Clinton, at his New York headquarters, was in the fullest possible possession of the record of events then occurring in and about Yorktown. Space cannot be given, even to a glance over his shoulder, as he reads, day by day, repeated messages and short postscripts from Cornwallis indicating the grave peril of his position, and the conviction that protracted resistance is not to be looked for. An attempt by Cornwallis, to cross the river and gain New York by land, was a failure. On the sixteenth, when he ordered these detachments to return, he closed his correspondence with Clinton in this sad and desperate paragraph: “Our works are going to ruin. The boats are now being returned. We cannot fire a single gun. Only one eight-inch, and a little more than a hundred cohorn shells remain. I therefore propose to capitulate.” The seventeenth day of October, 1781, dawned, and at 10 o’clock A.M. two concurrent events occurred,—one at New York, and its contrary, in Virginia. Sir Henry Clinton, accompanied by a command of seven thousand choice troops, under convoy of the magnificent squadron of twenty-five battleships, two fifty-gun ships, and eight frigates, sailed past Staten Island, for the rescue of the worn-out garrison of Yorktown. He had previously sailed past Sandy Hook, and the reader will appreciate the involuntary contrast with a similar departure southward, in the year 1776. At the same hour, ten o’clock, A.M., a flag of truce bore to the headquarters of the American Commander-in-Chief, the following note: YORK, 17th October, 1781. EARL CORNWALLIS _To General Washington_: SIR: I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that two officers be appointed by each side, to meet at Moore’s house, to settle terms for the surrender of the posts of York and Gloucester. I have the honor to be, etc., CORNWALLIS. The following reply partakes of the dignity, wisdom, and appreciation of existing conditions which have characterized all letters of Washington previously cited. It reads as follows: MY LORD: I have the honor to receive your Lordship’s letter of this date. An ardent desire to spare the further effusion of blood will readily incline me to such terms for the surrender of your posts of York and Gloucester as are admissible. I wish, previously to the meeting of the Commissioners, that your lordship’s proposals, in writing, may be sent to the American lines; for which purpose, a suspension of hostilities during two hours from the delivery of this letter will be granted. I have the honor to be, etc., GEORGE WASHINGTON.