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Hou«e already surrounded! They heard the
discharge of the muskets, the shrieks of the
women and children, and, being destitute of
arms, saved their own lives by flight. The
savage ministers of vengeance had entered the
old man’s chamber, and shot him through the
head. He fell dead into the arms of his wife,
who died distracted next day by the horror of
her husband’s fate. The design was to butcher
all the males under seventy who lived in the
valley, the number of whom amounted to two
hundred ; but some of the detachments did not
arrive soon enough to secure the passes, so thal 1
eight and thirty persons only suffered ; the
greater part of whom were surprised in their
beds, and hurried into eternity before they had
time to implore the Divine mercy ! Campbell,
having perpetrated this brutal massacre, ordered
all the houses to be burned, made a prey of all
the cattle and effects that were found in the
valley, and left the helpless women and children
naked and forlorn, without covering, food, or
shelter, in the midst of the snow that covered
the whole face of the country, at the distance
of six miles from any inhabited place. Dis¬
tracted with grief and horror, surrounded bv
the shades of night, shivering with Cold, and
appalled with the apprehension of immediate
death, from the swords of those who had mur¬
dered their friends and kinsmen, they could
not endure such a complication of calamities,
but generally perished in the waste before they
could receive the least coniibrt or assistance.”

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