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 CHAPTER III

ETWEEN the French and the earthquakes," wrote Horace Walpole in 1758 to Mr. Conway, "you have no notion how good we have grown; nobody makes a suit of clothes now but of sackcloth turned up with ashes." The years 1756 and 1757 were crowded with disappointments. With the miscarriage of the three campaigns of 1755, Governor Shirley became the successor of the forgotten Braddock and assembled a council of war at New York composed of Governors Shirley, Hardy, Sharpe, Morris, and Fitch, Colonels Dunbar and Schuyler, Majors Craven and Rutherford, and Sir John St. Clair. As though in very mockery, the king's instructions to the betrayed and sacrificed Braddock were read to the council, after which General Shirley announced a scheme for campaigns to be conducted during the new