going towards them, and can positively affirm, that, when they first saw us, they ran to their arms, without calling, as I must have heard them had they so done."[9] In a letter to his brother, Washington wrote: "I fortunately escaped without any wound; for the right wing where I stood, was exposed to, and received all the enemy's fire; and it was the part where the man was killed and the rest wounded. I heard the bullets whistle; and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound." The letter was published in the _London Magazine_. It is said George II. read it and commented dryly: "He would not say so if he had been used to hear many." In later years Washington heard too much of the fatal music, and once, when asked if he had written such rodomontade is said to have answered gravely, "If I said so, it was when I was young." Aye, but it is memorials of that daring young Virginian, to whom whistling bullets were charming, that we seek in the Alleghanies today. We catch a similar glimpse of his ardent, boyish spirit in a letter written from Fort Necessity later. Speaking of strengthening the fortifications, Washington writes: "We have, with nature's assistance, made a good intrenchment, and by clearing the bushes out of these meadows, prepared a charming field for an encounter." Over and above the anxieties with which he was ever beset, there shines out clearly the exuberance of boyish zest and valor--soon to be hardened and quenched by innumerable cares and heavy responsibilities. Thus the first blow in the long bloody seven years' war was struck by the red-uniformed Virginians under Washington at the bottom of that Alleghany valley. He immediately returned to Great Meadows, sent eastward to the belated Fry for reinforcements, and westward a scouting party to keep watch of the enemy. On the 30th, the French prisoners were sent eastward to Virginia and the construction of a fort was begun at Great Meadows, by erecting "small palisades." This was completed by the following day, June 1st. Washington, in his _Journal_ under the date of June 25th, speaks of this fort as "Fort-Necessity."[10] The name suggests the exigencies which led to its erection: lack of troops and provisions. On June 2nd, Washington wrote in his _Journal_: "We had prayers in the Fort;"[11] the name Necessity may not have been used at first. On the 6th, Gist arrived from Wills Creek, bringing the news of Colonel Fry's death by injuries sustained from being thrown from his horse. Thus the command now devolved upon Washington who had been in actual command from the beginning. On the 9th, the remainder of the Virginian regiment arrived from Wills Creek, with the swivels, under Colonel Muse. On the day following, Captain Mackaye arrived with the Independent Company of South Carolinians.