Peace was not declared until March 3, 1783. In the meanwhile the armies must be kept in camp, regularly drilled, and ready at a moment's notice for action. The American army was encamped at Verplanck's Point; that of Count de Rochambeau--alas, for the honor and peace of one household!--at Williamsburg. The brilliant campaign in Virginia attracted immense interest abroad. Every ship brought strangers to visit the camp,--artists, writers, military men. Washington begins to be sensitive about our meagre facilities for entertaining these visitors. "We have nothing to offer," he deplores, "except whisky hot from the still,--and not always that,--and meat with no vegetables," etc. There was always plenty of Virginia hickory nuts! They appeared at every meal. They saved many a day and redeemed many a slender breakfast, dinner, and supper. The commander-in-chief seems to have striven to make them fashionable by devoting himself to their consumption. M. de Broglie came to Virginia in 1782, bearing letters of introduction to General Washington from Benjamin Franklin,--letters "rendered doubly agreeable," said the general, "by the pleasure I had in receiving them from the hands of such an amiable and accomplished young gentleman." M. de Broglie kept a journal which found its way to the columns of the _Courier des États Unis_, and was translated by a Boston literary journal. The impression made upon this "amiable and accomplished young gentleman" presents an interesting portrait of Washington in the year succeeding the surrender, and also permits our curtain to fall upon a charming picture of the ancestors of the sons and daughters of the American Revolution. M. de Broglie says: "I found the American Army encamped in a place called Verplanck's Point. There were six thousand men who, for the first time during the war, were well armed, well drilled, well kept, and camped under tents of a regular form. I passed along its front with pleasure, astonishment and admiration. All the soldiers appeared to me fine, robust and well chosen. The sentinels well kept, extremely attentive, and sufficiently well placed under arms, contrasted so completely with the crude idea I had formed of these troops, that I was obliged to repeat to myself several times that I was indeed seeing this army that formerly had no other uniform than a cap upon which was written 'Liberty.' "I pressed M. de Rochambeau, who received me with kindness, to add that of making me acquainted with Washington. He assented; and the day after my arrival, he went with me to dine with this famous man. I gave him a letter from my father; and, after a slight '_shake hand_,' he was kind enough to say a thousand flatteries and polite things to me. Here is his portrait, which I have formed from what I have been able to see of him for myself, and from what the conversations which I have had with regard to him, have taught me:--