[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON FORT MOULTRIE BY THE BRITISH FLEET, 1776.] The devoted city was again besieged in 1779 by the British under General Augustine Provost, and was again successfully defended. The third siege by the British was successful and the city was surrendered on the 12th of May, 1780, after a siege of four months and heavy bombardment. It was held by the British under military rule until evacuated by them December 14, 1782. General William Moultrie in his _Memoirs_ thus describes the reoccupation of the city by the American forces: “I cannot forget that happy day when we marched into Charlestown with the American troops; it was a proud day to me, and I felt myself much elated at seeing the balconies, the doors and windows crowded with the patriotic fair, the aged citizens and others congratulating us on our return home, saying, ‘God bless you gentlemen! You are welcome home gentlemen!’ Both citizens and soldiers shed mutual tears of joy.” The Duke La Rochefoucault-Liancourt, who visited the United States in 1796, after the Revolution, when the people had in great measure recovered from its effects, was as extravagant in his praise of the people of Charleston as Josiah Quincy had been. The enthusiastic Frenchman wrote: “I cannot close this long article on South Carolina without mentioning with deserved praise the kind reception I experienced in Charleston. This is a duty which I owe to the inhabitants of all the parts of America which I have traversed, but especially to this place. In no town of the United States does a foreigner experience more benevolence or find more entertaining society than in Charleston.... They keep a greater number of servants than those of Philadelphia. From the hour of four in the afternoon, they rarely think of aught but pleasure and amusement.... Many of the inhabitants of South Carolina having been in Europe, have in consequence acquired a greater knowledge of our manners and a stronger partiality to them than the people of the Northern States. Consequently the European modes of life are here more prevalent. The women here are more lovely than in the North. They are interesting and agreeable but not quite so handsome as those of Philadelphia. They have a greater share in the commerce of society without retaining for this the loss of modesty and delicate propriety in their behavior.” Time does not appear to have changed the character of the people or their social amenities, for, in 1836, an Englishman, the Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, writes: