Yorktown, 7 October, 1777.
I have no time nor accommodation to write of late; besides, I seldom
know what to write, and when I do, I don't love to write it. One thing
is now becoming more and more certain every day, that is, that our
people will and do fight. And although they make a clumsy hand of it,
yet they do better and better.
I am lodged in the house of General Roberdeau, an Israelite indeed, I
believe, who with his sisters and children and servants does everything
to make us happy. We are highly favored. No other delegates are so well
off. I am as well as usual. Your dream will never come to pass. You
never can be coolly received by me while my heart beats and my senses
remain.