HISTORY OF VERMONT. 305 



assisted by four of his brothers ; all of which 

 had been trained up to the business by their 

 father, who had been a famous partizan in their 

 former wars. The route they took was by the 

 way of lake Champlain, till they came to the 

 French river, no\v called Onion river. Advan- 

 cing up that stream, they passed over to Con- 

 necticut river, and travelled on the ice till they 

 came near to Deerfield. Mr. Williams, their 

 minister, had been much apprehensive of dan- 

 ger, and attempted to make the same impres- 

 sion on the minds of his people, but not with 

 sufficient success ; but upon his application the 

 government of the province had sent a guard of 

 twenty soldiers for their assistance. The forti- 

 fications were some slight works thrMvn round 

 two or three garrison houses, but were nearly 

 covered in some places by drifts of snow. To 

 this place, Rouville with his party, approached 

 on February the twenty ninth. Hovering round 

 the place, he sent out his spies for intelligence. 

 The watch kept the streets of the town till about 

 two hours before day, and then unfortunately 

 all of them went to sleep. Perceiving all to be 

 quiet, the enemy embraced the opportunity and 

 rushed on to the attack. The snow was so 

 high, that they had no difficulty in jumping over 

 the wails of the fortification ; and immediately- 

 separated into small parties, to appear before 

 every house at the same time. The place was 

 compleatly surprized, and the enemy were en- 

 tering the houses at the moment the inhabitants 

 had the first suspicion of their approach. The 

 whole village was carried in a few hours, and 

 with very little resistance ; one of the garrisoi^ 



