One of the principal tasks of his campaign was to drive the French out of Fort Duquesne in Ohio, and in this he succeeded. Thereby the power of the French on the Ohio was destroyed and the last and most difficult part of the task, which had occupied him for several years and so extraordinarily employed his faculties, was finished. The Indian tribes that had been on the French side now came over to the victors and made overtures of peace, which were accepted. When Washington had accomplished this honorable task, he laid down his command and retired to private life. Chapter VI A Year of Peace Washington was twenty-seven years old when he settled at Mount Vernon in the hope of enjoying a life of peaceful domesticity. It was his good fortune to find a life companion who was his equal in mind and tastes. This was Martha Custis, a beautiful young widow with two lovely children, a boy of six and a daughter of four years. Washington’s fortune was already a handsome one, since he had inherited Mount Vernon, and through his marriage it was increased by one hundred thousand dollars. His union was not blessed with children, but Washington brought up his step-children as carefully as though they had been his own. “I hope,” he wrote to a friend shortly after his marriage, “to find more happiness in retirement than I ever experienced in the wide and bustling world.” He now arranged a plan of life. His greatest inclination was to occupy himself with farming and gardening. He also intended to enjoy the treasures of art and literature, but it is only a few months after his marriage that we find him again engaged in public affairs at Williamsburg, the seat of the Assembly, where the representatives of the colonies held their sessions. He had not sought a nomination; contrary to the usual custom in the colonies, he had not even put himself in touch with the voters. It was the unbounded confidence of the people alone which had given him the election. If he had only considered what was personally most agreeable to himself, he would have remained on his beautiful estate; but duty, as the true patriot understands it, left him no choice. It must have been a consolation to his family that the sessions of the Assembly usually lasted but a few months in each year.