Meantime the Commissioners had obtained the release of Conyngham and his crew. He was now placed in command of the “Revenge;” and in July, eluding the British, he sailed from Dunkirk, ostensibly for America. He first cruised along the eastern coast of England, into the North Sea and the region of the Baltic, then back through the straits of Dover and into the Irish Channel, and finally into the Bay of Biscay, anchoring at Ferrol, Spain, about the first of October. The terror of his name, which his recklessness and daring greatly increased, spread great alarm among the inhabitants of the British Isles. He did not return again to France with the “Revenge.” This fact made his cruise less annoying to the Commissioners, than the last cruise of Wickes. Hodge, the agent of the Commissioners, who had given bond to the French admiralty that the “Revenge” would not engage in operations against the British, was arrested and thrown into the Bastile; and Vergennes wrote a most severe letter, to be shown to the Commissioners. Presently, when the wrath of the British had abated, Hodge was released on the representation of the Commissioners that he was a person of character, and that they could not “conceive him capable of any willful offence against the laws of this nation.”[358] About the middle of September the “Reprisal” and the “Lexington” sailed for America; the “Reprisal” foundered on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, losing all on board except the cook; and the “Lexington” was taken by the British off Ushant. With the departure of these vessels the movements of the Continental fleet for 1777 in European waters came to an end; as did also the nice task of the Commissioners of conducting a naval war from a neutral country as a base, without losing the friendship of that country, or involving it in war. Had not hostilities broken out in 1778 between France and England by reason of other causes, a repetition of the naval operations of 1777, if permitted by the French, would very likely have brought them on.