The war with the French for the possession of the Ohio Country and the valley of the Mississippi, had now fairly begun.  It would be more than seven years before it came to an end.

But most of the fighting was done at the north—­in New York and Canada; and so Washington and his Virginian soldiers did not distinguish themselves in any very great enterprise.

It was for them to keep watch of the western frontier of the colony lest the Indians should cross the mountains and attack the settlements.

Once, near the middle of the war, Washington led a company into the very country where he had once traveled on foot with Christopher Gist.

The French had built a fort at the place where the Ohio River has its beginning, and they had named it Fort Duquesne.  When they heard that Washington was coming they set fire to the fort and fled down the river in boats.

The English built a new fort at the same place, and called it Fort Pitt; and there the city of Pittsburg has since grown up.

And now Washington resigned his commission as commander of the little Virginian army.  Perhaps he was tired of the war.  Perhaps his great plantation of Mount Vernon needed his care.  We cannot tell.

But we know that, a few days later, he was married to Mrs. Martha Custis, a handsome young widow who owned a fine estate not a great way from Williamsburg, the capital of the colony.  This was in January, 1759.

At about the same time he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia; and three months later, he went down to Williamsburg to have a hand in making some of the laws for the colony.

He was now twenty-seven years old.  Young as he was, he was one of the richest men in the colony, and he was known throughout the country as the bravest of American soldiers.

The war was still going on at the north.  To most of the Virginians it seemed to be a thing far away.

At last, in 1763, a treaty of peace was made.  The French had been beaten, and they were obliged to give up everything to the English.  They lost not only the Ohio Country and all the great West, but Canada also.

* * * * *

XI.—­The MUTTERINGS of the storm.

And now for several years Washington lived the life of a country gentleman.  He had enough to do, taking care of his plantations, hunting foxes with his sport-loving neighbors, and sitting for a part of each year in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg.

He was a tall man—­more than six feet in height.  He had a commanding presence and a noble air, which plainly said:  “This is no common man.”

[Illustration:  Mount Vernon.]

[Illustration:  Tomb at Mount Vernon.]

He was shrewd in business.  He was the best horseman and the best walker in Virginia.  And no man knew more about farming than he.