Until your note reached me, I had not heard a word from you since you rode away from Mount Vernon with Dinwiddie's messenger.

Do you know, I fancy Governor Dinwiddie has selected him for some signal service, for it was at his invitation that Mr. Washington came to Williamsburg.

Joncaire, however, asserted that he could not receive Dinwiddie's letter, and referred Major Washington to his superior officer at Fort le Boeuf.

The commander here, Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, also received them well, and to him Major Washington delivered his letter from Governor Dinwiddie, asking by what right the French had crossed the Lakes and invaded British territory, and demanding their immediate withdrawal.

Even as we reached the top, the door at the end of the hall was thrown violently open, and Governor Dinwiddie stumbled toward us, his face red with excitement.

" "Glad to meet you, Mr. Stewart," said Dinwiddie, and he gave me his hand for an instant.

Dinwiddie looked at me for an instant with a smile.

"Not until I have made my report, Governor Dinwiddie," he said.

Dinwiddie turned back to him.

The candles were brought, and Dinwiddie dropped into a deep chair, motioning Washington and myself to sit down opposite him.

" So Washington told again of the trip over the mountains and through the forests, Dinwiddie interrupting from time to time with an exclamation of wonder or approbation.

" Dinwiddie took it with nervous fingers, glanced at the superscription, tore it open, and ran his eyes rapidly over the contents.

But when Dinwiddie raised his eyes, I saw they were agleam.

"Since he will not leave of his own accord," cried Dinwiddie, his calmness slipping from him in an instant, "there remains only one thing to be done,he must be made to leave, and not a French uniform must be left in the Ohio valley!

Whatever defects Dinwiddie may have had, indecision was certainly not one of them, and the very next day the machinery was set in motion for the advance against the French.

Dinwiddie's energy was wide-felt, and the whole colony was soon astir.

Dinwiddie was so enraged, when he learned of it, that he ordered Trent court-martialed forthwith, but this was never done.

I had a letter from Dinwiddie but the other day, in which he said as much.

The slaves of Theodoric H. Gregg of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, were liberated in 1854 and sent to Ohio, where some of them were educated.

Washington's First Public Service.%The arrival of the French in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one so much as Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia.

As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddie heard that the French were really building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he determined to make a formal demand for their withdrawal, and chose as his messenger George Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the Virginia militia.

Washington's instructions bade him go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out all he could as to the whereabouts of the French, and then proceed to the commanding officer, deliver the letter of Dinwiddie, and demand an answer.

With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life, Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French commandant.

The reply of Saint-Pierrefor that was the name of the French commandantwas that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the meantime, he would hold the fort.

Fort Duquesne.%When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre, he saw clearly that the time had come to act.