Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 320 pages of information about Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 320 pages of information about Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science.
war-dance, which was a novel and interesting sight to the French officers.  As a return for this entertainment the French army gave a grand review, preceded by firing of cannon.  The sight must have been a fine one.  The regiments were among the flower of European chivalry, some of them of historical celebrity, such as the regiment of Auvergne, whose motto was “Sans tache” and one of whose captains, the famous D’Assas, is said to have saved a whole brigade at the expense of his life, crying, as he saw the enemy approaching on his unsuspecting comrades, “A moi Auvergne! voila les ennemis!” and fell dead.  The uniforms of the troops were most effective.  The officers wore white cockades and the colors of their regiments faced with white cloth.  The Bourbonnais regiment was in black and red, Saintonge in white and green, Deux-Ponts in white; the Soissonnais wore pink facings and grenadier caps with pink and white plumes, while the artillery were in blue with red facings.  The savages were delighted with the pageant, but in spite of its splendor expressed more astonishment at seeing trees loaded with fruit hanging over tents which the soldiers had occupied for months than at anything else.  They took their departure in September, being presented with blankets and other gifts by Rochambeau.

Perhaps the finest display was that which celebrated the French king’s birthday on Friday, the 25th of August.  The ships were decorated with the flags of all nations during the day and brilliantly illuminated at night.  High mass was celebrated on the flag-ship, after which a number of salutes were fired.  The town joined in the festivity.  The bells of Trinity were rung and the inhabitants decorated their houses with flags.  The autumn was spent in agreeable pastimes, but with the approach of winter it became necessary to put the army into comfortable quarters.  The houses which Rochambeau had offered to repair were ready, and the regiments were installed in them; the State-House, which had been used as a hospital by the English, was put to the same use by the French; and an upper room in it was fitted up as a chapel, where masses were said for the sick and dying by the abbe de Glesnon, the chaplain of the expedition.  The list of the dead was soon to include no less a person than Admiral de Ternay.  He was taken ill of a fever early in December, and brought on shore to the Hunter house, where he died on the 15th, being buried with great pomp in Trinity churchyard on the following day.  The coffin was carried through the streets by sailors:  nine priests followed, chanting a requiem for the departed hero.  The tomb placed over the remains by order of Louis XVI. in 1785 having become injured by the ravages of time, the United States government in 1873, with the co-operation of the marquis de Noailles, then French minister, had it moved into the vestibule of the church, placing a granite slab over the tomb.  One of Rochambeau’s aides ascribes the admiral’s death to chagrin at having let five English ships escape him in an encounter.

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Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.