OUR FIRST ALLIANCE 



537 



May the French general had already 

 written to de Grasse, beseeching him to 

 come with every means at his disposal, to 

 bring his whole fleet, and not only his 

 fleet, but a supply of money, to be bor- 

 rowed in our colonies, and also all the 

 French land forces from our garrisons 

 which he could muster. The desire of 

 Saint-Simon to come and help had, of 

 course, not been forgotten by Rocham- 

 beau, and he counted on his good will. 



After having described the extreme 

 importance of the effort to be attempted, 

 he concluded : "The crisis through which 

 America is passing at this moment is of 

 the severest. The coming of Count de 

 Grasse may be salvation" (see page 541). 



Events had so shaped themselves that 

 the fate of the United States and the des- 

 tinies of more than one nation would be 

 for a few weeks in the hands of one man, 

 and one greatly hampered by imperative 

 instructions obliging him, at a time when 

 there was no steam to command the wind 

 and waves, to be at a fixed date in the 

 West Indies, owing to certain arrange- 

 ments with Spain. 



Would he take the risk, and what would 

 be the answer of that temporary arbiter 

 of future events, Francois Joseph Paul 

 Comte de Grasse, a sailor from the age 

 of twelve, now a lieutenant general and 

 "chef d'escadre," who had seen already 

 much service on every sea, in the East 

 and West Indies, with d'Orvilliers at 

 Ushant, with Guichen against Rodney in 

 the Caribbean Sea, a haughty man, it was 

 said, with some friends and many ene- 

 mies, the one quality of his acknowl- 

 edged by friend and foe being valor? 

 "Our admiral," his sailors were wont to 

 say, "is six foot tall on ordinary days and 

 six foot six on battle days." 



READY FOR A FIGHT OR A FROUC 



What would he do and say ? People in 

 those times had to take their chance and 

 act in accordance with probabilities. This 

 Washington and Rochambeau did. By 

 the beginning of June all was astir in the 

 northern camp. Soldiers did not know 

 what was contemplated, but obviously it 

 was something great. Young officers ex- 

 ulted. What joy to have at last the pros- 

 pect of an "active campaign," wrote Clo- 



sen in his journal, "and to have an occa- 

 sion to visit other provinces and see the 

 differences in manners, customs, prod- 

 ucts, and trade of our good Americans!" 



The camp is raised and the armies are 

 on the move toward New York and the 

 South; they are in the best dispositions, 

 ready, according to circumstances, to 

 fight or admire all that turns up. "The 

 country between Providence and Bris- 

 tol," says Closen, "is charming. We 

 thought we had been transported into 

 Paradise, all the roads being lined with 

 acacias in full bloom, filling the air with 

 a, delicious, almost too strong, fragrance." 

 Steeples are climbed, and "the sight is 

 one of the finest possible." Snakes are 

 somewhat troublesome, but such things 

 will happen, even in Paradise. 



The heat becomes very great, and night 

 marches are arranged, beginning at two 

 o'clock in the morning ; roads at times be- 

 come muddy paths, where wagons, artil- 

 lery, carts conveying boats for the cross- 

 ing of rivers cause great trouble and de- 

 lay. "French gayety remains ever pres- 

 ent in these hard marches. The Amer- 

 icans, whom curiosity brings by the thou- 

 sand to our camps, are received," Abbe 

 Robin writes, "with lively joy; we cause 

 our military instruments to play for 

 them, of which they are passionately 

 fond. Officers and soldiers, then, Amer- 

 ican men and women mix and dance to- 

 gether; it is the feast of equality; the 

 first-fruits of the alliance which must 

 prevail between those nations. 

 These people are still in the happy period 

 when distinctions of rank and birth are 

 ignored ; they treat alike the soldier and 

 the officer, and often ask the latter what 

 is his profession in his country, unable 

 as they are to imagine that that of a war- 

 rior may be a fixed and permanent one." 



WASHINGTON WARNS OF SPIFS 



Washington writes to recommend pre- 

 cautions against spies, who will be sent to 

 the French camp, dressed as peasants, 

 bringing fruit and other provisions, and 

 who "will be attentive to every word 

 which they may hear drop." 



Several officers, for the sake of exam- 

 ple, discard their horses and walk, indif- 

 ferent to mud and heat ; some of them, 



