Dowfi North aftd Up Along 
estuary of the river Pisiquid, since called the Avon. 
Here, where the town of Windsor now stands, there 
was a stockade called Fort Edward, where a garrison 
of regulars under Captain Alexander Murray kept 
watch over the surrounding settlements. The New 
England men pitched their tents on the shore, while 
the sloops that had brought them slept on the soft 
bed of tawny mud left by the fallen tide." 
Soon after this Winslow and his men landed 
at Grand Pre and were stationed in the village 
church, from which the historian is careful to 
inform us, he had the elders remove the sacred 
things, to prevent their being defiled by 
heretics. 
Winslow, using the church as a storehouse 
and place of arms, took his own station in the 
priests' house until all should be ready. The 
people did not know why he was there, though 
his presence could not have been reassuring. 
On Friday, the fifth of September, 1755, at 
three o'clock in the afternoon, the little church, 
in obedience to orders, was filled with the men 
and boys of Grand Pre, — an expectant and 
anxious throng waiting to hear the will of their 
superiors. 
The decree was read ; the blow had fallen. 
92 
