“I count amongst my many pleasant experiences the time when the division of M. de Saint-Simon was reunited to my army; and, also, when I alternately commanded the three adjutant-generals with the troops under their order. I pity Lord Cornwallis, of whom I have the most exalted opinion. He wished to test such estimation, and after the capitulation gave me the pleasure of returning the incivility of Charleston. I do not purpose to carry vengeance any further. “My health is excellent. I have not received any injury during my operations. Present my most tender homage to Madame d’Ayen, to M. le Maréchal de Noailles; a thousand compliments to all my sisters, to l’Abbé Fayon, to M. de Margelay. “I embrace a thousand and a thousand times our dear children. Adieu! adieu!” Washington desired to follow up the advantages which the Americans had gained, by an expedition against Charleston; but as De Grasse had prior orders from his sovereign, preventing his remaining longer in America, the project was abandoned, and the American army retired into winter quarters. Again La Fayette sought permission from Congress to visit his native land, and after receiving the highest testimonials from Washington and Congress, and also from the king and ministry of France, he sailed from Boston in the frigate _Alliance_, on the 22d of December, 1781. The greatest enthusiasm was excited by La Fayette’s arrival in France. Royal _salons_ courted his presence, and high-born dames and gallant cavaliers vied to do him homage. Even sovereigns deigned to note with especial honor his return. Madame de La Fayette was present at a grand fête at the Hôtel de Ville, in celebration of the Dauphin’s birth, when the news was proclaimed that La Fayette, the conqueror of Cornwallis, had just arrived; and, sympathizing with the impatient joy of the fond wife, the queen herself ordered her carriage and accompanied Madame de La Fayette to the Hôtel de Noailles, where La Fayette had just alighted. The joy of the reunion between La Fayette and his family is more fittingly told in the words of his daughter Virginie than by another. Speaking of her father’s second visit to America, she says:— “My father left France once more for America, where the war still continued. The grief which my mother felt was still greater than at his first departure. Her attachment had been increased both by her anxieties on his account and by the enchanting moments she had spent with him. She was then nineteen. Her impressions had become stronger and deeper; a more intimate and serious confidence had associated her riper intellect with my father’s opinions and designs: her mind was with him as well as her heart.