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 mansions which the English
had mutilated, so that they might serve as barracks
for the soldiers if the inhabitants would lodge the
officers. We spent twenty thousand crowns in
repairing the houses, and left in the place many marks
of the generosity of France toward its allies.”
We have before us an old plan of Newport in 1777,
and a list of the officers’ hosts. We find
the general quartered at 302 New lane, corner of Clark
and Mary streets. Its proprietor, William Hunter,
was president of the Eastern Navy Board at Boston
and an earnest upholder of the rights of the colonies.
The gallant and all-conquering Lauzun was at the widow
Deborah Hunter’s, No. 264 Thames street.
Mrs. Hunter was the mother of two charming daughters,
whom Lauzun eulogizes in his journal. His praise
has been often quoted, yet it is worth repeating,
as it shows this Lovelace in a new and pleasing light.
He says: “Mrs. Hunter is a widow of thirty-six
who has two daughters, whom she has well brought up.
She conceived a friendship for me, and I was treated
like one of the family. I passed my time there.
I was ill, and she took care of me. I was not
in love with the Misses Hunter, but had they been