The English looked with exultation and disdain upon their apparently weak foe, and Lord Cornwallis wrote with confidence, “_The boy cannot escape me!_” But the despised “boy” was of a more heroic and irresistible nature than the proud general imagined, and would yet give him a most perplexing chase, and at length catch his boastful foe in so cunning a trap that all the English hosts could not deliver him; and this same “boy” should stand by and witness his surrender. [Illustration: Cornwallis] For some time a sort of military game of “hide-and-seek” was kept up by Lord Cornwallis and La Fayette. It was Cornwallis’ plan to entrap him; it was La Fayette’s plan to elude him. The marquis moved his division with such unexpected celerity, that when the English general thought that he had him securely hedged in at any particular point, he would straightway find, to his chagrin, that his antagonist was miles away, sometimes before him, sometimes behind him, now on this side, then on that, and on one occasion, in order to guard some valuable stores at Albemarle Old Court House, La Fayette passed his foe in the night; and while Cornwallis supposed that he had so disposed of his force that the enemy must be entrapped, and smiled to himself at the easy manner in which the prey would fall into his hands in the morning, as all the roads to Albemarle Court House had been carefully guarded, the marquis played his own little strategic game, and when the day dawned, the proud English lord, with deep mortification, received tidings that his adversary was already before him, on the direct road to Albemarle, and his English lordship had been baffled in securing either the coveted stores or the more coveted American army. On the 6th of July occurred a brisk skirmish between the opposing forces. The British army were crossing the James River, on the march from Williamsburg to Portsmouth. La Fayette, thinking that the larger part of the troops had already crossed, ordered an attack to be made upon what he supposed to be the rear-guard. This time he had indeed fallen into one of Lord Cornwallis’ traps. In order to deceive the Americans, only a small detachment had been sent forward, and when it was attacked by the force under General Wayne, known as “Mad Antony,” the little band of Americans found themselves facing the entire English force. La Fayette, who was stationed at a short distance with the main army, rightly conjectured, from the very heavy firing, that more than a rear-guard were engaged, and sent assistance to Wayne, with orders to fall back. So swift had been the attack and so sudden the retreat, that Cornwallis suspected a snare, and did not follow up his triumph.