,
in his official reports, says he had considered it impossible that the
enemy could have in that neighborhood forces superior or even equal to
his own. Conflans now ordered his rear division to haul its wind in
support of the ship chasing to the southward and eastward. In a few
moments more it was discovered that the fleet to windward numbered
twenty-three ships-of-the-line to the French twenty-one, and among
them some three-deckers. Conflans then called in the chasing ships and
got ready for action. It remained to settle his course under
circumstances which he had not foreseen. It was now blowing hard from
the west-northwest, with every appearance of heavy weather, the fleet
not far from a lee shore, with an enemy considerably superior in
numbers; for besides Hawke's twenty-three of the line, Duff had four
fifty-gun ships. Conflans therefore determined to run for it and lead
his squadron into Quiberon Bay, trusting and believing that Hawke
would not dare to follow, under the conditions of the weather, into a
bay which French authorities describe as containing banks and shoals,
and lined with reefs which the navigator rarely sees without fright
and never passes without emotion. It was in the midst of these ghastly
dangers that forty-four large ships were about to engage pell-mell;
for the space was too contracted for fleet manoeuvres. Conflans
flattered himself that he would get in first and be able to haul up
close under the western shore of the bay, forcing the enemy, if he
followed, to take position between him and the beach, six miles to
leeward. None of his expectations were fulfilled. In the retreat he
took the head of his fleet; a step not unjustifiable, since only by
leading in person could he have shown just what he wanted to do, but
unfortunate for his reputation with the public, as it placed the
admiral foremost in the flight. Hawke was not in the least, nor for
one moment, deterred by the dangers before him, whose full extent he,
as a skilful seaman, entirely realized; but his was a calm and
steadfast as well as a gallant temper, that weighed risks justly,
neither dissembling nor exaggerating. He has not left us his
reasoning, but he doubtless felt that the French, leading, would serve
partially as pilots, and must take the ground before him; he believed
the temper and experience of his officers, tried by the severe school
of the blockade, to be superior to those of the French; and he knew
that both the gov