When Cornwallis halted and moved back towards his base, Tarleton was detached with two hundred and fifty troopers, mounted on the picked stock of the best private stables, taken at will, and attempted to capture Governor Jefferson at Monticello. His report says: “I imagined that a march of seventy miles in twenty-four hours, with the caution used, might perhaps give the advantage of a surprise.” Tarleton charged through the Riviana River, captured seven members of the Legislature and Brigadier-General Scott, and destroyed one thousand arms and four hundred barrels of powder; but the Governor escaped, and the Assembly immediately convened at Staunton, beyond Tarleton’s reach. Then he started down the Riviana to join Simcoe in an attack upon Steuben’s depot of supplies at Elk Island. But Wayne joined Lafayette, and Lafayette proceeded southward. They soon started in pursuit of the retiring column of Cornwallis. The pursued had indeed become the pursuers. Tarleton thus writes: “The Marquis Lafayette, who had previously practised defensive measures with skill and security, being now reënforced by Wayne and about eight hundred continentals and some militia, followed the British as they proceeded down James River. This design, being judiciously arranged and executed with extreme caution, allowed opportunity for the junction of Baron Steuben; confined the small detachments of the King’s troops; and both saved the property and animated the drooping spirits of the Virginians.” On the thirteenth, Tarleton reported his own movements and the waste he had accomplished. The scouts of Lafayette intercepted the letter, and he published it to the people before Cornwallis himself had knowledge of its contents. Cornwallis returned to his headquarters, to find despatches fifteen days old awaiting his attention. One contained this extraordinary information: “The Continentals under Lafayette cannot exceed one thousand; and the Pennsylvania Line, under Wayne, are so discontented, that their officers are afraid to trust them with ammunition. Postscript.—This may have, however, since altered.”