Preparations were made for an immediate advance. At no period of the war had greater enthusiasm prevailed. Volunteers came pouring in from Boston, Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth--not merely those whom pay or bounty could call out, but men of wealth and position. John Hancock led the militia of Massachusetts. Greene and Lafayette came on from the main army. By the 8th of August Sullivan found himself at the head of ten thousand men. The right wing took post at Tiverton. The French fleet under D'Estaing held the outer harbor. The morning of the 10th was fixed upon for the attack. On the 8th the fleet ran up the middle passage in face of a heavy fire from the enemy's batteries, and secured the command of the bay. Sir Robert Pigot drew in his forces and stationed them in strong positions near the town. They numbered about six thousand in all. Sullivan seeing that the British commander had abandoned his strong works at the head of the island, thought that no time was to be lost in securing them, and without waiting for the day agreed upon with the French admiral, set his right wing under Greene, in motion on the morning of the 9th and began to cross over to the island. D'Estaing felt the breach of etiquette, but had little time to dwell upon it. For about two in the afternoon a fleet of nearly twenty-five sail came in sight, standing in for Newport. It was the fleet of Lord Howe. He lay to off Point Judith for the night, and next morning began a trial of seamanship with D'Estaing for the weather-gage. The Englishman stood out to sea; a sudden change of wind enabled the Frenchman to follow him, and the whole of the first day and part of the second were passed in manoeuvring. Meanwhile the wind kept rising, and in a few hours it blew a gale. Soon it was no longer a question of victory, but of life. The work of destruction by mortal hands ceased. The big ships were tossed helplessly about by the yawning billows. The invisible winds snapped the strong masts--once the pride of centennial forests--asunder. The Languedoc, with her ninety guns, the French admiral's own ship, lost masts and rudder. The shattered fleets made their way to port as best they might, the English to New York, the French to Newport, with occasional encounters on their way.