Yet I think our force will be too great for the wilderness bands." On the following day they were at Alexandria on the Potomac, where the great council was to be held.

Here Braddock's camp was spread, and in a large tent he met Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Governor de Lancey of New York, Governor Sharpe of Maryland, Governor Dobbs of North Carolina and Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, an elderly lawyer, but the ablest and most energetic of all the governors.
It was the most momentous council yet held in North America, and all the young officers waited with the most intense eagerness the news from the tent.

Robert saw Braddock as he went in, a middle-aged man of high color and an obstinate chin.

Grosvenor gave him some of the gossip about the general.
"London has many stories of him," he said.

"He has spent most of his life in the army.