In consequence of this lamentable defeat and the injudicious withdrawal of the remaining British troops, the western borders of Pennsylvania and Virginia were exposed during the ensuing winter to the ruthless cruelties of the victorious savages, and the scarcely less ferocious hostilities of their European allies. The French not only incited the Indians to these aggressions, but rewarded them by purchasing their hapless captives at a high price, and in turn exacted large ransoms for the prisoners' release. Their pretense was to rescue the English from the torture, their real motive gain, and the rendering it more profitable for the savages to hunt their enemies than the wild animals of the forest. From the presumptuous rashness of Braddock and the misconduct of the 44th and 48th regiments,[38] followed results of a far deeper importance than the loss of a battle and the injury of a remote province. The conviction formerly held by the colonists of the superior prowess of English regulars was seriously shaken, if not destroyed, and the licentious and violent conduct of Dunbar's army to the inhabitants during the retreat excited a wide-spread feeling of hostility. "They are more terrible, to us than to the enemy," said the discontented: "they slighted our officers and scorned our counsel, and yet to our Virginians they owe their escape from utter destruction." Some far-sighted and ambitious men there were, who, through this cloud upon the British arms, with hope espied the first faint rays of young America's ascending star.