They could have no pride in trying to save a lost cause.

Burgoyne was surrounded and, on the 17th of October, he was obliged to surrender.
Gates proposed to Burgoyne hard terms--surrender with no honors of war.
The British were to lay down their arms in their encampments and to march out without weapons of any kind.

Burgoyne declared that, rather than accept such terms, he would fight still and take no quarter.

A shadow was falling on the path of Gates.

The term of service of some of his men had expired.