About the same time that Cornwallis entered Virginia, Washington received the welcome intelligence from the French admiral, the Count de Grasse, in the West Indies, that he was about to proceed with a powerful fleet to the American coast, on which the French army, which, had lain idle for eleven months in Rhode Island, marched to join Washington; who, breaking up his camp in July, passed the North River to meet them. Their junction took place at the White Plains, on the New England side of the Hudson, and the combined armies encamped at Philipsburg, within twelve miles of King’s Bridge, sufficiently near New York to excite great alarm. The apparent intention of these great movements was an attack on New York, which became confirmed by an intercepted letter from Washington to the French commander, Rochambeau, in which such an attack was spoken of in undisguised terms. But the intentions of Washington, whatever they might have been in the commencement, soon became very different; nevertheless, the object now was to confirm Sir Henry Clinton’s suspicion, that time might be given to carry out the still more formidable plan, of which no idea appeared to exist in the mind of the British commander. It was under the apprehension of this combined attack that Sir Henry Clinton recalled a considerable part of the troops under Lord Cornwallis, from Virginia, immediately afterwards countermanding his recall, being himself reinforced by the arrival of 3,000 Hessians; the same apprehension also rendered it desirable to occupy some strong position in Virginia. Now, therefore, in the month of July, New York was kept in a state of perpetual alarm. A body of 5,000 French and American troops, on one occasion, took up a position near King’s Bridge, in the night, which they occupied for forty-eight hours, with every appearance of an intended attack. The two commanders, Washington and Rochambeau, attended by their principal officers and engineers, reconnoitered the island of New York; the report of the expected daily arrival of the Count de Grasse was sedulously propagated, and when the precise time of that admiral’s arrival at the Chesapeake was ascertained, the French troops advanced to Sandy Hook and the coasts opposite Staten Island, as if with a view of seconding the operations of the fleet. So far, indeed, was this deception carried, that ovens were erected near the mouth of the Raritan, on Sandy Hook, as if for the supply of the army.