the twenty-eight American
sergeants who were stationed to receive the flags. Ensign Wilson, then
but eighteen years old, the youngest commissioned officer in the
American army, was chosen to conduct this ceremony and to hand the
colors on to the American sergeants. Lafayette looked down from his
place in the line of mounted American officers and felt that his most
ardent hopes were now fulfilled, and that his motto, "Cur non," had
brought him only the best of fortune.

The day after the ceremony of surrender was the Sabbath, and General
Washington ordered that divine service should be held in all the
regiments and that Thanksgiving should be the theme. The next day he
gave a dinner to which the general officers of the three armies were
invited. Lafayette could not restrain his admiration for Cornwallis
for his gallant and appropriate conduct upon all these rather
embarrassing occasions.

[Illustration: _Photograph from Wm. H. Rau, Philadelphia._
THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS.
From the painting by Colonel John Trumbull, the soldier-artist
of the Revolution.]

If, however, he had possessed the gift of prophecy, he might have
looked forward but one short century to the centennial of Yorktown,
when the flags of the United States and of Great Britain would be run
up together on the site of this historic surrender. Then he would have
seen British and American officers stand together with bared heads and
in brotherly friendliness, while salutes were fired and cheers rent
the air.

Looking still further, he would have seen the day when the people of
France would unite with their one-time foe in various endeavors both
peaceful and warlike. A strange planet is this, for the shifting of
national loyalties and the rending and intertwining of bonds of union!
If history could make the human race amenable to receiving any
instruction whatever, we should learn that war never yet decided any
problem that could not have been better settled in some other way.

CHAPTER XIII

LIONIZED BY TWO WORLDS

Three days after the surrender, the 22d of October, Lafayette was on
board the _Ville de Paris_ in Chesapeake Bay. It was believed that the
surrender of Cornwallis would be practically conclusive as to the
matter at issue between England and the United States. Lafayette
therefore felt a sweep of thoughts toward home. Congress gave him
leave of absence. The _Alliance_ was again placed at his disposal and
awaited h