At the bottom of his heart the King of France was of the same opinion; he had refused the permission to serve in America which he had been asked for by many gentlemen: some had set off without waiting for it; the most important, as well as the most illustrious of them all, the Marquis of La Fayette, was not twenty years old when he slipped away from Paris, leaving behind his young wife close to her confinement, to go and embark upon a vessel which he had bought, and which, laden with arms, awaited him in a Spanish port; arrested by order of the court, he evaded the vigilance of his guards; in, the month of July, 1777, he disembarked in America.
Washington did not like France; he did not share the hopes which some of his fellow-countrymen founded upon her aid; he made no case of the young volunteers who came to enroll themselves among the defenders of independence, and whom Congress loaded with favors.

"No bond but interest attaches these men to America," he would say; "and, as for France, she only lets us get our munitions from her, because of the benefit her commerce derives from it." Prudent, reserved, and proud, Washington looked for America's salvation to only America herself; neither had he foreseen nor did he understand that enthusiasm, as generous as it is unreflecting, which easily takes possession of the French nation, and of which the United States were just then the object.
M.de La Fayette was the first who managed to win the general's affection and esteem.

A great yearning for excitement and renown, a great zeal for new ideas and a certain political perspicacity, had impelled M.de La Fayette to America; he showed himself courageous, devoted, more judicious and more able than had been expected from his youth and character.
Washington came to love him as a son.
It was with the title of major-general that M.de La Fayette made his first campaign; Congress had passed a decree conferring upon him this grade, rather an excess of honor in Washington's opinion; the latter was at that time covering Philadelphia, the point aimed at by the operations of General Howe.

Beaten at Brandywine and at Germantown, the Americans were obliged to abandon the town to the enemy and fall back on Valley Forge, where the general pitched his camp for wintering.

The English had been beaten on the frontiers of Canada by General Gates; General Burgoyne, invested on all sides by the insurgents, had found himself forced to capitulate at Saratoga.