uit fathers were making
their influence felt among the tribes, winning them to the side of
France.

Previous to this the Indians had made themselves at home in Dover,
coming and going as they pleased. There were five strongly fortified
houses in the town, in which the settlers slept at night.

It was the evening of the 27th of June, 1688, when two squaws called at
Major Waldron's garrison, and asked if they might sleep there.

"Indians are coming to trade to-morrow," they said.

Major Waldron was pleased to hear it, for trade with the Indians always
meant a good bargain to the white man.

"Supposing we should want to go out in the night, how shall we open the
door?" asked the squaws.

They are shown how to undo the fastenings.

[Illustration: MAJOR WALDRON'S TERRIBLE FIGHT.]

Major Waldron is eighty years of age, white-haired, wrinkled, but there
is force yet left in his arm, and he is as courageous as ever. He has no
fear of any Indian that walks the earth, and the vague rumors and
whisperings of an uprising are as idle as the wind to him. He lies down
to sleep. The lights in all the houses are extinguished. No sentinel
walks the street. In the darkness dusky forms glide noiselessly through
the town. The doors of the houses open. The terrible war-whoop breaks
the stillness of the summer night. A half-dozen Indians burst into the
room where the brave old man is sleeping. He springs from the bed,
seizes his sword, and single-handed drives them from his chamber into
the large room. In the darkness one steals behind him, strikes a blow,
and he falls. It is their hour of triumph. He has been a ruler and a
judge. The Indians can be sarcastic. They seat him in his arm-chair,
lift him upon the table. It is his throne.

"Get us supper," is their command to the family.

They eat, and then turn to their bloody work. One by one they slash
their knives across his breast.

"So I cross out my account," they say. They are settling an account that
has been standing thirteen long years.

An Indian cuts off one hand. "Where are the scales? Let us see if it
weighs a pound."

One cuts off his nose, another his ears. The old man's strength is gone,
and as he falls, one holds his sword, so that it pierces his body.

In one of the garrisons is a faithful dog, whose barking awakes the
inmates. The Indians rush upon the door. Elder Wentworth throws himself
upon the floor, holds his feet against it, and braces himself with all