he had no sooner attacked the corps of Lee, than that general hastened to recall the light troops which had been detached to fall upon the baggage and the soldiers that guarded it, as they filed through the valley. During the action, they had continued to march upon Middletown, and they had arrived the same evening at secure positions on the hills. Clinton, besides, had not to blush for this day, since with his rear guard he had repulsed the American van, and had finally arrested the whole army of the enemy. His troops were greatly inferior in number to those of Washington; but it would have been an imprudence, even for an army of equal force, to risk a new engagement, when so great a part of it was at such a distance, and in a country whose inhabitants and whose surface presented little else but opposition and obstacles. The loss of the battle would have been followed by the total ruin of the army. On all these considerations, he decided for retreat. He took advantage of the obscurity of night in order not to be followed, and to avoid the intolerable sultriness of the climate during the day. About ten at night, the Americans say at midnight, he put his columns in motion for Middletown, with so profound a silence, that the enemy, though extremely near, and attentive to observe him, perceived not his retreat. Clinton wrote, that his march was favored by moonlight. This circumstance afforded the Americans an abundance of merriment; it being observed that the moon was then at its fourth day, and that it was set a little before eleven at night. Washington, on his part, had to take into consideration the excessive heat of the season, the weariness of his troops, the nature of the country, very sandy, and without water; finally, the distance which the enemy had already gained upon him during the night. He consequently relinquished the thought of pursuing them, and allowed his army to repose in the camp of Englishtown until the first of July. He took this step with the less reluctance, as he considered it now impracticable to prevent or disturb the embarkation of the English at Sandy Hook.

Such was the issue of the battle of Freehold, or of Monmouth, as it is called by the Americans. If they had the worse in its commencement, it terminated in their favor. And it appears very probable, that if the division under Lee had made a firm stand, they would have gained the most decisive victory. The English, in this engagement, had three hundred killed, and an equal number wounded; about one hundred were made prisoners. Many of them also deserted, especially of the Hessians. Few were slain on the side of the Americans. On the one part and on the other many soldiers died, not of wounds, but of the intense heat of the weather, added to the fatigue of the day. Washington greatly commended his troops for the valor they had signalised, and particularly general Wayne. The Congress voted thanks to the army, and especially to the officers and commander-in-chief. But general Lee, a man of an irasci

ble character, could not brook the indignity he believed to have been offered him by Washington, in presence of his soldiers. He therefore wrote two letters to the commander-in-chief, in which his resentment caused him to forget all bounds of respect. They occasioned the revival of an affair which the usual prudence and moderation of Washington would have inclined him to pass by. Lee was arrested and brought before a court martial, to make answer to the three following charges; for disobedience, in not attacking the enemy on the twenty-eighth of June, agreeably to his instructions; for having made an unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat; and, for disrespect to the commander-in-chief in his two letters. He defended himself with great ingenuity, and with a sort of eloquence, so that impartial and military men remained in doubt whether he was really culpable or not. Nevertheless, the court martial found him guilty of all the charges, bating the epithet of shameful, which was expunged, and sentenced him to be suspended for one year; a judginent, certainly either too mild, if Lee was guilty, or too severe, if innocent. This affair occasioned much conversation, some approving, others blaming the sentence. The Congress, though with some hesitation, confirmed it.

On the first of July, Washington directed the march of his army towards the Hudson, in order to secure the passages of the mountains, now the English were in force at New York. He left, however, some detachments of light troops, and particularly Morgan's dragoons, in the lower parts of New Jersey, to take up deserters, and to repress the incursions of the enemy.

While such were the operations of Washington and of Clinton in New Jersey, general Gates, with a part of the northern army, had descended along the banks of the Hudson, in order to disquiet the English in New York. By this judicious movement, the garrison of that city, under apprehensions for itself, was prevented from marching to the support of those who were engaged with the enemy in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, the British army was arrived, the thirtieth of June, at Middletown, not far from Sandy Hook. The fleet under lord Howe, was already at anchor there, though it had been detained a long time in the Delaware by calins. Sandy Hook had been in time past a peninsula, which, forming a point, extended in the mouth of the bay of New York; but in the preceding winter it had been disjoined from the main land by a violent storm and inundation, and converted into an island. The timely arrival of the fleet, delivered the army from the imminent peril to which it would have been exposed, had it been unable to pass this new strait. But a bridge of boats was constructed with incredible expedition; and the whole army passed over the channel into Sandy Hook island, whence it was soon after conveyed by the fleet to New York; ignorant of the extreme danger it had so narrowly escaped.

The count d'Estaing, with his powerful armament, was at length arrived in the seas of America. After having made his appearance upon the coasts of Virginia, he had entered the mouth of the Delaware, in the night of the eighth of July. If he could have gained that position a few days sooner, and before the fleet of Howe had got out of the river, or even if he had fallen in with it on its passage from the Delaware to Sandy Hook, it is beyond doubt that he would have entirely destroyed that squadron, which only consisted of two ships of the line, a few frigates, and a certain number of transports. The British army would then have been enclosed by the Americans at land, and by the French at sea. Hemmed in by mountains and an impassable tract of country, it would have found it impossible to force its way to New York. Destitute of provisions, and cut off from all communication, it must have been compelled at last to surrender, and at Middletown would have been renewed the capitulation of Saratoga. This event might therefore have decided the fate of the whole war. But after having commenced with favorable winds, the voyage of the French admiral was so protracted by frequent calms, or by rough weather, that he not only did not arrive in time to surprise the squadron of Howe in the Delaware, and the army of Clinton at Philadelphia, as had been the scope of his plan, but also that he did not enter the waters of that river until the one was withdrawn to the anchorage of Sandy Hook, and the other behind the walls of New York.

But though the land troops might think themselves in safety within that city, the fleet was exposed to manifest peril in the road of Sandy Hook. As soon as the count d'Estaing was informed of the movements of the enemy, he promptly took his resolution. He put to sea anew, and suddenly made his appearance, the eleventh of July, in sight of the British squadron anchored at Sandy Hook. His own consisted of twelve ships of the line, perfectly equipped, among which were two of eighty guns, and six of seventy-four; he had, besides, three or four large frigates. On the other hand, the British squadron was composed of only six ships of sixty-four guns, three of fifty, and two of forty, with some frigates and sloops. They were not in good condition, having been long absent from England, and their crews were very deficient in number. It is also to be observed, that when the French fleet appeared so unexpectedly, that of Howe was not in the order of battle suitable to receive it. If, therefore, the count d'Estaing, immediately upon his arrival, had pushed forward and attempted to force the entrance of the harbor, there must have ensued, considering the valor and ability of the two parties, a most obstinate and sanguinary engagement; an engagement, however, which the superiority of the French would in all probability have decided in their favor..

The count d'Estaing appeared disposed to enter; the English prepared to receive him. But such is the nature of the mouth of the bay of New York, that, though sufficiently broad, it is obstructed by a bar, which runs from Long Island towards Sandy Hook, so that between the latter and the extremity of the bar, there is left but a very narrow ship channel. Nevertheless, the bar being at a certain depth under water, light vessels may pass it with facility, especially at flood tide; but it was doubtful whether large ships like those of the French, could surmount this obstacle. The count d'Estaing took counsel of the American pilots, sent him by the Congress; he feared that his ships, and especially the Languedoc and Tonnant, which drew more water than the others, would not be able to pass. He therefore relinquished the enterprise, and withdrew to anchor upon the coast of New Jersey, about four miles from Sandy Hook, and not far from the town of Shrewsbury. There, having recruited his water and provisions, he concerted with the American generals respecting the expedition of Rhode Island, which he meditated, since he had missed that of the Delaware.

The English imagined that the French admiral was only waiting in this anchorage for the high tides at the end of July. Under the apprehension of an approaching attack, they accordingly prepared themselves for a vigorous defence. The ardor manifested on this occasion by their troops, both in the land and sea service, cannot be too highly commended. Meanwhile, several English vessels that were bound to New York, far from supposing that the French were become masters of the sea, fell daily into their power, under the very eyes of their own people of the squadron, whose indignation was vehement; but they had no means of remedy.

Finally, on the twenty-second of July, the whole French fleet appeared at the entrance of Sandy Hook. The wind favored it and the tide was very high. The English expected an action which must necessarily issue either in a victory without example, or in the total destruction of their fleet; but after some uncertain movements, the count d'Estaing all at once stood off towards the south, and relieved his enemy from all fear. His departure could not have been better timed for the English; for from the twenty-second to the thirtieth of July, several ships of admiral Byron's squadron, which had been dispersed and shattered by storms and a tedious passage arrived successively at Sandy Hook. If the count d'Estaing had remained a few days longer on that station, not one of them could have escaped him. Of this number were the Renown and the Centurion of fifty guns, the Reasonable of sixty-four, and the Cornwall of seventy-four.

Admiral Howe thus finding himself, with infinite gratification, in condition to resume the open sea, sailed in search of the count d'Estaing, whom he afterwards found at Newport in Rhode Island.

But previous to relating what passed between the two admirals, the order of history requires that we should recount what happened between the British commissioners and the Congress. The former had not entirely abandoned their enterprise, and they still continued upon the American continent.

Johnstone, one of their number, had formerly resided a long time upon the shores of America, where he had formed an acquaintance with many of the principal inhabitants of the country. He had likewise been governor of one of the colonies, where his active and cultivated genius, with his insinuating manners, had procured him an extensive influence. Being, besides, a member of parliament, he had there always warmly defended the cause of America, and had shown himself one of the most resolute antagonists of the ministry. These motives, to which perhaps it was owing that he had been selected for a commissioner, persuaded him that he might succeed in effecting in America by his suggestions and a private correspondence, what his colleagues perchance could not have obtained by open negotiations, always subject to the restraints of circumspection and distrust. He believed, at least, that by enticing the principal republicans with brilliant prospects of honors and wealth, he should smooth the difficulties which impeded the operations of the commissioners. It is not known whether he pursued this course of his own motion, or with the privity, or even by the command of the government. Nevertheless, the tenor of the letters he wrote upon this head, would lead to the belief that the ministers were no strangers to his designs. In fact, contrary to the uniform practice of those who exercise a delegated power, he praised the resistance which the Americans had made, up to that time, against the unjust and arrogant laws of England; a frankness he would scarcely have ventured, if he had not been guided by the instructions of the ministers. The style in which he wrote to the most considerable citizens, and even to the members of Congress, would sooner have caused him to be taken for an agent of that body, than for an envoy of the British government. He professed a desire to be admitted into the interior of the country, and to discourse face to face with men, whose virtues he admired above those of the Greeks and Romans, in order to be able to describe them to his children. He affirmed that they had worthily wielded the pen and the sword in vindicating the rights of their country, and of the human race; he overwhelmed them with protestations of his love and veneration. The Congress had some suspicions, and at last positive knowledge of these intrigues. They recommended to the different states, and directed the commander-in-chief and other officers, to hold a strict hand to the effect that all correspondence with the enemy should cease. By a subsequent resolution, it was ordained that all letters of a public nature received by any