laced in convents, where it is safe to assume that they were
treated with the most tender kindness by the sisterhood, who fully
believed that to gain them to the faith was to snatch them from
perdition. But when they or their brothers proved obdurate, different
means were used. Threats of hell were varied by threats of a whipping,
which, according to Williams, were often put into execution. Parents
were rigorously severed from their families; though one Lalande, who
had been sent to watch the elder prisoners, reported that they would
persist in trying to see their children, till some of them were killed
in the attempt. "Here," writes Williams, "might be a history in itself
of the trials and sufferings of many of our children, who, after
separation from grown persons, have been made to do as they would have
them. I mourned when I thought with myself that I had one child with the
Maquas [Caughnawagas], a second turned papist, and a little child of six
years of age in danger to be instructed in popery, and knew full well
that all endeavors would be used to prevent my seeing or speaking with
them." He also says that he and others were told that if they would turn
Catholic their children should be restored to them; and among other
devices, some of his parishioners were assured that their pastor himself
had seen the error of his ways and bowed in submission to Holy Church.

In midwinter, not quite a year after their capture, the prisoners were
visited by a gleam of hope. John Sheldon, accompanied by young John
Wells, of Deerfield, and Captain Livingston, of Albany, came to Montreal
with letters from Governor Dudley, proposing an exchange. Sheldon's wife
and infant child, his brother-in-law, and his son-in-law had been
killed. Four of his children, with his daughter-in-law, Hannah,--the
same who had sprained her ankle in leaping from her chamber
window,--besides others of his near relatives and connections, were
prisoners in Canada; and so also was the mother of young Wells. In the
last December, Sheldon and Wells had gone to Boston and begged to be
sent as envoys to the French governor. The petition was readily granted,
and Livingston, who chanced to be in the town, was engaged to accompany
them. After a snow-shoe journey of extreme hardship they reached their
destination, and were received with courtesy by Vaudreuil. But
difficulties arose. The French, and above all the clergy, were unwilling
to part with captives, many of wh