This bitter experience had not the effect of discouraging Washington. It only made him long for another chance, with another result. He had written lightly to Governor Dinwiddie, as if he were arranging a tournament, "We have prepared a charming field for an encounter." It is even said that he added, "I know no music so pleasing as the whistling of Bullets." This was repeated to George the Second. "He would not say so," said the soldier-king, "had he been used to many!" Years afterward Washington was reminded of this incident, and he thoughtfully replied, "If I said so, it was when I was young!" His mother, foreseeing the tendency of all these events, had bitterly opposed his last disastrous expedition. He was a man of independent fortune, and had declined remuneration for his services as he afterwards declined all pay during the years he served in the war of the Revolution. She wished him to live on his own estate as became a country gentleman. Her opposition to his fighting against the English crown was not one whit greater than her opposition to his fighting for the crown. The word "loyal" was a shifting quantity in her time, meaning one thing to-day and another to-morrow! The peril and the hardship were the same in either case. The first time that he set forth for the frontier his mother almost succumbed. "Oh, this fighting and killing!" she exclaimed, as she entreated him not to go. When convinced that she must sacrifice herself to his duty to his country she became calm. Laying her hand upon his shoulder, she said, solemnly: "God is our sure trust. To Him I commend you." She thus unconsciously provided him with an unanswerable argument for another time. When General Braddock offered him a place on his staff she drove to Mount Vernon to entreat him not to accept the honor. "The God to whom you commended me, Madam, when I set out on a more perilous errand, defended me from all harm, and I trust he will do so now," was the reply. [Illustration: General Braddock.] When the news of Braddock's defeat and the dreadful slaughter of his army reached Fredericksburg the anxious mother was forced to wait twelve days before she could be assured of her son's safety. In a long, calm letter he tells her of all his dangers and his own wonderful escape, with four bullets through his coat and two horses shot under him. He tells her, too, of an illness which confined him in a wagon for more than ten days; how he was not half recovered at the time of the fight; how he must halt and rest often upon his way home to Mount Vernon, which he could scarce hope to leave before September; how he was, "Honored Madam," her most dutiful son. She drove to Mount Vernon to meet him, and warmly entreated him to leave the service forever, urging the loss of health and fortune should he remain in it. He had no answer then, but after she was at home she received his final word.