350 THE WAR IN ACADIA. [1692. 



upon their prey. One party mastered the nearest 

 fortified house, which had scarcely a defender but 

 women. The rest burst into the unprotected 

 houses, killing or capturing the astonished inmates. 

 The minister was at his door, in the act of mounting 

 his horse to visit some distant parishioners, when a 

 bullet struck him dead. He was a graduate of Har- 

 vard College, a man advanced in life, of some learn- 

 ing, and greatly respected. The French accounts 

 say that about a hundred persons, including women 

 and children, were killed, and about eighty cap- 

 tured. Those who could, ran for the fortified 

 houses of Preble, Harmon, Alcock, and Norton, 

 which were soon filled with the refugees. The 

 Indians did not attack them, but kept well out 

 of gun-shot, and busied themselves in pillaging, 

 killing horses and cattle, and burning the unpro- 

 tected houses. They then divided themselves into 

 small bands, and destroyed all the outlying farms 

 for four or five miles around. 



The wish of King Louis was fulfilled. A good 

 profit had been made out of the enemy. The 

 victors withdrew into the forest with their plunder 

 and their prisoners, among whom were several old 

 women and a number of children from three to 

 seven years old. These, with a forbearance which 

 does them credit, they permitted to return unin- 

 jured to the nearest fortified house, in requital, it 

 is said, for the lives of a number of Indian children 

 spared by the English in a recent attack on the 

 Androscoggin. The wife of the minister was 

 allowed to go with them ; but her son remained a 



