In the meantime Prescott had landed and had made an effort to relieve Brimston Hill. He was beaten back by Bouillé with superior numbers. As it was obvious that they could do nothing, the troops were embarked on the 29th and sent off to Antigua. Hood maintained his anchorage till all hope was gone. The planters of St. Kitts had suffered severely by Rodney’s confiscations at St. Eustatius, and were sulky. They had not even mounted the twelve 24-pounders and two mortars given them for their protection. These pieces fell into Bouillé’s hands, and were used against Brimston Hill. When the Frenchman found the siege of the hill slow work, he took to his usual course of burning the plantations. The planters raised a clamour, and under pressure from them Shirley offered to capitulate on the 13th February. On the 14th, Hood having done all that in him lay, summoned his captains to the flagship, instructed them to set their watches by his, and to get under way at ten that night. The fleet slipped off quietly, and without interruption from Grasse, round the north end of St. Kitts. There is no finer passage of combined caution and daring in the war. We had lost the islands, but Grasse had thrown away the chance to crush the English ships. He no doubt wished to preserve his own ships for their ulterior purpose, the conquest of Jamaica. While tendering them he inevitably allowed the escape of Hood’s ships, which were to have a conspicuous share in ruining that ulterior purpose in the following April. Between such opponents, only the fitting occasion was required to show beyond all peradventure where the superiority lay. The occasion was at hand. Hood reached Antigua on the 19th February. On the 22nd he left for Barbadoes, and met at sea Rodney, who had reached that island on the 19th. Rodney had left Plymouth on the 14th January with twelve sail of the line. He had beaten out of the Channel in the teeth of the wind, and had rounded Ushant in a gale which sent the waves over the deck of his flagship, the =Namur=. He came back to his command somewhat restored in health by an operation he had undergone at Bath, but more aged, more secluded, than ever, and he had to bring with him a private doctor, Gilbert Blane. Blane should be mentioned with honour in every history of the navy, for he did much excellent work in introducing into our ships that cleanliness which means health, which again means efficiency and the power to endure. The improvement in this respect was already great. Our fleets in the West Indies presented a spectacle such as would have filled the seamen of Queen Anne with amazement. They were showing that it was possible to keep the crews long at sea on that sickly station and yet preserve them more free from disease than in port and at home.