“No

"The Virginia militia," and the expression of disgust on the face of the major was marked. wonder they turned their backs on the enemy and fled. Provincial soldiers never stand fire."

"Do you think, major, that you care to face the Indians and French?”

"Indians and and French!" cried the major. "Zounds! Miss, I care not if I should face a thousand Indians and French alone. My very appearance will strike terror among them."

"You have often been in battle, have you not, major?"

"Egad! I have, Miss Philipse. I have heard the cannon roar, and the whistle of balls and shriek of shells have often soothed me to sleep."

"You don't mean to say you could sleep on the battle-field, with shells and balls whizzing all about you?”

66

By my soul, I do, Miss Philipse. Faith! what care I for danger? I laugh at it," and the short, stout major strutted across the floor. Seeing Anne Montreville, or Miss Saturfield, as she was known, he suddenly turned to Miss Philipse and, clearing his throat with two or three important ahems, asked:

"I beg your pardon, Miss Philipse; but can you inform me who that very interesting young lady

is?"

"That is Miss Anne Saturfield."

"Ahem! Zounds! Egad! she is a pretty maiden. Are you acquainted with her?"

"I am."

As

"Introduce me, will you? introduce me!" the major was becoming annoying, Miss Philipse was glad to get rid of him, even at the discomfiture of her friend. Noah had left the side of Anne for a few minutes, and on his return found the British officer making himself very disagreeable.

"This country will never amount to anything," he declared. "I am pleased to learn, Miss Saturfield, that you were born in England. It does credit to your common-sense not to be born in America. Zounds! no great men here."

"I believe Mr. Benjamin Franklin is an American."

"Who is he? What is he? Nothing. Zounds! the land is a land of beggars and cowards. Wait and see our troops return from their victorious campaign against the French and Indians. Zounds! we will come back covered with glory. I shall lead the advance myself and see to it that Fort Du Quesne falls." Major Bridges then made another peacock strut across the room, and his face was the picture of the mock heroic.

When Noah returned, Anne quickly excused herself and went to spend a few moments with her lover before he took his departure for Williams

burg, for, not having heard that Washington had resigned and that the regiment was disbanded, he intended to join it.

A day or two later he departed for the Chesapeake in the same fleet which conveyed Braddock and his regiments of regulars.

Notwithstanding all the assurances of Newcastle, both the English and French were making active preparations for war. Mirepoix was willing that both the French and English should retire from the country between the Ohio and the Alleghanies and leave the territory neutral. This would have secured to his sovereign all that country north and west of the Ohio. England, however, demanded that France should destroy all her forts as far as the Wabash, raze Niagara and Crown Point, surrender the peninsula of Nova Scotia, with a strip of land twenty leagues wide along the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic and leave the intermediate country to the St. Lawrence as neutral ground. Such unreasonable proposals could, of course, meet with no acceptance; yet both parties professed a desire, in which the French seem to have been sincere, to investigate and arrange all points of dispute. Louis XV. while he sent three thousand men to America, held himself ready to sacrifice everything for peace, save honor and the protection due to his subjects, consenting that

English possessions should reach on the east to the Penobscot, to be divided from Canada on the north by the crest of the intervening highlands.

In March, Braddock reached Williamsburg and visited Annapolis. On the fourteenth of April, he, with Commodore Keppel, held a congress at Alexandria. There were present, of the American governors, Shirley, next to Braddock in military rank, Delancey of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, Sharpe of Maryland and Dinwiddie of Virginia. Braddock, from the very first, played the despot. He gave all to feel that he, as the chief of the military of the colonies, should rule. First, he directed their attention to the subject of colonial revenue, on which his instructions commanded him to insist, and his anger kindled "that no such fund was already established." The gov ernors, recapitulating their grievances with the assemblies, made answer:

"Such a fund can never be established in the colonies without the aid of parliament." Having found it impracticable to obtain in their respective governments the proportion expected by his majesty toward defraying the expense of his service in North America, they were unanimously of the opinion that it should be proposed to his majesty's ministers to find out some method of compelling them to do it and of assessing the several govern

ments in proportion to their respective abilities. A petition was prepared, signed by the royal governors assembled, and sent by Braddock to the ministry, accompanied by a private letter, urging the necessity of some tax being laid throughout his majesty's dominions in North America. Dinwiddie reiterated his old advice. Sharpe recommended that the governor and council, without the aid of the legislature, should have power to levy money "after any manner that may be deemed most ready and convenient." Shirley assured his American colleagues on the authority of the British secretary of state that "A common fund must be either voluntarily raised, or assessed in some way.

While at Alexandria, Braddock offered Washington a position on his staff as a volunteer, without emolument or command, which he accepted. His arrival at headquarters was greeted by his young associates, Captains Orme and Morris, the general's aides-de-camp with pleasure and they at once received him into frank companionship, and a cordial intimacy commenced between them, which continued throughout the campaign. Braddock courteously received the young American despite his former churlishness toward him, and expressed in flattering terms the impression he had received of his merits.

About two thousand regulars and as many pro