In fact, at the very outset he was threatened in this quarter with a serious defection.

De Barras, with the squadron of the American station, was at Boston, and it was essential that he should be united with De Grasse at Yorktown.

But De Barras was nettled by the favoritism which had made De Grasse, his junior in service, his superior in command.

He determined therefore to take advantage of his orders and sail away to the north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and leave De Grasse to fight it out alone.

It is a hard thing to beat an opposing army, but it is equally hard to bring human jealousies and ambitions into the narrow path of self-sacrifice and subordination.