throw away their knapsacks and take their firelocks. As Mr. Pellew still
clung to his proposal, the General took him aside, and having
represented the impossibility of drawing off the army, convinced him of
the impropriety of permitting the attempt by a small part of it.

The result of the council was a communication to General Gates, who,
knowing the desperate condition of the British army, and his own
irresistible superiority, must have been surprised at the gallant spirit
manifested in its hopeless extremity. When he observed that the retreat
of the British was cut off, he was told that the British could never
admit that their retreat was cut off while they had arms in their hands;
and to his proposal that the troops should pile arms within their camp,
it was replied, that sooner than submit to such an indignity, they would
rush on the enemy determined to take no quarter. Terms proposed by
General Burgoyne were finally acquiesced in; and the American commander,
as far as _he_ was concerned, faithfully observed and enforced them with
the most considerate delicacy.

Mr. Pellew, after having shared in the hospitality of General Gates, was
sent to England by General Burgoyne with despatches, a distinction to
which his services in the campaign were considered to have entitled him.
At Quebec he met his former commander, Sir Guy Carleton, whose successor
had not yet arrived, and who charged him with additional despatches, and
the following letter to Lord Sandwich:--


"Quebec, November 2, 1777.

"MY LORD,--This will be presented to your lordship by Mr. Edward
Pellew, a young man to whose gallantry and merit during two severe