their plunder and scalps, leaving Contrecoeur in great
anxiety lest the remnant of Braddock's troops, reinforced by the
division under Dunbar, should attack him again. His doubts would have
vanished had he known the condition of his defeated enemy.

[Footnote 229: _Liste des Officiers, Soldats, Miliciens, et Sauvages de
Canada qui out ete tues et blesses le 9 Juillet, 1755_.]

In the pain and languor of a mortal wound, Braddock showed unflinching
resolution. His bearers stopped with him at a favorable spot beyond the
Monongahela; and here he hoped to maintain his position till the arrival
of Dunbar. By the efforts of the officers about a hundred men were
collected around him; but to keep them there was impossible. Within an
hour they abandoned him, and fled like the rest. Gage, however,
succeeded in rallying about eighty beyond the other fording-place; and
Washington, on an order from Braddock, spurred his jaded horse towards
the camp of Dunbar to demand wagons, provisions, and hospital stores.

Fright overcame fatigue. The fugitives toiled on all night, pursued by
spectres of horror and despair; hearing still the war-whoops and the
shrieks; possessed with the one thought of escape from the wilderness of
death. In the morning some order was restored. Braddock was placed on a
horse; then, the pain being insufferable, he was carried on a litter,
Captain Orme having bribed the carriers by the promise of a guinea and a
bottle of rum apiece. Early in the succeeding night, such as had not
fainted on the way reached the deserted farm of Gist. Here they met
wagons and provisions, with a detachment of soldiers sent by Dunbar,
whose camp was six miles farther on; and Braddock ordered them to go to
the relief of the stragglers left behind.

At noon of that day a number of wagoners and packhorse-drivers had come
to Dunbar's camp with wild tidings of rout and ruin. More fugitives
followed; and soon after a wounded officer was brought in upon a sheet.
The drums beat to arms. The camp was in commotion; and many soldiers and
teamsters took to flight, in spite of the sentinels, who tried in vain
to stop them.[230] There was a still more disgraceful scene on the next
day, after Braddock, with the wreck of his force, had arrived. Orders
were given to destroy such of the wagons, stores, and ammunition as
could not be carried back at once to Fort Cumberland. Whether Dunbar or
the dying General gave these orders is not clear; but it is ce