through the Bahama Channel for the Chesapeake, carrying the troops in his warships so as not to be hampered by transports. Rodney was informed by Captain Forde of =La Nymphe=, who had seen the French at sea on the 5th July, that Grasse had sailed. He at once concluded that the French admiral was bound to the coast of America, and he prepared to reinforce the British squadron on the station. For himself he could not go. His health had broken down, and it was impossible for him to face an autumn campaign in the searching cold of the North. He handed over his command to Hood with orders to take fourteen sail of the line to America, and then on the 1st August sailed with a convoy for Europe. All now began to move to the decisive point at Yorktown. Arbuthnot had resigned his command and had gone home on the 2nd July. His successor, Rear-Admiral Graves, began by sending information to Rodney that the French fleet was believed to be coming from the West Indies. Then leaving Captain Edmond Affleck at New York he went to sea himself with six ships of the line, to intercept reinforcements from Europe for the enemy, to cover the movements of our own convoys, to watch Boston, and, if possible, to meet whatever ships Rodney might send him from the West Indies. Sir George had acted, as we have seen, on his own initiative, and had sent the sloop =Swallow= to report the approaching arrival of Hood. The =Swallow= reached New York on the 27th July, and was sent on by Affleck to meet Graves at sea. She unhappily fell in with two privateers, by whom she was driven on shore and destroyed. The =Active=, sent by Hood to report that he was coming, was also taken, and neither message reached Graves. Hearing nothing, and being in want of stores, the admiral returned to Sandy Hook on the 16th August. Hood in the meantime had sailed from Antigua on the 10th August, and on the 27th he was off the Chesapeake. Finding no British force there he went on to Sandy Hook on the 28th. Forty-eight hours after he had gone Grasse arrived with twenty-eight sail of the line, and two 50-gun ships. He anchored at Lynn Haven. Thus Lord Cornwallis, who had been compelled to evacuate the Carolinas, and had marched through Virginia to Yorktown, where all his troops were collected by the 22nd August, was cut off from communication with New York by sea, while Washington, with the American troops, and Rochambeau, with the French, were gathering round him by land.