I shall think myself very happy to form an acquaintance with a person so
universally esteemed, and shall use every opportunity of assuring you how
much I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

ROBERT ORME, Aide-de-Camp.

Had Braddock heeded the advice of the man whom he asked to join his
family, the event might have been different. But I must not anticipate,
and I find my hardest task in writing what is before me is to escape the
shadow of the disaster which was to come. At that time, and, indeed,
until the storm burst, few of us had penetration to discern the cloud on
the horizon,--Colonel Washington, Mr. Franklin, and a few others,
perhaps, but certainly not I. It is easy to detect mistakes after the
event, and to conduct a campaign on paper, yet few who saw that martial
array of troops, with its flying banners and bright uniforms, would have
ordered the advance differently.

But to return.

"It was not until three days ago," continued Washington, "that I was able
to rejoin the general, and he intrusted me with a message to Colonel
Halket, which I delivered this evening. I must start back to Mount Vernon
to-morrow and place my affairs in order, and will then join the army at
Cumberland, whence the start is to be made."

"And what make of man is the general?" I asked.

A cloud settled on Washington's face.

"Why, Tom," he said at last, "I have seen so little of him that I may