A plot of Benedict Arnold to surrender West Point to Sir Henry Clinton was revealed through capture of the British agent Major John André. Arnold escaped, but on Oct. 2, 1781, André was hanged as a spy.
Meanwhile British forces under Cornwallis were concentrating in Virginia, where they fortified themselves at Yorktown. While Cornwallis remained inactive, Washington, Lafayette, and Rochambeau closed in on him at Williamsburg, and Count François de Grasse, with the French fleet, entered Chesapeake Bay.
In the peace negotiations, Vergennes was in the difficult position of trying to please both of his allies, Spain and the United States. This led to delay, which aroused the impatience of the American commissioners, who, disregarding their instructions not to negotiate a separate peace with Great Britain, proceeded to do so. The British, eager to win American friendship and trade, thereby defeating the aspirations of the French, readily acceded to the American demand for the Mississippi as the western boundary and full rights in the fisheries off the Canadian coast.
