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 every danger and difficulty in magnified form. A council of war was held and the impracticability of pursuing the campaign further before spring was warmly urged by these officers. Forbes, at whose bedside the council was being held, declined to listen to the arguments. Impatiently he waived the officers aside and announced that the army would proceed. Right quickly the timid ones were brought over to Forbes' side.

Three Frenchmen who had been sent to watch the movements of the English army were taken prisoners, and from them it was learned that the militia from Louisiana and Illinois had left Fort Duquesne; that the Ottawas, Ojibways, Pottawattamies and Wyandots gathered there since the preceding July from the Great Lakes, believing that the English were entirely discomfited by Grant's defeat, had returned to their distant homes, and that the utmost strength that DeLigneris could now muster did not exceed five hundred men; that there were no further provisions in the fort with which to sustain an army. Now, too, Post arrived at the camp, on his way to the Ohio Indians from Easton, with his report of the successful outcome of the conference, and his message of peace from the eastern to the western Indians. Forbes gave him another message in which he informed the Indians that he was advancing against the French at the head of a large army, and advised them to remain neutral and go back to their homes. Forbes' hopes of a successful issue of the campaign were higher than ever now; he realized that the final hour had come. He saw his army marching in triumph into the French fortress.

Colonel Washington was sent forward in advance of the main body of the army, to take command of a division employed in opening up the road. From an English prisoner whom he took from some French whom he encountered, he received information which confirmed the report which the army had already received, of the defenceless condition of the fort. A few days later, Colonel Armstrong, with a force of a thousand men, pushed forward to assist Colonel Washington. On November 17th, General Forbes followed with forty-three hundred men. The tents and baggage were left behind; the soldiers were obliged to depend solely on their blankets and knapsacks. With a light train of artillery and friendly Indians, constantly kept out as scouts to guard against surprise, the whole army crept on, bivouacking at night wherever darkness overtook them.

On November 23rd they were within twelve miles of the fort, on the bank of Turtle Creek. On the