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.
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