on the next day the general himself
followed with about nine hundred men, the pick of the whole command. The
Virginia companies were yet in fair condition, but the regulars had been
decimated by disease. Yet though our baggage was now reduced to thirty
wagons and our artillery to four howitzers and four twelve-pounders, we
seemed to have lost the power of motion, for we were four days in getting
twelve miles. Still, we were nearing Fort Duquesne, and the Indians, set
on by the French, began to harass us, and killed and scalped a straggler
now and then, always evading pursuit. On the evening of the nineteenth,
the guides reported that a great body of the enemy was advancing to
attack us, but they did not appear, though we remained for two hours
under arms, anxiously awaiting the event. From that time on, the Indians
hung upon our flanks, but vanished as by magic the moment we advanced
against them.

In consequence of these alarms, more stringent orders were issued to the
camp. On no account was a gun to be discharged unless at an enemy, the
pickets were always to load afresh when going on duty, and at daybreak to
examine their pans and put in fresh priming, and a reward of five pounds
was offered for every Indian scalp. Day after day we plodded on, and it
was not until the twenty-fifth of June that we reached the Great Meadows.

I surveyed with a melancholy interest the trenches of Fort Necessity,
which were yet clearly to be seen on the plain. Our detachment halted
here for a space, and it was while I was walking up and down along the
remnants of the old breastwork that I saw an officer ride up, spring from
his horse, and spend some minutes in a keen inspection of the
fortification. As he looked about him, he perceived me similarly engaged,
and, after a moment's hesitation, turned toward me. He made a brave
figure in his three-cornered hat, scarlet coat, and ample waistcoat, all
heavy with gold lace. His face was pale as from much loss of sleep, but
very pleasing, and as he stopped before me, I saw that his eyes were of
a clear and penetrating blue.

"This is the place, is it not," he asked, "where Colonel Washington made
his gallant stand against the French and Indians last year?"

"This is indeed the place, sir," I answered, my face flushing; "and it
warms my heart to know that you deem the action a gallant one."

"No man could do less," he said quickly. "He held off four times his
number, and at the end marched o