Colonel George Washington sat up to look at Steve, and remained for some minutes lost in thought. No doubt he was passing in review those eventful days during which he had marched with Braddock. He had given Steve some idea of what had occurred, though he had not completed the tale. For a fourth expedition was attempted that year. Two thousand staunch rustics, enlisted from Massachusetts, sailed from Boston harbour for Nova Scotia, their object being to capture Fort Beauséjour which the French had built on debatable land on the isthmus connecting Canada and Nova Scotia. It was from this post, the headquarters of the intriguers, that agents and soldiers worked to undermine the loyalty of the _habitants_ of Acadia, for France was determined to recover this lost province. However, the gallant peasants from Massachusetts brought their designs to an end, for they sat down outside the fort, and despite attacks from Indians and Acadians outside, they pressed the siege so strenuously that the place was surrendered. Then the troops marched across to the north shore of the isthmus and took Fort Gaspereu without meeting with opposition. The end of this momentous year of 1755 found France and England still ostensibly at peace, for there had been no declaration of war as yet. The winter brought some abatement to Indian ravages on the British frontiers, but the French had the best of the position. The valley of the Ohio was theirs, right up to and over the Alleghany range. They had a formidable force at Fort Duquesne, at Frontenac, and at Niagara. Their defences at Crown Point were improved, and now they were hard at work erecting Fort Ticonderoga at the very foot of Lake Champlain, not more than forty miles from Fort William Henry. As to Nova Scotia, it was in our possession now, but the very formidable fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Isle dominated the position, and offered a haven to French ships, and a base from which the strongest expeditions could set out.