Four years before the events of which we are about to speak, the Indian
allies of the French in Canada suddenly made their appearance in the
westerly part of the settlement. At the close of a midwinter day six
savages rushed into the open gate of a garrison-house owned by one
Bradley, who appears to have been absent at the time. A sentinel,
stationed in the house, discharged his musket, killing the foremost
Indian, and was himself instantly shot down. The mistress of the house,
a spirited young woman, was making soap in a large kettle over the fire.
--She seized her ladle and dashed the boiling liquid in the faces of the
assailants, scalding one of them severely, and was only captured after
such a resistance as can scarcely be conceived of by the delicately
framed and tenderly nurtured occupants of the places of our great-
grandmothers. After plundering the house, the Indians started on their
long winter march for Canada. Tradition says that some thirteen persons,
probably women and children, were killed outright at the garrison.
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