ber
between Admiral Graves and Count de Grasse, an engagement which in its
results might prove most injurious to Lord Cornwallis. Under this
impression, 'My meaning,' said he, 'is, that if I were the Count de
Maurepas I should wish to live long enough to behold the final issue of
the war in Virginia.' 'He has survived to witness it completely,'
answered Lord George. 'The army has surrendered, and you may peruse the
particulars of the capitulation in that paper,' taking at the same time
one from his pocket, which he delivered into his hand, not without
visible emotion. By his permission he read it aloud, while the company
listened in profound silence. They then discussed its contents as
affecting the ministry, the country, and the war. It must be confessed
that they were calculated to diffuse a gloom over the most convivial
society, and that they opened a wide field for political speculation.

"After perusing the account of Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown,
it was impossible for all present not to feel a lively curiosity to know
how the king had received the intelligence, as well as how he had
expressed himself in his note to Lord George Germain, on the first
communication of so painful an event. He gratified their wish by reading
it to them, observing at the same time that it did the highest honor to
his Majesty's fortitude, firmness, and consistency of character. The
words made an impression on his memory, which the lapse of more than
thirty years has not erased; and he here commemorates its tenor as
serving to show how that prince felt and wrote under one of the most
afflicting as well as humiliating occurrences of his reign. The billet
ran nearly to this effect:

"'I have received with sentiments of the deepest concern the
communication which Lord George Germain has made me of the unfortunate
result of the operations in Virginia. I particularly lament it on
account of the consequences connected with it, and the difficulties
which it may produce in carrying on the public business, or in repairing
such a misfortune. But I trust that neither Lord George Germain, nor any
member of the cabinet, will suppose that it makes the smallest
alteration in those principles of my conduct which have directed me in
past time, and which will always continue to animate me under every
event in the prosecution of the present contest.' Not a sentiment of
despondency or of despair was to be found in the letter, the very
handwritin