But other times other manners, and
nineteenth-century men and women are no doubt as charming in their way
as were our pretty ancestresses and their gallants of a century ago.
The prosperity of Newport received a check from the Revolution. The
English occupation resulted in a vandalism that destroyed the fine
mansions, turned public buildings, and even Trinity Church, into
barracks for 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.
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