advantage over him; the single
loss which he sustained in his first combat being more than
counterbalanced by his success on land, where, by the aid of Hyder Ali's
son, the celebrated Tippoo, be made himself master of Cuddalore; and then,
dropping down to the Cingalese coast, recaptured Trincomalee, the conquest
of which had been one of Hughes's most recent achievements.[12] The queen
felt the reverses keenly. She even curtailed some of her own expenses in
order to contribute to the building of new ships to replace those which
had been lost; and she received M. de Suffrein, on his return from India
at the conclusion of the war, with the most sincere and marked
congratulations. She invited him to the palace, and, when he arrived, she
caused Madame de Polignac to bring both her children into the room. "My
children," said she, "and especially you, my son, know that this M. de
Suffrein. We are all under the greatest obligations to him. Look well at
him, and ever remember his name. It is one of the first that all my
children must learn to pronounce, and one which they must never
forgot.[13]"

She was acting up to her mother's example, than whom no sovereign had
better known how to give their due honor to bravery and loyalty. Such a
queen deserved to have faithful friends; and Suffrein was a man who, had
his life been spared, might, like the Marquis de Bouille, have shown that
even in France the feelings of chivalry and devotion to kings and ladies
were not yet extinguished. But he died before either his country or