214 THE THREE WAR-PARTIES. [1690. 



now formed into two bands, Sainte-Helene leading 

 the one and Mantet the other. They passed 

 through the srate together in dead silence : one 

 turned to the right and the other to the left, and 

 they filed around the village between the palisades 

 and the houses till the two leaders met at the 

 farther end. Thus the place was completely sur- 

 rounded. The signal was then given : they all 

 screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the 

 doors with hatchets, and fell to their work. 

 Boused by the infernal din, the villagers leaped 

 from their beds. For some it was but a momentary 

 nightmare of fright and horror, ended bv the blow 

 of the tomahawk. Others were less fortunate. 

 Neither women nor children were spared. " No 

 pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote 

 Schuyler, " the cruelties that were committed.' ' 1 

 There was little resistance, except at the block- 

 house, where Talmage and his men made a stub- 

 born fight ; but the doors were at length forced 

 open, the defenders killed or taken, and the build- 

 ing set on fire. Adam Yrooman, one of the 

 villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained 

 against the door-post; but he fought so desper- 

 ately that the assailants promised him his life. 

 Orders had been given to spare Peter Tassemaker, 

 the d online or minister, from whom it was thought 

 that valuable information might be obtained ; but 



1 " The women bigg with Childe rip'd up, and the Children alive 

 throwne into the flames, and their heads dashed to pieces against the 

 Doors and windows." Schuyler to the Council of Connecticut, 15 Feb., 1690. 

 Similar statements are made by Leisler. See Doc. Hist. N. Y., I. 307, 

 310. 



