[40] There can be no possible excuse for the French officers, in permitting this barbarity. The Indians were their allies, instigated to the war by their influence, marching under their banners, led by their officers, and paid by their money. They were therefore responsible for the conduct of these their allies. To permit them, under the very walls of Fort Duquesne, to put the captives to death by torture, was an atrocious crime meriting the execration of humanity. [41] The plan of the British campaign of 1755, in which Braddock met his disaster, was four-fold: first to capture Nova Scotia; second, to drive the French from their posts on Lake Champlain; third, to seize the important French fort at Niagara, between Lake Ontario and Lake George, and fourth, to expel all French settlers from the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and take entire possession of the Ohio valley.--Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 152. [42] Mr. Sparks gives the name, Miss Mary Phillips; Mr. Everett spells it Phillipse; and Mr. Irving gives it as Philipse. [43] “He had before felt the influence of the tender passion. At the age of seventeen he was smitten by the graces of a fair one, whom he called a ‘Lowland beauty,’ and whose praises he recorded in glowing strains, while wandering with his surveyor’s compass among the Alleghany Mountains. On that occasion he wrote desponding letters to a friend, and indited plaintive verses, but never ventured to reveal his emotions to the lady who was unconsciously the cause of his pains.”--Sparks’ _Life of Washington_, p. 73. [44] _Life of George Washington_, by Edward Everett, p. 87. [45] “One is tempted to smile at this tirade about the ‘insolence of the people,’ and this zeal for ‘his majesty’s service,’ on the part of Washington; but he was yet a young man and a young officer. What he thus terms insolence was the dawning spirit of independence, which he was afterward the foremost to cherish and promote.”--Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 215. [46] Sparks’ _Life of Washington_, p. 81. [47] Hazard’s “Register of Pennsylvania,” vol. v. p. 252. [48] Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 230. [49] Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 94. [50] Washington, commenting upon this movement of Major Grant, writes: “From all accounts I can collect, it appears very clear that this was a very ill-concerted, or a very ill-executed plan. Perhaps both. But it seems to be very generally acknowledged that Major Grant exceeded his orders.”--Irving’s _Life of Washington_, vol. i. p. 286. [51] An old negro servant of the household of Mrs. Custis gave the following account of the impression Washington produced upon the family: