minister of marine, protesting
against it and demanding a new trial. The minister, acknowledging his
protest, replied in the name of the king. After commenting upon the
pamphlets that had been so widely issued, and the entire contradiction
of their statements by the testimony before the Court, he concluded
with these weighty words:--

"The loss of the battle cannot be attributed to the fault of
private officers.[230] It results, from the findings, that you
have allowed yourself to injure, by ill-founded accusations, the
reputation of several officers, in order to clear yourself in
public opinion of an unhappy result, the excuse for which you
might perhaps have found in the inferiority of your force, in
the uncertain fortune of war, and in circumstances over which
you had no control. His Majesty is willing to believe that you
did what you could to prevent the misfortunes of the day; but he
cannot be equally indulgent to your unjust imputations upon
those officers of his navy who have been cleared of the charges
against them. His Majesty, dissatisfied with your conduct in
this respect, forbids you to present yourself before him. I
transmit his orders with regret, and add my own advice to
retire, under the circumstances, to your province."

De Grasse died in January, 1788. His fortunate opponent, rewarded with
peerage and pension, lived until 1792. Hood was also created a peer,
and commanded with distinction in the early part of the wars of the
French Revolution, winning the enthusiastic admiration of Nelson, who
served under him; but a sharp difference with the admiralty caused him
to be retired before achieving any brilliant addition to his
reputation. He died in 1816, at the great age of ninety-two.

FOOTNOTES:

[194] The curve, a, a', a'', represents the line which Hood proposed
to follow with his fleet, the wind being supposed east-southeast. The
positions B, B, B, refer to the proceedings of a subsequent day and
have nothing to do with the diagram at A.

[195] When a fleet is in line ahead, close to the wind, on one tack,
and the ships go about together, they will, on the other tack, be on
the same line, but not one ahead of the other. This formation was
called bow-and-quarter line.

[196] A spring is a rope taken from the stern or quarter of a ship at
anchor, to an anchor properly placed, by which means the ship can be
turned in a desired direction.