h deference, for,
but a few months later, when confronted with greater odds, he himself
did the very thing he here recommended, for an object less vital than
the relief of Cornwallis. Having regard to the character of de Grasse,
it is reasonable to believe that, if he had found the British fleet
thus drawn up at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, as he found Hood at St.
Kitts in the following January, he would have waited off the entrance
for de Barras, and then have gone to sea, leaving Washington and
Rochambeau to look at Cornwallis slipping out of their grasp.

On the 10th of September Graves decided to burn the _Terrible_, 74,
which had been, kept afloat with difficulty since the action. This
done, the fleet stood towards the Chesapeake, a frigate going ahead
to reconnoitre. On the 13th, at 6 A.M., Graves wrote to Hood that the
look-outs reported the French at anchor above the Horse Shoe (shoal)
in the Chesapeake, and desired his opinion what to do with the fleet.
To this Hood sent the comforting reply that it was no more than what
he had expected, as the press of sail the (French) fleet carried
on the 9th, and on the night of the 8th, made it very clear to him
what de Grasse's intentions were. He "would be very glad to send an
opinion, but he really knows not what to say in the truly lamentable
state [to which] we have brought ourselves."[102] On the 10th de
Barras had reached the Bay, where he was joined by de Grasse on the
11th, so that there were then present thirty-six French ships of the
line. Graves, therefore, returned to New York, reaching Sandy Hook
September 19th. On the 14th Washington had arrived before Yorktown,
where he took the chief command; and the armies closed in upon
Cornwallis by land as the French fleets had done already by water.
On the 19th of October the British force was compelled to surrender,
seven thousand two hundred and forty-seven troops and eight hundred
and forty seamen laying down their arms. During the siege the latter
had served in the works, the batteries of which were largely composed
of ships' guns.

After Graves's return to New York, Rear-Admiral the Hon. Robert Digby
arrived from England on the 24th of September, to take command of the
station in Arbuthnot's place. He brought with him three ships of the
line; and the two which Sir Peter Parker had been ordered by Rodney to
send on at once had also reached the port. It was decided by the land
and sea officers concerned to attempt t