er the tiers of guns in the leading English ship,
but not a shot was fired at her as she swept by and rejoined her consorts.
Rodney had not yet flown the signal for battle, and these were still the
days when personal enterprise and decision were not encouraged among the
captains of a fleet.

As the breeze filled the sails of the Frenchmen, Grasse signalled to the
convoy to bear away before it to the north-westward, while he with his
fighting-ships set his course for the channel between Dominica and
Guadeloupe. He rightly judged that Rodney would follow the warships, and
thus the convoy would have a good start. The channel towards which the
French fleet was heading is known as the Saints' Passage, "not on the
surmise that it leads to Heaven,"[14] but because along its northern waters
stretches a line of rocky islets known to the French as "_les Iles des
Saintes_." The nine ships of Hood forming the English van had gone far
ahead of the rest of the fleet. If De Grasse had not had his mind so
centred on the idea of avoiding a battle, there is little doubt that he
might have brought an overwhelming force to bear on them. Luckily for
Rodney, he contented himself with sending his second in command,
Vaudreuil, to skirmish with them, passing and repassing Hood's division at
long range and firing at masts and rigging in the hope of disabling them
for further pursuit. Hood returned the fire, doing as much damage as he
suffered, and towards midday the rest of the English had worked up to him
by taking advantage of every breath of wind that blew over the ridges of
Dominica. Then the wind fell again, and all through the night and the
following day (10 April) the fleets lay in sight of each other beyond even
distant cannon shot, Vaudreuil's and Hood's crews busying themselves with
repairing rigging and replacing damaged spars.

[14] Treves, "Cradle of the Deep," p. 175.

During the 11th De Grasse tried to get his fleet through the Saints'
Passage, working by short tacks to windward, and baffled and delayed by
sudden calms. In the afternoon several of his ships were still to the
westward of the strait, and Rodney, who had been getting gradually to the
northward, despite the frequent failure of the wind under the lee of
Dominica, was at last near enough seriously to threaten these laggards. In
order to save them from being overwhelmed by the whole English fleet, De
Grasse gave up the advantage of weary hours of hard work and came