s
and more able than had been expected from his youth and character.
Washington came to love him as a son.

It was with the title of major-general that M. de La Fayette made his
first campaign; Congress had passed a decree conferring upon him this
grade, rather an excess of honor in Washington's opinion; the latter was
at that time covering Philadelphia, the point aimed at by the operations
of General Howe. Beaten at Brandywine and at Germantown, the Americans
were obliged to abandon the town to the enemy and fall back on Valley
Forge, where the general pitched his camp for wintering. The English had
been beaten on the frontiers of Canada by General Gates; General
Burgoyne, invested on all sides by the insurgents, had found himself
forced to capitulate at Saratoga. The humiliation and wrath of the
public in England were great, but the resolution of the politicians was
beginning to waver; on the 10th of February, 1778, Lord North had
presented two bills whereby England was to renounce the right of levying
taxes in the American colonies, and was to recognize the legal existence
of Congress. Three commissioners were to be sent to America to treat for
conditions of peace. After a hot discussion, the two bills had been
voted.

This was a small matter in view of the growing anxiety and the political
manoeuvrings of parties. On the 7th of April, 1778, the Duke of Richmond
proposed in the House of Lords the recall of all the forces, land and
sea, which were fighting in America. He relied upon the support of Lord
Chatham, who was now at death's door, but who had always expressed
himself forcibly against the conduct of the government towards the
colonists. The great orator entered the House, supported by two of his
friends, pale, wasted, swathed in flannel beneath his embroidered robe.
He with difficulty dragged himself to his place. The peers, overcome at
the sight of this supreme effort, waited in silence. Lord Chatham rose,
leaning on his crutch and still supported by his friends. He raised one
hand to heaven. "I thank God," he said, "that I have been enabled to
come hither to-day to fulfil a duty and say what has been weighing so
heavily on my heart. I have already one foot in the grave; I shall soon
descend into it; I have left my bed to sustain my country's cause in this
House, perhaps for the last time. I think myself happy, my lords, that
the grave has not yet closed over me, and that I am still alive to ra