ortunate for the work in hand, it had nevertheless been continued by
his successors. A numerous fleet was preparing at Brest; it left the
port on the 3d of July, under the orders of Count d'Orvilliers. It
numbered thirty-two men-of-war and some frigates. Admiral Keppel came
to the encounter with thirty ships, mostly superior in strength to the
French vessels. The engagement took place on the 27th, at thirty
leagues' distance from Wessant and about the same from the Sorlingues
Islands. The splendid order of the French astounded the enemy, who had
not forgotten the deplorable _Journee de M. de Conflans_. The sky was
murky, and the manoeuvres were interfered with from the difficulty of
making out the signals. Lord Keppel could not succeed in breaking the
enemy's line; Count d'Orvilliers failed in a like attempt. The English
admiral extinguished his fires and returned to Plymouth harbor, without
being forced to do so from any serious reverse; Count d'Orvilliers fell
back upon Brest under the same conditions. The English regarded this
retreat as a humiliation to which they were unaccustomed Lord Keppel had
to appear before a court-martial. In France, after the first burst of
enthusiasm, fault was found with the inactivity of the Duke of Chartres,
who commanded the rear-guard of the fleet, under the direction of M. de
La Motte-Piquet; the prince was before long obliged to leave the navy, he
became colonel-general of the hussars. A fresh sally on the part of the
fleet did not suffice to protect the merchant-navy, the losses of which
were considerable. The English vessels everywhere held the seas.

Count d'Estaing had at last arrived at the mouth of the Delaware on the
9th of July, 1778; Admiral Howe had not awaited him, he had sailed for
the anchorage of Sandy Hook. The heavy French ships could not cross the
bar; Philadelphia had been evacuated by the English as soon as the
approach of Count d'Estaing was signalled. "It is not General Howe who
has taken Philadelphia," said Franklin; "it is Philadelphia that has
taken General Howe." The English commander had foreseen the danger; on
falling back upon New York he had been hotly pursued by Washington, who
had, at Monmouth, gained a serious advantage over him. The victory of
the Americans would have been complete but for the jealous disobedience
of General Lee. Washington pitched his camp thirty miles from New York.
"After two years' marching and counter-marching," h