"Sir," answered George, in agony, "the ravines are full of Indians--many hundreds of them. They can slaughter us at their pleasure if we form in the open. The Virginians know how to fight them." "You are an inexperienced soldier, sir, and therefore I excuse you. But look at my English veterans--see how they behave--and I desire the Virginians to do the same." At that moment George's horse fell upon his knees, and the next he rolled over, shot through the heart. The English regiments had closed up manfully, after receiving several destructive volleys, returning the fire of their assailants without seeing them and without producing the smallest effect. But suddenly the spectacle of half their men dead or wounded on the ground, the galloping about of riderless horses, the shrieks of agony that filled the air, seemed to unman them. They broke and ran in every direction. In vain General Braddock rode up to them, actually riding over them, waving his sword and calling to them to halt. The men who had faced the legions of Europe were panic-stricken by this dreadful unseen foe, and fled, only to be shot down in their tracks. To make it more terrible, the officers were singled out for slaughter, and out of eighty-six officers in a very little while twenty-six were killed and thirty-seven wounded. General Braddock himself had his horse shot under him, and as he rolled on the ground a cry of pain was wrung from him by two musket-balls that pierced his body. Of his three aides, two lay weltering in their blood, and George alone was at his side helping him to rise. Rash and obstinate as General Braddock might be, he did not lack for courage, and in that awful time he was determined to fight to the last. "Get me another horse," he said, with difficulty, to George. "Are you too wounded?" "No, General, but I have had two horses shot under me. Here is my third one. Mount!" And by the exertion of an almost superhuman strength he raised General Braddock's bulky figure from the ground and placed him in the saddle. "I am badly wounded," said General Braddock, as he reeled slightly; "but I can sit my horse yet. Your Virginians are doing nobly, but they should form in column." Besotted to the end, but seeing that the Virginians alone were standing their ground, General Braddock did not give a positive order, and George did not feel obliged to obey this murderous mistake. But General Braddock, after a gasp or two, turned a livid face towards George. "Colonel Washington, the command is yours. I am more seriously wounded than I thought." He swayed forward, and but for George would have fallen from his horse. [Illustration: GEORGE DID ALL THAT MORTAL MAN COULD DO TO RALLY THE PANIC-STRICKEN MEN.]