said to him: "You don't
know the British soldiers; we cannot stand against them." Lee's conduct
looks like deliberate treachery. Instead of attacking the British he
allowed them to attack him. La Fayette managed to send a message to
Washington in the rear; Washington dashed to the front and, as he came
up, met soldiers flying from before the British. He rode straight to
Lee, called him in flaming anger a "damned poltroon," and himself at
once took command. There was a sharp fight near Monmouth Court House.
The British were driven back and only the coming of night ended the
struggle. Washington was preparing to renew it in the morning, but
Clinton had marched away in the darkness. He reached the coast on the
30th of June, having lost on the way fifty-nine men from sunstroke,
over three hundred in battle, and a great many more by desertion. The
deserters were chiefly Germans, enticed by skillful offers of land.
Washington called for a reckoning from Lee. He was placed under arrest,
tried by court-martial, found guilty, and suspended from rank for twelve
months. Ultimately he was dismissed from the American army, less it
appears for his conduct at Monmouth than for his impudent demeanor
toward Congress afterwards.

These events on land were quickly followed by stirring events on the
sea. The delays of the British Admiralty of this time seem almost
incredible. Two hundred ships waited at Spithead for three months for
convoy to the West Indies, while all the time the people of the West
Indies, cut off from their usual sources of supply in America, were in
distress for food. Seven weeks passed after d'Estaing had sailed for
America, before the Admiralty knew that he was really gone and sent
Admiral Byron, with fourteen ships, to the aid of Lord Howe. When
d'Estaing was already before New York Byron was still battling with
storms in mid-Atlantic, storms so severe that his fleet was entirely
dispersed and his flagship was alone when it reached Long Island on the
18th of August.

Meanwhile the French had a great chance. On the 11th of July their
fleet, much stronger than the British, arrived from the Delaware, and
anchored off Sandy Hook. Admiral Howe knew his danger. He asked for
volunteers from the merchant ships and the sailors offered themselves
almost to a man. If d'Estaing could beat Howe's inferior fleet, the
transports at New York would be at his mercy and the British army, with
no other source of supply, must surrend