Every precaution had been taken against ambush.

It was the outlying enemy who were discovered, pursued, destroyed, by the vigilant scouts and skirmishers of the British force.

The last news heard was that the army had advanced considerably beyond the ground of Mr.
Washington's discomfiture on the previous year, and two days after must be within a day's march of the French fort.

About taking it no fears were entertained; the amount of the French reinforcements from Montreal was known.

Mr.Braddock, with his two veteran regiments from Britain, and their allies of Virginia and Pennsylvania, were more than a match for any troops that could be collected under the white flag.
Such continued to be the talk, in the sparse towns of our Virginian province, at the gentry's houses, and the rough roadside taverns, where people met and canvassed the war.