108 THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE 
Wearied and impatient of such delay, Braddock at last 
left his heavy guns and wagons, and pushed on with 
twelve hundred picked men till he was within ten 
miles of Fort Duquesne. Suddenly the dense woods 
were ablaze on every side with the fire of rifles wielded 
by an invisible foe. The ambuscade had been most 
skilfully prepared by Charles de Langlade, a redoubt- 
able coureur de bois. It was in vain that a few cannon 
were tardily hauled upon the scene. The regulars 
were overcome with panic and thrown into hopeless 
disorder, while the merciless fire cut down scores 
every minute. Out of eighty officers, sixty were soon 
disabled. Braddock, after having five horses shot 
under him, fell, mortally wounded. The Virginia 
troops alone kept in order under the terrible fire, and 
Washington, putting himself at their head, covered 
the flight of the British remnant and saved it from 
utter destruction. Of the twelve hundred picked men, 
more than seven hundred were slain; all the artillery 
and baggage wagons were lost; the frontiers of Vir- 
ginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania were uncovered, ° 
and the dreadful story of Indian massacre soon began 
in the outlying villages. In this fierce woodland fight 
the loss of the ambushed Frenchmen and Indians had 
not exceeded sixty men. The fame of the British 
overthrow went far and wide throughout North Amer- 
ica. Its immediate consequences were soon repaired, 
but the lesson which it taught was not soon forgotten. 
As the unfortunate Braddock had himself invited the 
comparison, men were not slow in contrasting the in- 
efficiency of thee British officers and troops with the 
stanchness of the Virginians and the skill of their 
young commander. And in later years, when in town 

