1763.] TRACK OF THE MARAUDERS. 105 



they should be assessed at a lower rate than other 

 lands of equal value in the province. The Assem- 

 bly stood their ground, and refused to remove the 

 obnoxious clauses in the supply bill. Message 

 after message passed between the House and the 

 governor ; mutual recrimination ensued, and ill 

 blood was engendered. The frontiers might have 

 been left to their misery but for certain events 

 which, during the winter, threw the whole province 

 into disorder, and acted like magic on the minds of 

 the stubborn legislators. 



These events may be ascribed, in some degree, 

 to the renewed activity of the enemy; who, during 

 a great part of the autumn, had left the borders 

 in comparative quiet. As the winter closed in, 

 their attacks became more frequent ; and districts, 

 repeopled during the interval of calm, were again 

 made desolate. Again the valleys were illumined 

 by the flames of burning houses, and families fled 

 shivering through the biting air of the winter night, 

 w'hile the fires behind them shed a ruddy glow 

 upon the snow-covered mountains. The scouts, 

 who on snowshoes explored the track of the ma- 

 rauders, found the bodies of their victims lying in 

 the forest, stripped naked, and frozen to marble 

 hardness. The distress, wrath, and terror of the 

 borderers produced results sufficiently remarkable 

 to deserve a separate examination. 



