From Farm House to the White House Part 31

"Immediately, with all the promptness of military discipline."

"Then, sir, I accept your generous hospitality;" and Was.h.i.+ngton alighted from his horse immediately, saying to his servant Bishop, "Be sure and have the horses at the door by the time we rise from the dinner-table."

"Is this the charger and this the servant presented to you by General Braddock?" Mr. Chamberlain inquired as they turned towards the house.

"The same, sir."

"You honor me, Colonel Was.h.i.+ngton, by accepting my invitation to dinner," continued Mr. Chamberlain. "I rejoice all the more in the opportunity to have you for my guest because I have other friends to dine with me to-day, who will regard it a real pleasure to meet our young and gallant soldier."

Was.h.i.+ngton bowed his acknowledgments for the honest compliment, and they pa.s.sed into the mansion, where he was soon introduced to the other guests, and brought face to face with them in the dining-hall.

Among the guests was Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow, accomplished, beautiful, and wealthy, about six months younger than Was.h.i.+ngton. Her charming appearance captivated the young hero's heart. He beheld in her such a partner as would make his future life happy.

After dinner, instead of discoursing upon the importance of his mission to Williamsburg, and rus.h.i.+ng for his horse, he entered into familiar conversation with Mrs. Custis. The longer he talked the more he admired the intelligence, grace, and character of the lady.

His faithful servant Bishop was at the gate, with the horses, when the party rose from dinner. He waited and waited, wondering and wondering what could delay his master, who was always punctual as the clock. The favorite charger champed his bits and pawed the ground, as if he, too, wondered what had become of his rider's usual promptness. So the moments, and even hours, sped, trying the patience of Bishop and the horses.

All this while Was.h.i.+ngton was engaged in pleasant conversation with Mrs.

Custis and other guests, the former being the attraction which caused him to modify his views respecting his business at Williamsburg. She might not have been a "widow bewitched," but she certainly cast a spell over the hero of Monongahela, which he did not throw off; and, after a time of unusual social delight, he accepted an invitation to stop over night. Bishop was ordered to put the horses into the stable, and thoughts of war appear to have been banished.

The next morning he hurried away to Williamsburg, and travelled at such a breakneck speed that Bishop was more puzzled than ever over the conduct of his master. He had sacrificed his well-earned reputation for prompt.i.tude on the day before, and now he seemed to be no longer merciful to his beast; quite enough to perplex the servant beyond measure. However, Was.h.i.+ngton expedited his business at Williamsburg, secured the supplies for his army that he asked, and returned by the way of the "White House" on the Pamunkey River, where Mrs. Custis lived in English style. How long he stopped there we have no means of learning; but long enough to consummate a treaty of love, in which it was stipulated that she should become his bride when the expedition against Duquesne had been brought to a close.

In this affair Was.h.i.+ngton proved himself to be a true son of Adam and brother in our common humanity. He who is too great to be insensible to womanly charms and virtues, and too cold in his nature to love, cannot have an important mission to perform in this world.

On his return to Winchester he found that the English officers were discussing the practicability of making a new road to Duquesne, or, at least, from Raystown to Duquesne by the way of Laurel Hill.

"Better march thither by the old road which General Braddock constructed," suggested Was.h.i.+ngton.

"His road did not lead him to victory," answered one of the officers naively.

"Neither will a new road, if that is all you have to depend upon,"

remarked Was.h.i.+ngton. "The difficulties of making a new road through this rough country are so great that such an enterprise should not be undertaken unless it is absolutely necessary."

"We came to this country for such business whenever it is necessary,"

said General Forbes, commander of the expedition.

"Exactly; but a new road is not necessary to make this expedition against Duquesne a success."

"How is that?"

"Because it will consume so much time that winter will be upon us before we can reach the fort. An early movement on the old roads is far more desirable, in my judgment, than a late one on a new road."

"But you do not consider that the king's regulars are experienced in such work, and they will not require the time which the provincial troops do to complete such a piece of work."

"Perhaps so," replied Was.h.i.+ngton in a doubtful tone, as if he recalled the old boast of the English generals about the might of their regulars.

He had seen enough of these boasted heroes in the former expedition against Duquesne to cause him to decidedly prefer provincial troops.

"Besides," continued General Forbes, "the report of General Braddock to his government describes the old road as fearful, in consequence of dense forests, huge rocks, deep mora.s.ses, and plunging torrents."

"None of these things caused his defeat," remarked Was.h.i.+ngton in rather a sarcastic vein.

"As I understand it," added General Forbes, "there are not so thick woods and huge rocks, nor so perilous swamps and rivers by the proposed new route as there are by the old. Besides, the new road is fifty miles nearer."

"The shortest way may prove longer than the longest way if you have the short way to build," was Was.h.i.+ngton's significant reply.

The English officers were bound to have their own way, and they decided to make the new road, in view of which Was.h.i.+ngton wrote to the Speaker of the a.s.sembly: "If this conduct of our leaders does not flow from superior orders, it must flow from a weakness too gross for me to name.

Nothing now but a miracle can bring this campaign to a happy issue."

A few days later he wrote:

"I believe that all is lost. Our enterprise is ruined, and we shall be stopped this winter at the Laurel Hills."

As the sequel will show, Was.h.i.+ngton proved himself to be a prophet.

While these warlike preparations were going forward, Was.h.i.+ngton was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses. It was not expected, however, that he would take his seat until the contemplated action against the French at Duquesne was consummated.

It was in the month of May, 1758, that Was.h.i.+ngton went to Williamsburg and found his future wife, when pa.s.sing through Kent County. It was the 21st of September before the army was ready to strike their tents and take up the march from Raystown, where the whole army had a.s.sembled.

Much of this time was fooled away by the English officers, who seemed to think that both French and Indians would take to their heels when they saw them coming.

Was.h.i.+ngton was greatly annoyed by this unnecessary delay. To him it was ominous of evil. He was impatient to plant the English flag on the walls of Duquesne, and to make the beautiful Mrs. Custis his bride. The sooner the army accomplished the former, the sooner he would realize the latter.

To add to his annoyance, General Forbes proposed to repeat General Braddock's folly, and send his regulars forward as a party of observation.

"Such an arrangement was the cause of General Braddock's defeat," he said to General Forbes.

"How so?"

"His regulars knew nothing about Indian warfare. They never saw savages on the field of battle, and so they undertook to fight Indians as they did French."

"Plenty of artillery, with a shower of bullets, whether by regulars or provincials, will do the business," remarked General Forbes, showing that he was as ignorant of the way savages fight as Braddock was.

"I hope I can say, without vanity," continued Was.h.i.+ngton, "that, from long intimacy with these woods, and frequent scouting in them, my men are at least as well acquainted with all the pa.s.ses and difficulties as any troops that will be employed. I will volunteer to scour the country in advance of the army."

"You are brave and unselfish, certainly," answered Forbes; "but the regulars would hardly thank me for sending inexperienced troops forward instead of them."

"If General Braddock's regulars, who were shot down in their tracks, could come to life, they would thank you for doing this very thing,"

said Was.h.i.+ngton.

"Then you have no faith in the English army to fight Indians."

"None at all. Braddock's regulars were more terrified by the _yell_ of the savages than they were by the cannon of the French."

"Well, then, colonel, I think we must redeem the credit of the British regulars by sending them forward at this time," answered General Forbes.

"If Braddock's regulars disgraced their country and cause, as you affirm they did, it is time that Forbes's regulars should wipe out the dishonor. And that can be done only by detailing them for the work proposed."

"As you please, general," answered Was.h.i.+ngton, seeing that Forbes was determined to employ his regulars as a scouting party. "You have my opinion, and you will have my obedience as heartily. Nothing that I can do to make this expedition successful shall be withholden."

Therefore the regulars scoured the country in advance, eight hundred in number. Was.h.i.+ngton wrote again concerning the prospects under these unwise arrangements: