f fallen trees a rod in thickness surrounded the
whole intrenchment; outside the hedge there was a ditch wide and deep.
There was but one point of entrance, and that was over the long and
slender trunk of a tree which had been felled across the ditch, and
rested at its farther end upon a wall of logs three or four feet high.
A block-house, at whose portals many sharp-shooters were stationed in
vigilant guard, commanded the narrow and slippery avenue. It was thus
necessary for the English, in storming the fort, to pass in single
file along this slender stem, exposed every step of the way to the
muskets of the Indians. Every soldier at once perceived that the only
hope for the army was in the energies of despair.

There is no incident recorded in the annals of war which testifies to
more reckless fearlessness than that which our ancestors displayed on
this occasion. The approaches to the Malakoff and the Redan were not
attended with greater peril. Without waiting a moment to reconnoitre
or for those in the rear to come up, the Massachusetts troops, who
were in the van, made a rush to cross the tree. They were instantly
swept off by Philip's sharp-shooters. Again and again the English
soldiers, led by their captains, rushed upon the fatal bridge to
supply the places of the slain, but they only presented a fair target
for the foe, and they fell as grass before the scythe. In a few
moments six captains and a large number of common soldiers were dead
or dying in the ditch. The assaulting party, in dismay, were beginning
to recoil before certain death, when, by some unexplained means, a
bold party succeeded in wading through the ditch at another place,
and, clambering through the hedge of trees and over the palisades,
with great shoutings they assailed the defenders of the one narrow
pass in the rear.

The Indians, in consternation, were for a moment bewildered, and knew
not which way to turn. The English, instantly availing themselves of
the panic, made another rush, and succeeded in forcing an entrance. A
hand to hand fight ensued of almost unparalleled ferocity; but the
English, with their long swords, hewed down the foe with immense
slaughter, and soon got possession of the breastwork which commanded
the entrance. A passage was immediately cut through the palisades, and
the whole army poured in.

[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE INDIAN FORTRESS.]

The interior was a large Indian village, containing five hundred
houses, s