It was a gay and inspiriting sight, especially so to youth, and Robert’s heart thrilled as he looked.  The hour of triumph had come at last.  Away with the forebodings of Willet!  Here was the might of England and the colonies, and, brave and cunning as St. Luc and Beaujeu and the other Frenchmen might be their bravery and cunning would avail them nothing.

They marched on all the morning, a long and brilliant line of red and blue and brown, and nothing happened.  The forest on either side of them was still silent and tenantless, and they expected in a few more hours to see the fort they had come so far to take.  The heavens themselves were propitious.  Only little white clouds were to be seen in the sky of dazzling blue, and the green forest, stirred by a gentle wind, waved its boughs at them in friendly fashion.

About noon they approached the river, and Gage leading a strong advance guard across it, found no enemy on the other side, puzzling and also pleasing news.  The foe, whom they had expected to find in this formidable position, seemed to have melted away.  No trace of him could be found in the forest, and to many it appeared that the road to Fort Duquesne lay open.

“They’ve concluded our force is too great and have abandoned the fort,” said Robert.  “I can’t make anything else of it, Dave.”

“It does look like it,” said the hunter doubtfully.  “I certainly thought they would meet us here.  The ford is the place of places for a defensive battle.”

Gage made his report to Braddock, confirming the general in his belief that the French and Indians would not dare to meet him, and that the dangers of the wilderness had been overrated.  The order to resume the march was given and the trumpets in the advance sang merrily, the silent woods giving back their echoes in faint musical notes.  The afternoon that had now come was as brilliant as the morning.  A great sun blazed down from a sky of cloudless blue, deepening and intensifying the green of the forest, the red uniforms of the British and the blue uniforms of the Virginians.  Robert again admired the sight.  The army marched as if on parade, and it presented a splendid spectacle.

The head of the column entered the shallows, and soon the long line was passing the river.  Robert had a lingering belief that the bullets would rain upon them in the water, but nothing stirred in the forest beyond.  The head of the column emerged upon the opposite bank, and then its long red and blue length trailed slowly after.  Robert and his comrades crossed in a wagon.  They had wanted to go into the woods, seeking for the enemy, but the orders of Braddock, who wished to keep all his force together, held them.

The entire army was now across, and, within the shade of the forest, the general ordered a short period for rest and food, before they completed the few miles that yet separated them from Fort Duquesne.  The troops were in great spirits.  They might have been held at the dangerous ford, they thought, but now that it had been passed without resistance the woods could offer nothing able to stop them.