to rally, and even hailed them
to abide by him, but was abandoned."[225]

This was the key-note to all his utterances. Writing from the English
flag-ship, the day after the battle, he "threw upon the greater part
of his captains the misfortunes of the day. Some had disobeyed his
signals; others, and notably the captains of the 'Languedoc' and
'Couronne,' that is to say his next ahead and astern, had abandoned
him."[226] He did not, however, confine himself to official reports,
but while a prisoner in London published several pamphlets to the same
effect, which he sent broadcast over Europe. The government, naturally
thinking that an officer could not thus sully the honor of his corps
without good reason, resolved to search out and relentlessly punish
all the guilty. The captains of the "Languedoc" and "Couronne" were
imprisoned as soon as they reached France, and all papers, logs, etc.,
bearing upon the case were gathered together. Under all the
circumstances it is not to be wondered at that on his return to
France, De Grasse, to use his own words, "found no one to hold out a
hand to him."[227] It was not till the beginning of 1784 that all the
accused and witnesses were ready to appear before the court-martial;
but the result of the trial was to clear entirely and in the most
ample manner almost every one whom he had attacked, while the faults
found were considered of a character entitled to indulgence, and were
awarded but slight punishment. "Nevertheless," cautiously observes a
French writer, "one cannot but say, with the Court, that the capture
of an admiral commanding thirty ships-of-the-line is an historical
incident which causes the regret of the whole nation."[228] As to the
conduct of the battle by the admiral, the Court found that the danger
of the "Zele" on the morning of the 12th was not such as to justify
bearing down for so long a time as was done; that the crippled ship
had a breeze which was not then shared by the English, five miles away
to the southward, and which carried her into Basse Terre at ten A.M.;
that the engagement should not have been begun before all the ships
had come into line; and finally, that the fleet should have been
formed on the same tack as the English, because, by continuing to
stand south, it entered the zone of calms and light airs at the north
end of Dominica.[229]

De Grasse was much dissatisfied with the finding of the Court, and was
indiscreet enough to write to the