e
effectively. Sir Peter Halket was to lead the column and Colonel Dunbar
bring up the rear. An advance party of three hundred men was to precede
the column and clear the road.

The form of encampment differed little from that of march. The wagons
were to be drawn up in close order, the companies to face out, the
flanking parties to clear away the underbrush and saplings, half the
company remaining under arms the while, and finally a chain of sentries
was to be posted round the camp. Sir Peter Halket, with the Forty-Fourth,
was to march with the first division; Lieutenant-Colonel Burton with the
independent companies, provincials, and artillery, was to form the
second; and Colonel Dunbar, with the Forty-Eighth, the third.

I confess that when I had become acquainted with these orders, they
seemed to me most soldier-like. A copy of them lies before me now, and
even at this day, when I scan again the plan of march, I do not see how
it could be improved. I admit that there are others who know much more
of the art of war than I, and to them defects in the system may be at
once discernible. But at the time, these orders gave us all a most
exalted opinion of our general's ability, and I remembered with a smile
the gloomy prophecies of Colonel Washington. Surely, against such a
force, so ably handled, no army the French might muster could avail, and
I awaited the event with a confidence and eager anticipation which were
shared by all the others.

CHAPTER XV

WE START ON A WEARY JOURNEY

The twenty-ninth of May dawned clear and bright in pleasant contrast to
the violent storm which had raged the day before. Long ere daybreak, the
camp was alive with hurrying men, for the first detachment was to march
under command of Major Campbell, and the sun had scarce risen above the
horizon when the gates were thrown open and the troops filed out. Six
hundred of them there were, with two fieldpieces and fifty wagons of
provision, and very smart they looked as they fell into rank beyond the
bridge and set off westward. The whole camp was there to see them go, and
cheered them right heartily, for we were all of us glad that the long
waiting and delay had come to an end at last.

All day we could see them here and there in the intervales of the forest
pushing their way up a steep hill not two miles from the camp, and
darkness came before they passed the summit. Three wagons were utterly
destroyed in the passage, and new ones ha