THE SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN.

I.

THIS is the last of my stories of Virginia history, and in it I will tell you how the Revolution ended at Yorktown, not far from Williamsburg, where, in 1765, Patrick Henry sounded the first note of resistance to England.

After the battle at Jamestown with Lafayette, Lord Cornwallis crossed James River, and finally retired with his army to Yorktown. Here

he began to throw up earthworks to protect himself from the Americans; and this will show you what a change had suddenly taken place in everything. In fact, General Washington was every day expected. He had left his camp near New York with very great secrecy, and was marching

southward to attack the British in Virginia. The news went before him, and Lord Cornwallis no doubt heard it, and it could not have put him in very good spirits. The Americans were closing in on him from every side; and, what made matters worse, a French fleet under Comte de Grasse, which had come over to help Washington, was lying in Chesapeake Bay, ready to cut him off if he tried to escape by water. If he was attacked at Yorktown by the

American army and the French ships, there seemed small probability that he would be able to make much resistance; and Sir Henry Clinton, who was at New York, understood this perfectly well. He saw that there was no time to lose, if he intended to help Cornwallis; so he sent a fleet of English ships, under an officer named Admiral Graves, to sail into Chesapeake Bay, and carry more soldiers to Yorktown. With these he hoped that Cornwallis would be able to hold his ground against the Americans, or if he could not, there would be the ships to safely carry away him and his men.

Admiral Graves accordingly sailed down and soon reached the shores of Virginia. But Comte de Grasse, with his French ships, was on the lookout, and meant to fight him; so as soon as they heard that the English ships were near, the Frenchmen sailed out to attack them.

The Americans saw the French ships sail away to attack the English, and soon lost sight of them in the direction of the ocean. But before long they heard, borne on the ocean wind, the distant roar of cannon, from which they knew that the two fleets were fighting. Hour after hour the dull, far-off muttering of the cannon went on, and then at length there was silence. The Americans hoped that this meant that the English fleet was driven back; and so it indeed proved. The French and English ships had attacked each other and fought until night. The English vessels were not destroyed; but as Admiral Graves did not renew the attack on the next day, or try to get to Yorktown, Comte de Grasse was satisfied, and waited for what was to come next. For five days the two fleets sailed about in sight of each other without any more fighting; and at last the French ships returned to Chesapeake Bay, and the English did not follow them.

Lord Cornwallis must have listened to that faint roar

of cannon from the ocean with very great anxiety. He knew just what his situation was, and that his only hope of safety was the defeat of Comte de Grasse by Admiral Graves. If the English ships were driven off, he saw that he would be caught like a rat in a trap; so he probably stood on his earthworks at Yorktown, listening anxiously to the sound of the guns, and trying to form an opinion. how the fight would end. This, you know, he could do in some measure by the sound. If it grew louder and nearer, it would mean that De Grasse was coming back toward the bay; while if it grew fainter, it would signify that Admiral Graves was sailing away toward the ocean. But the sound did neither. It went on steadily until it stopped; and Lord Cornwallis was obliged to wait until news was brought to him of the result of the fighting.

It was bad enough news, you see, and he must have felt that the end of the struggle was now near. The seafight took place in the first week of September, and on the fourteenth of the same month General Washington reached Williamsburg, which is not far from Yorktown. As he rode along the lines of his war-worn troops the soldiers waved their hats and burst forth into cheers. Every man felt that there would be hot work now when the great commander-in-chief had arrived, and nothing pleased them better than the prospect. They were anxious to beat the British and return home to their families, and the expression on every face seemed to say, "We are ready!”

II.

Washington listened while Lafayette told him all that had happened, and probably praised the young soldier. highly for all his movements in the summer campaign.

If Lafayette had not beaten Lord Cornwallis in battle, he had followed and worried him until he had shut him