Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/452

 Letter from Colonel William (Morris) Fontaine, after the surrender at York.

, Oct. 26th, 1781. —Major Penn gives me an opportunity, the first I have met with since the glorious event, of congratulating you on the surrender of York, which I do with all imaginable cordiality. I had the happiness to see that British army, which so lately spread dismay and desolation through all our country, march forth on the 20th instant at three o'clock, through our whole army drawn up in two lines at about twenty yards distance, and return disrobed of all their terrors, so humbled and so struck at the appearance of our troops that their knees seemed to tremble, and you could not see a platoon that marched in any order. Such a noble figure did our army make, that I scarce know which drew my attention most. You could not have heard a whisper or seen the least motion throughout our whole line, but every countenance was erect, and expressed a serene cheerfulness. Cornwallis pretended to be ill, and imposed the mortifying duty of leading forth the captives on General O'Hara. Their own officers acknowledge them to be the flower of the British troops, yet I do not think they at all exceeded in appearance our own or the French. The latter, you may be assured, are very different from the ideas formerly inculcated in us, of a people living on frogs and coarse vegetables. Finer troops I never saw. His Lordship's defence, I think, was rather feeble. His surrender was eight or ten days sooner than the most sanguine expected, though his force and resources were much greater than we conceived. He had at least a fortnight's provisions, and 1000 barrels of powder left, beside a magazine, that it is