accept such terms, he would fight still and take no quarter. A
shadow was falling on the path of Gates. The term of service of some of
his men had expired. The New Englanders were determined to stay and see
the end of Burgoyne but a good many of the New York troops went off.
Sickness, too, was increasing. Above all General Clinton was advancing
up the Hudson. British ships could come up freely as far as Albany and
in a few days Clinton might make a formidable advance. Gates, a timid
man, was in a hurry. He therefore agreed that the British should march
from their camp with the honors of war, that the troops should be taken
to New England, and from there to England. They must not serve again
in North America during the war but there was nothing in the terms to
prevent their serving in Europe and relieving British regiments for
service in America. Gates had the courtesy to keep his army where it
could not see the laying down of arms by Burgoyne's force. About five
thousand men, of whom sixteen hundred were Germans and only three
thousand five hundred fit for duty, surrendered to sixteen thousand
Americans. Burgoyne gave offense to German officers by saying in his
report that he might have held out longer had all his troops been
British. This is probably true but the British met with only a just
Nemesis for using soldiers who had no call of duty to serve.

The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to Boston. The
late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly clothed and fed, and
the discomfort of the weary route was increased by the bitter antagonism
of the inhabitants. They respected the regular British soldier but at
the Germans they shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as
traitors. The camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge
where two years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every day
Burgoyne expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he knew
the reason. Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates. A tangled
dispute followed. Washington probably had no sympathy with the quibbling
of Congress. But he had no desire to see this army return to Europe and
release there an army to serve in America. Burgoyne's force was never
sent to England. For nearly a year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched
to Virginia. The men suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by
desertion and escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take
back to England; Burgoyn