nsure he was involved with his associates--known,
so to say, by his friends, implicated in the meshes of a half-truth,
where effort to clear one's self results in worse entanglement. He had
the manly cast of character which will not struggle for
self-vindication; but his suppressed wrath gathered force, until a year
later it resulted, upon occasion of official provocation, in an
explosion that has not a close parallel in naval history.

He had hoisted his flag again on February 28, 1758. His first service
was directed against a French squadron of five ships-of-the-line,
fitting at Rochefort to convoy troops for the relief of Louisburg, in
Cape Breton Island, then about to be besieged by British and colonial
forces. Hawke's observations of the previous year had ascertained the
hitherto unknown facilities of Basque Roads for occupation by a fleet
and consequent effectual interception of such an expedition. Upon
making the land the French vessels were found already in the Roads,
therefore soon to sail; but before this superior force of seven ships
they cut their cables, and fled across the shoals up the river Charente,
on which Rochefort lies. Hawke, instructed by his previous experience,
had earnestly but fruitlessly demanded fire-ships and bomb-vessels to
destroy the enemy in case they grounded on the flats; which they did,
and for some hours lay exposed to such an attack. Not having these
means, he had to watch helplessly the process of lightening and towing
by which they at last made their escape. He then returned to England,
having frustrated the relief expedition but, through defective
equipment, not destroyed the vessels. The Admiralty, upon receiving his
report of the transaction, made no acknowledgments to him.

Pitt had profited by Hawke's ineffectual request for small vessels and
his suffering from the want of them; but he utilized the suggestions in
a manner that robbed their author of any share in the results. A
squadron of that sort was to be constituted, to operate on the French
coast in diversions like that of 1757; but it was to be an independent
command, under an officer chosen by the Government without consulting
the admiral. To the main fleet was assigned the necessary, but in credit
very secondary, office of cruising off Brest, to prevent interruption by
the French ships there; to play, in short, the inconspicuous role of a
covering force, while the light squadron had the brilliant part of
fighting. T