in reverence so
high that New York and Charleston had erected statues in his honor. When
the defeat of Burgoyne so shook the ministry that North was anxious to
retire, Chatham, but for two obstacles, could probably have formed a
ministry. One obstacle was his age; as the event proved, he was near
his end. It was, however, not this which kept him from office, but
the resolve of George III. The King simply said that he would not have
Chatham. In office Chatham would certainly rule and the King intended
himself to rule. If Chatham would come in a subordinate position, well;
but Chatham should not lead. The King declared that as long as even ten
men stood by him he would hold out and he would lose his crown rather
than call to office that clamorous Opposition which had attacked his
American policy. "I will never consent," he said firmly, "to removing
the members of the present Cabinet from my service." He asked North:
"Are you resolved at the hour of danger to desert me?" North remained in
office. Chatham soon died and, during four years still, George III was
master of England. Throughout the long history of that nation there
is no crisis in which one man took a heavier and more disastrous
responsibility.

News came to Valley Forge of the alliance with France and there
were great rejoicings. We are told that, to celebrate the occasion,
Washington dined in public. We are not given the bill of fare in that
scene of famine; but by the springtime tension in regard to supplies had
been relieved and we may hope that Valley Forge really feasted in
honor of the great event. The same news brought gloom to the British
in Philadelphia, for it had the stern meaning that the effort and loss
involved in the capture of that city were in vain. Washington held most
of the surrounding country so that supplies must come chiefly by sea.
With a French fleet and a French army on the way to America, the British
realized that they must concentrate their defenses. Thus the cheers at
Valley Forge were really the sign that the British must go.

Sir William Howe, having taken Philadelphia, was determined not to be
the one who should give it up. Feeling was bitter in England over the
ghastly failure of Burgoyne, and he had gone home on parole to defend
himself from his seat in the House of Commons. There Howe had a seat and
he, too, had need to be on hand. Lord George Germain had censured him
for his course and, to shield himself; was clearly resolv