HISTORY OF VERMONT. 295 



^' No tongue," says he, "can express the cruelties- 

 that were committed. The whole village was 

 instantly in a blaze. Women with child rip- 

 ped open, and their infants cast into the flames, 

 or dashed against the posts of the doors. Sixty- 

 persons perished in the massacre, and twenty 

 seven were carried into captivity. The rest 

 fled naked towards Albany, through a deep 

 snow, which fell that very night in a terrible 

 storm ; and twenty five of these fugitives, lost 

 their limbs in the flight, through the severity of 

 the frost."* 



The news of this awful tragedy reached Al- 

 bany, about break of day. An universal dread 

 and consternation seized the inhabitants ; the 

 enemy were reported to be fourteen hundred in 

 number ; and many of the citizens of Albany 

 entertained the idea, that the best method was 

 to destroy the city, and abandon that part of the 

 country. But Schuyler and others roused and 

 rallied the inhabitants. A party of horse was 

 soon sent off to Schenectady, but they were not 

 strong enough to venture a battle. The enemy 

 kept possession of the place till the next day at 

 noon ; and having plundered the whole village, 

 they went off with forty of the best horses load- 

 ed with the spoil ; the rest, with all the cattle 

 they could find, lay slaughtered in the streets. 



The policy of the French was apparent ia 

 the midst of these horrid transactions. They 

 not only spared the Mohawks whom they found 

 in the place, but several other persons were re- 

 leased at the request of these Indians, with whom 



* Smith's Hist. Newyork, p. gj. 



VOL. I. N 2 -' 



