"It was a shame," he said, "a right-down sin, and a throwin' away of men's lives, ever to have put them under Bradock's command," whom he accused of having "no more military gumption than a goose."--"Why," he said, "two companies of British grenadiers would have eat every _crapaud_ on the ground, if they'd bin let to go round and in at one end o' the ditch, instead of walking right straight up hill agin' the loaded muzzles of guns they couldn't see, only by the smoke out o' the long grass." Then he would take off his hat, wipe his brow, and fairly knock it against his knee with vexation at the British defeat. "Why, sir," he said, at the same time grasping my thigh, where I sat in my saddle, with an energy that brought tears into my eyes,--"why, mister, just do you look up at that little knoll to the right; the place warn't cleared then, and there was a heap o' dead timber lying there-bout. Well, sir, Washington sent, out of his own head,--for he warn't a deal thought on then, you see,--a company of Virginians to try the trees for it. Well, now just look where they were fixed by that move, right over the _crapauds_,--every mother's son o' them Virginians good for a squirrel at fifty yards. I'm d----d if they wouldn't have used up every human of a Frenchman behind the drain, if it had been left to a settlement between them, and if the English would only quietly ha' looked on, and kept Johnny from breaking cover and treeing it." "And why the devil didn't they use them up?" I here demanded, to give my vexed informant time to breathe. "I'll tell you why, if you don't know. Why, because that d----d Bradock was blind as well as deaf, and took the Virginians for inimies; so, not bein' able to get at Johnny, he slamm'd it right smash into them, and killed the biggest half on 'em as they were tryin' to run back to their own side. Sir, it was nothin' better than an eternal murder, and Bradock ought to have swung for it; but he was shot down, somehow or other, and died amongst better men, only shootin' was a sight too good for him." Taking the statement of my friend for the ground of my opinion, I left him, at once amused by his enthusiasm and informed by his intelligence. I did purpose keeping tryst with my new acquaintance, and having the battle fought over again, when I might have been able to do some justice to the force and spirit of his narration; but other routes were to be visited, and my time was limited to a few days: so we met no more. On another day I rode by the United States' Arsenal, a fine building, inclosing some acres. It is well situated, near the banks of the Alleghany, about two miles out of the town. This is one of the most considerable _depots_ for arms and ordnance stores to be found in the Western country.