incial troops during the whole engagement. He now saw, but
too late, and to his deep regret, that he had not given these rough
and hardy men half the credit due them as good soldiers; and also that
he had made a fatal mistake in underrating the strength, skill, and
address of the enemy he had been sent there to subdue. To Washington
he made a frank and manly apology for the contempt and impatience with
which he had so often treated his prudent and well-timed counsel. As
if wishing to make still further amends for this, he bequeathed to him
his faithful negro servant, Bishop, and his fine white charger, both
of whom had helped to carry their wounded master from the field. On
the fourth day after the battle, he died; having been kindly and
tenderly cared for by Washington and his other surviving officers.

They dug him a grave by the roadside, not a stone's-throw from Fort
Necessity, in the depths of that lonely wilderness; and there, before
the summer morn had dawned, they buried him. In the absence of the
chaplain, the funeral service was read by Washington, in a low and
solemn voice, by the dim and flickering light of a torch. Fearing lest
the enemy might be lurking near, and, spying out the spot, commit some
outrage on his remains, they fired not a farewell shot over the grave
of their unfortunate general,--that last tribute of respect to a
departed soldier, and one he had himself paid, but a short time
before, to a nameless Indian warrior. So there they laid him; and, to
this day, the great highway leading from Cumberland to Pittsburg goes
by the name of Braddock's Road.

I would, my dear children, have you dwell on these glimpses of a more
manly and generous nature that brightened the closing hours of
Braddock's life; because it is but Christian and just that we should
be willing to honor virtue in whomsoever it may be found. With all his
self-conceit and obstinacy, he had a kindly heart, and was a brave
man; and had it been his lot to deal with a civilized enemy, instead
of a savage one, he would, no doubt, have proved himself a skilful
general. And we should not deal too harshly with the memory of a man,
whose faults, however great they may have been, were more than atoned
for by the inglorious death he died, and by "a name ever coupled with
defeat."

XVII.

EXPLANATIONS.

Here, again, Uncle Juvinell paused in his story, and looked beamingly
around on his little auditors. They were all sitting with t