ounded his house at Monticello.

About this time, Mad Anthony Wayne, with a thousand Pennsylvania
regulars, appeared upon the scene and joined Lafayette.

{125} Now Cornwallis, finding that he could not catch "the boy," and
having a wholesome respect for Wayne, stopped his marching and
countermarching, and retreated to Williamsburg by way of Richmond and
the York peninsula.

During the first week in August, the British commander continued his
retreat to the coast, and occupied Yorktown, with about seven
thousand men. Lafayette was encamped on Malvern Hill, in the York
peninsula, where he was waiting for the next act in the drama.

[Illustration: General Lafayette]

Far away in the North, at West Point, Washington was keeping a sharp
lookout over the whole field. The main part of the patriot army was
encamped along the Hudson.

At Newport, there was a French force under General Rochambeau. Late
in May, Washington rode over to a little town in Connecticut, to
consult with him. It was decided that the French army should march to
the Hudson as speedily as possible, and unite with the patriot forces
encamped there.

The plan at this time was to capture New York. This could not be done
without the aid of a large fleet.

Early in the spring of this year, 1781, the French government had
sent a powerful fleet to the West Indies, under the command of Count
de Grasse. De Grasse now had orders to act in concert with Washington
and Rochambeau, against the common enemy. This was joyful news.

{126} News traveled very slowly in those times. It took ten days for
Washington to hear from Lafayette that Cornwallis had retreated to
Yorktown, and thirty days to learn that Greene was marching southward
against Lord Rawdon in South Carolina. And as for De Grasse, it was
uncertain just when and where he would arrive on the coast.

Washington had some hard thinking to do. The storm center of the
whole war might suddenly shift to Virginia.

Now came the test for his military genius. Hitherto, the British
fleet had been in control of our coast. Now, however, nobody but a
Nelson would ever hope to defeat the French men-of-war that were
nearing our shores. Cornwallis was safe enough on the York peninsula
so long as the British fleet had control of the Virginia coast. But
suppose De Grasse should take up a position on the three sides of
Yorktown, would it not be an easy matter, with the aid of a large
land force, to entrap Cornwallis?