the soldiers and stables for their horses, laid waste the
country, cut down the trees and obliterated the landmarks. Thus the
French found it, and they were welcomed as possible deliverers and
defenders from the English rule. Rochambeau and his staff reached
Newport in the frigate Hermione on the afternoon of the 11th of July,
and the next day the troops were landed, many of them being ill and all
in need of rest after the long voyage and cramped quarters. The forts
were put in possession of the French, who proceeded to remodel them
into a better condition to resist a siege. General Heath, hearing at
Providence the news of the arrival of the fleet, came down to Newport
to greet Rochambeau, whom he met on shore, going afterward on board the
Duc de Bourgogne to see the admiral, who in return saluted the town
with thirteen guns. On the evening of the 12th Rochambeau dined with
General Heath, a grand illumination of the town taking place afterward,
and each day saw some new festivity to welcome the guests who had made
the American cause their own. The army had been stationed across the
island guarding the town, the right toward the ships and the left upon
the sea, Rochambeau thus carefully covering the position of his vessels
by the batteries. Everything was _en fete_. The people were delighted
with the manners and courtly polish of the French. Robin says of the
discipline insisted on at Newport, "The officers employed politeness
and amenity, the common soldiers became mild, circumspect and
moderate." The French at Newport were no longer the frivolous race,
presumptuous, noisy, full of fatuity, they were reputed to be. They
lived quietly and retired, limiting their society to their hosts, to
whom every day they became dearer. These young nobles of birth and
fortune, to whom a sojourn at court must have given a taste for
dissipation and luxury, were the first to set an example of frugality
and simplicity of life. They showed themselves affable, popular, as if
they had never lived but with men who were on an equality. Every one
was won, even the Tories, and their departure saddened even more than
their arrival had alarmed. Rochambeau also alludes to the discipline of
the army, and says: "It was due to the zeal of the generals and
superior officers, and above all to the goodwill of the soldiers. It
contributed not a little to make the State of Rhode Island acquiesce in
the proposition I made it, to repair at our expense the mans