A complete history of the Marquis de Lafayette, major-general in the American army in the war of the revolution. Embracing an account of his tour through the United States, to the time of his departure, September, 1825. By an officer in the late army.

MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 107
with General Wayne, and of covering the inanufactory
of arms in the vicinity of Falmouth.
Lord Cornwallis followed with zeal and rapidity, apd
crossing the Chickahominy at Bottom Bridge, manifested his determination to force Lafayette to battle before
his junction with General Wayne. He was so entirely
confident of success against his young antagonist, that
he imprudently remarked in a letter, which was intercepted, " the boy cannot escape me." But a combination
of talents and skill defeated all the energies of physical
power, and the gallant " boy" escaped to give new evidences at Yorktown, of his generosity and modesty, by
declining to receive the sword of the captured Cornwallis
himself.
Lafayette moved with so much celerity and caution as to
convince Lord Cornwallis of the impracticability of overtaking him, or of preventing his junction with General
Wayne. Before the British army reached the Chickahominy,
he had passed the Pamunkey, the southern branch of York
River. Finding that the distance between his adversary and
himself daily increased, Cornwallis halted, and turned his attention to objects of less magnitude. He accordingly, made
two considerable detachments from his army while encamped
in the county of Hanover; one for the purpose of destroying
the magazines at the Point of Fork, then under the protection of Baron Steuben with his raw levies, and the other,
for seizing the members of the general assembly convened
at Charlotteville, a small town on the western bank of the
Rivannah, a northern branch of James River. Simcoe, who
commanded the first, by the rapidity of his march, as well
as the precipitate retreat of the Baron, succeeded in destroying the military stores; and Colonel Tarleton, who led the
detachment against Charlotteville, was equally successful in
destroying the stores at that place: but nearly all the members of the legislature made their escape. In the mean-time,
Lafayette continued to retreat, and to keep up his com