General O'Hara, who took his place, tendered his sword to Count de Rochambeau; the latter stepped back, and, pointing to General Washington, said aloud, "I am only an auxiliary." In receiving the English general's sword, Washington was receiving the pledge of his country's independence.
England felt this.

"Lord North received the news of the capitulation like a bullet in his breast," said Lord George Germaine, secretary of state for the colonies; he threw up his arms without being able to utter a word beyond 'My God, all's lost!'" To this growing conviction on the part of his ministers, as well as of the nation, George III.

opposed an unwavering persistency.

"None of the members of my cabinet," he wrote immediately, "will suppose, I am quite sure, that this event can in any way modify the principles which have guided me hitherto and which will continue to regulate my conduct during the rest of this struggle." Whilst the United States were celebrating their victory with thanksgivings and public festivities, their allies were triumphing at all the different points, simultaneously, at which hostilities had been entered upon.

Becoming embroiled with Holland, where the republican party had prevailed against the stadtholder, who was devoted to them, the English had waged war upon the Dutch colonies.