OUR FIRST ALLIANCE 



525 



than in the simple and brief lines written 

 in his old age by Rochambeau : "My good 

 star gave me such a wife as I could de- 

 sire; she has been for me a cause of con- 

 stant happiness throughout life, and I 

 hope, on my side, to have made her happy 

 by the tenderest amity, which has never 

 varied an instant during nearly sixty 

 years." 



Informed at Versailles of the task he 

 would have to perform, Rochambeau set 

 to work to get everything in readiness, 

 collecting information, talking with those 

 who knew America, and noting down in 

 his green-garbed registers, which were to 

 accompany him in his campaign, the chief 

 data thus secured. 



He also addressed to himself, as a re- 

 minder, a number of useful recommenda- 

 tions, such as these: "To take with us a 

 quantity of flints, . . . much flour and 

 biscuit ; have bricks as ballast for the 

 ships, to be used for ovens ; to try to 

 bring with us all we want and not to have 

 to ask from the Americans, who are 

 themselves in want ; ... to have a 

 copy of the atlas brought from Philadel- 

 phia by Mr. de Lafayette ; ... to 

 have a portable printing-press, like that 

 of Mr. d'Estaing, handy for proclama- 

 tions . . . siege artillery is indispen- 

 sable." 



Some of the notes are of grave import 

 and were not lost sight of throughout the 

 campaign : "Nothing without naval su- 

 premacy." 



NOTHING WITHOUT NAVAL SUPREMACY 



To those intrusted with the care of 

 loading the vessels he recommends that 

 all articles of the same kind be not placed 

 on the same ship, "so that in case of mis- 

 hap to any ship the whole supply of any 

 kind of provisions be not totally lost." 



When all were there, however, form- 

 ing a total of 5,000 men, the maximum 

 was so truly reached that a number of 

 young men, some belonging to the best- 

 known French families, who were arriv- 

 ing at Brest from day to day, in the hope 

 of being added to the expedition, had to 

 be sent back. 



The departure, which it was necessary 

 to hasten while the English were not yet 

 ready, was beset with difficulties. Tem- 



pests, contrary winds, and other mishaps 

 had caused vexatious delay ; the Comtesse 

 de Noailles and the Conquerant had come 

 into collision and had had to be repaired. 

 "Luckily," wrote Rochambeau to Mont- 

 barey, with his usual good humor, "it 

 rains also on Portsmouth." At last, on 

 the 2d of May, 1780, the fleet of seven 

 ships of the line and two frigates, con- 

 veying thirty-six transports, weighed 

 anchor for good. "We shall have the 

 start of Graves," the general wrote again, 

 "for he will have to use the same wind 

 to leave Portsmouth." 



At sea now for a long voyage, two or 

 three months perhaps, with the prospect 

 of calms, of storms, of untoward en- 

 counters, of scurvy for the troops. On 

 board the big Due de Bourgogne, of 

 eighty guns, with Admiral de Ternay, 

 Rochambeau adds now and then para- 

 graphs to a long report which is a kind 

 of journal, assuring the minister, after 

 the first fortnight, that all is well on 

 board : "We have no men sick other than 

 those which the sea makes so, among 

 whom the Marquis de Laval and my son 

 play the most conspicuous part." He 

 prepares his general instructions to the 

 troops. 



On board the smaller craft life was 

 harder, and numerous unflattering de- 

 scriptions have come down to us in the 

 journals kept by so many officers of the 

 army, especially in that of the aforemen- 

 tioned young captain, Louis Baron de 

 Closen, later one of the aides of Ro- 

 chambeau. 



A FIRST-HAND PICTURE OF LIFE IN THE 

 FRENCH FLEET 



He confesses, but with no undue senti- 

 mentalism, that he was saddened at first 

 to some extent at the prospect of an ab- 

 sence that might be a long one, particu- 

 larly when thinking "of a charming young 

 fiancee, full of wit and grace. 

 My profession, however, does not allow 

 me to yield too much to sensibility ; so I 

 am now perfectly resigned." 



It is hard at first to get accustomed, 

 so tight-packed is the ship, but one gets 

 inured to it, in spite of the "buzzing of 

 so numerous a company," of the lack of 

 breathing space, and of what people 



