plintered bones as they were
hurried along, shrieked aloud in their agony. It was long after
midnight before they reached their encampment. But even here they had
not a single biscuit. Vessels had been dispatched from Boston with
provisions, which should have arrived long before at this point, which
was their designated rendezvous. But these vessels had been driven
into Cape Cod harbor by a storm. The same storm had driven in immense
masses of ice, and for many days they were hopelessly blocked up.
Suffering excessively from this disappointment, the soldiers marched
to the assault, hoping, in the capture of the fort, to find food
stored up amply sufficient to supply the whole army until the spring
of the year, and also to find good warm houses where they all might be
lodged. The conflagration, to which they were compelled to resort, had
blighted all these hopes, and now, though victorious, they were
perishing in the wilderness of cold and hunger.

The storm, during the night, increased in fury, and the snow, in
blinding, smothering sheets, filled the air, and, in the course of the
ensuing day, covered the ground to such a depth that for several weeks
the army was unable to move in any direction. But on that very
morning, freezing and tempestuous, in which despair had seized upon
every heart, a vessel was seen approaching, buffeting the icy waves of
the bay. It was one of the vessels from Boston, laden with provisions
for the army. Joy succeeded to despair. Prayers and praises ascended
from grateful hearts, and hymns of thanksgiving resounded through the
dim aisles of the forest.

CHAPTER VIII.

MRS. ROWLANDSON'S CAPTIVITY.

1675-1676

Winter quarters.--Building a village.--Indignation of the Indians.--The
Narragansets disheartened.--Determination of Philip.--Diplomacy.--A
new fort.--A new army raised.--Sufferings of the troops.--Two names
for the Indians.--Their degraded nature.--Colonel Benjamin's mode
of making proselytes.--Philip betrayed.--His flight.--Return of
the troops.--Attack on Lancaster.--Precautions to guard against
surprise.--The torch applied.--Massacre of the inhabitants.--Mr.
Rowlandson's house.--Burning the building.--The inmates shot.--Mrs.
Rowlandson wounded.--Scalping a child.--Indian bacchanals.--Wastefulness
of the Indians.--Mrs. Rowlandson's narrative.--Her sufferings.--Her
wounded child.--Friendly aid from an Indian.--Arrival at
head-quarters.--Mrs. Rowlandson a slave.--Reciprocal b