o fall into his rear; confusing men who were
confused before. The manoeuvre was unsuccessfully executed, and the
two regiments became inextricably commingled. Vainly Braddock strove to
separate the soldiers, huddling together like frightened sheep. Vainly
the regimental colors were advanced on opposite directions as
rallying-points.

"_Ut conspicuum in proelio
Haberent signum quod sequerentur milites._"

The officers sought to collect their men together and lead them on in
platoons. Nothing could avail. On every hand the officers, distinguished
by their horses and their uniforms, were the constant mark of hostile
rifles; and it was soon as impossible to find men to give orders as it
was to have them obeyed. In a narrow road twelve feet wide, shut up on
either side and overpent by the primeval forest, were crowded together
the panic-stricken wretches, hastily loading and reloading, and blindly
discharging their guns in the air, as though they suspected their
mysterious murderers were sheltered in the boughs above their heads;
while all around, removed from sight, but making day hideous with their
war-whoops and savage cries, lay ensconced a host insatiate for blood.

Foaming with rage and indignation, Braddock flew from rank to rank, with
his own hands endeavoring to force his men into position. Four horses
were shot under him, but mounting a fifth he still strained every nerve
to retrieve the ebbing fortunes of the day. His subordinates gallantly
seconded his endeavors, throwing themselves from the saddle and
advancing by platoons, in the idle hope that their men would follow; but
only to rush upon their fate. The regular soldiery, deprived of their
immediate commanders and terrified at the incessant fall of their
comrades, could not be brought to the charge, while the provincials,
better skilled, sought in vain to cover themselves and to meet the foe
upon equal terms; for to the urgent entreaties of Washington and Sir
Peter Halket, that the men might be permitted to leave the ranks and
shelter themselves, the general turned a deaf ear. Wherever he saw a man
skulking behind a tree, he flew at once to the spot and, with curses on
his cowardice and blows with the flat of his sword, drove him back into
the open road.

Wherever the distracted artillerymen saw a smoke arise, thither did they
direct their aim; and many of the flankers who had succeeded in
obtaining the only position where they could be of any serv