Chief among them undoubtedly stands the value of celerity and watchfulness, combined with knowledge of one's profession.

Howe learned of his danger by advices from home three weeks after D'Estaing sailed from Toulon.

He had to gather in his cruisers from the Chesapeake and outside, get his ships-of-the-line from New York and Rhode Island, embark the supplies of an army of ten thousand men, move down the Delaware,--which unavoidably took ten days,--and round to New York again.

D'Estaing was ten days behind him at the Delaware, twelve days at Sandy Hook, and only one day ahead of him in entering Newport, outside which harbor he had lain ten days before sailing in.

An English narrator in the fleet, speaking of the untiring labor between June 30, when the English army reached Navesink, and the arrival of the French fleet on the 11th of July, says: "Lord Howe attended in person as usual, and by his presence animated the zeal and quickened the industry of officers and men." In this quality he was a marked contrast to his amiable but indolent brother, General Howe.
The same industry and watchfulness marked his remaining operations.