ined,
could be so much as guessed at; but the French afterwards gave out,
that their number did not, in the whole, exceed four hundred men, mostly
Indians; and that their loss was quite inconsiderable, as it probably
was, because they lay concealed in such a manner that the English knew
not whither to point their muskets. The panic of these last continued so
long, that they never stopped till they met the rear division; and even
then they infected those troops with their terrors; so that the army
retreated without stopping, till they reached Fort Cumberland, though
the enemy did not so much as attempt to pursue, nor ever appeared in
sight, either in the battle, or after the defeat. On the whole, this was
perhaps the most extraordinary victory that ever was obtained, and the
farthest flight that ever was made.

Had the shattered remains of this army continued at Fort Cumberland, and
fortified themselves there, as they might easily have done, during the
rest of the summer, they would have been such a check upon the French
and their scalping Indians, as would have prevented many of those
ravages that were committed in the ensuing winter upon the western
borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania; but, instead of taking that
prudent step, their commander left only the sick and wounded at that
fort, under the protection of two companies of the provincial militia,
posted there by way of garrison, and began his march on the second of
August, with about sixteen hundred men, for Philadelphia; where those
troops could be of no immediate service. From thence they were ordered
away to Albany, in New York, by general Shirley, on whom the chief
command of the troops in America had devolved by the death of
major-general Braddock. Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, were by
these means left entirely to the care of themselves, which they might
have done effectually, had they been united in their councils; but the
usual disputes between their governors and assemblies, defeated every
salutary plan that was proposed. Pennsylvania, the most powerful of the
three, was rendered quite impotent, either for its own defence or that
of its neighbours, by these unhappy contests; though, at last, the
assembly of that province, sensible of the danger to which they were
exposed, and seeing the absolute necessity of providing a standing
military force, and of erecting some forts to defend their western
frontier, passed a bill for raising fifty thousand pou