g them. The rest met on the shores of the
lake,--probably at Alton Bay,--where, after waiting in vain for their
eastern allies, they resolved to make no attempt on Portsmouth or
Newbury, but to turn all their strength upon the smaller village of
Haverhill, on the Merrimac. Advancing quickly under cover of night, they
made their onslaught at half an hour before dawn, on Sunday, the
twenty-ninth of August.

Haverhill consisted of between twenty and thirty dwelling-houses, a
meeting-house, and a small picket fort. A body of militia from the lower
Massachusetts towns had been hastily distributed along the frontier, on
the vague reports of danger sent by Schuyler from Albany; and as the
intended point of attack was unknown, the men were of necessity widely
scattered. French accounts say that there were thirty of them in the
fort at Haverhill, and more in the houses of the villagers; while others
still were posted among the distant farms and hamlets.

In spite of darkness and surprise, the assailants met a stiff resistance
and a hot and persistent fusillade. Vaudreuil says that they could
dislodge the defenders only by setting fire to both houses and fort. In
this they were not very successful, as but few of the dwellings were
burned. A fire was kindled against the meeting-house, which was saved by
one Davis and a few others, who made a dash from behind the adjacent
parsonage, drove the Indians off, and put out the flames. Rolfe, the
minister, had already been killed while defending his house. His wife
and one of his children were butchered; but two others--little girls of
six and eight years--were saved by the self-devotion of his
maid-servant, Hagar, apparently a negress, who dragged them into the
cellar and hid them under two inverted tubs, where they crouched, dumb
with terror, while the Indians ransacked the place without finding them.
English accounts say that the number of persons killed--men, women, and
children--was forty-eight; which the French increase to a hundred.

The distant roll of drums was presently heard, warning the people on the
scattered farms; on which the assailants made a hasty retreat. Posted
near Haverhill were three militia officers,--Turner, Price, and
Gardner,--lately arrived from Salem. With such men as they had with
them, or could hastily get together, they ambushed themselves at the
edge of a piece of woods, in the path of the retiring enemy, to the
number, as the French say, of sixty or sev