igue, he instantly commenced his march for that
place. Painfully toiling on through the night by the road leading from
Marlborough, early on the morning of the 19th he arrived within a mile
and a half of the town. Here the Indians, who by their scouts had kept
themselves informed of his approach, prepared an ambush. As the
English were marching along with great caution, a band of about a
hundred Indians crossed their path some distance in advance of them,
and fled, feigning a panic. The English pursued them impetuously about
a mile into the woods, when the fugitives made a stand, and five
hundred Indians sprang up from their concealment, and hurled a storm
of lead into the faces of their foes.

The English, with singular intrepidity, formed themselves into a
compact mass, and by unerring aim and rapid firing kept their foes at
bay while, slowly retreating, they ascended an adjacent hill. Here
for five hours they maintained the conflict against such fearful odds.
The superior skill of the English with the musket rendered their fire
much more fatal than that of their foes. Many of the savage warriors
were struck down, and they bit the dust in their rage and dying agony,
while but five or six of the English had been slain.

[Illustration: THE INDIAN AMBUSH.]

The wind was high, and a drought had rendered the leaves of the forest
dry as powder. Some shrewd savage thought of the fatal expedient of
setting the forest on fire to the windward of their foes. The
stratagem was crowned with signal success. A wide sheet of flame,
roaring and crackling like a furnace, and emitting billows of
smothering smoke, rolled toward the doomed band. The fierceness of the
flames, and the blinding, suffocating smoke, soon drove the English in
confusion from their advantageous position. The Indians, piercing them
with bullets, rushed upon them with the tomahawk, and nearly every man
in the party was slain. Some accounts say that Captain Wadsworth's
company was entirely cut off; others say that a few escaped to a mill,
where they defended themselves until succor arrived. President
Wadsworth, of Harvard College, was the son of Captain Wadsworth. He
subsequently erected a modest monument over the grave of these heroes.
It is probably still standing, west of Sudbury causeway, on the old
road from Boston to Worcester. The inscription upon the stone is now
admitted to be incorrect in many of its particulars. It is said that
one hundred and twenty I