HISTORY OF VERMONT. 71 



hundred Indians ; but they were armed only 

 with musqiiets. Beadle, in a pusillanimous 

 manner, abandoned the command of the fort to 

 a major Butterfield, and repaired to Montreal for 

 a reinforcement ; and Butterfield, with an equal 

 want of spirit, surrendered the fort and garrison 

 to Foster, on the fifteenth of May. Major Hen- 

 ry Sherburne, a brave and able officer, was de- 

 tached from Montreal with one hundred and 

 forty men, to relieve the post at the Cedars. 

 Before Sherburne arrived, Butterfield had sur- 

 rendered, and his small party was surrounded 

 and taken prisoners by the savages. Many of 

 them were sacrificed to the savage fury, butch- 

 ered by the tomahawk, or barbarously wounded 

 and maimed after they had surrendered. Fwen- 

 ty were killed in cool blood, and seven or eight 

 were carried off by the Indians ; the rest were 

 stripped almost naked, drove in that siluation to 

 the fort, and delivered to captain Foster. To 

 check this scene of conquest and barbarity, Ar-- 

 iioid marched for the Cedars, at the head of 

 eight or nine hundred men. To save himself 

 and his garrison, Foster acqniiinted Arnold, that 

 if he would not agree to a cartel, which Sher- 

 burne and the other officers had been required 

 and agreed to sign, but moved on to attack him, 

 the Indians would immediately proceed to put 

 every prisoner to death. Arnold hesitated, and 

 was much averse to such a measure ; at length 

 he agreed to it, as the only expedient to save 

 the prisoners from an immediate massacre. A 

 cartel was concluded and signed the twenty 

 seventh of May, for the exchange of four hun- 

 dred and seventv four Americans who had been 



