56 THE BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN. [1763, July. 



was little to reassure them in the thin frames and 

 haofffard look of the worn-out veterans ; still less in 

 the sight of sixty invalid soldiers, who, unable to 

 walk, were carried in wagons, to furnish a feeble 

 reinforcement to the small garrisons along the 

 route.^ The desponding rustics watched the last 

 gleam of the bayonets, the last flutter of the tar- 

 tans, as the rear files vanished in the woods ; then 

 returned to their hovels, prepared for tidings of de- 

 feat, and ready, when they heard them, to abandon 

 the country, and fly beyond the Susquehanna. 



In truth, the adventure was no boy's play. In 

 that gloomy wilderness lay the bones of Braddock 

 and the hundreds that perished with him. The 

 number of the slain on that bloody day exceeded 

 Bouquet's whole force ; while the strength of the 

 assailants was inferior to that of the swarms who 

 now infested the forests. Bouquet's troops were, 

 for the most part, as little accustomed to the back- 

 woods as those of Braddock ; but their commander 

 had served seven years in America, and perfectly 

 understood his Avork. He had attempted to engage 

 a body of frontiersmen to join him on the march ; 

 but they preferred to remain for the defence of 

 their families. He was therefore forced to employ 

 the Highlanders as flankers, to protect his line of 

 march and prevent surprise ; but, singularly enough, 

 these mountaineers were sure to lose themselves in 

 the woods, and therefore proved useless.^ For a 

 few days, however, his progress would be tolerably 



1 Account of Bouquet's Expedition ; Introduction, vi. 



2 " I cannot send a Highlander out of my sight without running the 



