n spite of poverty, danger, and
tribulation, marrying and giving in marriage did not cease among the
sturdy borderers; and on a day in September there was a notable wedding
feast at the palisaded house of John Wheelwright, one of the chief men
of Wells. Elisha Plaisted was to espouse Wheelwright's daughter Hannah,
and many guests were assembled, some from Portsmouth, and even beyond
it. Probably most of them came in sailboats; for the way by land was
full of peril, especially on the road from York, which ran through dense
woods, where Indians often waylaid the traveller. The bridegroom's
father was present with the rest. It was a concourse of men in homespun,
and women and girls in such improvised finery as their poor resources
could supply; possibly, in default of better, some wore nightgowns, more
or less disguised, over their daily dress, as happened on similar
occasions half a century later among the frontiersmen of West
Virginia.[51] After an evening of rough merriment and gymnastic dancing,
the guests lay down to sleep under the roof of their host or in adjacent
barns and sheds. When morning came, and they were preparing to depart,
it was found that two horses were missing; and not doubting that they
had strayed away, three young men--Sergeant Tucker, Joshua Downing, and
Isaac Cole--went to find them. In a few minutes several gunshots were
heard. The three young men did not return. Downing and Cole were killed,
and Tucker was wounded and made prisoner.

Believing that, as usual, the attack came from some small
scalping-party, Elisha Plaisted and eight or ten more threw themselves
on the horses that stood saddled before the house, and galloped across
the fields in the direction of the firing; while others ran to cut off
the enemy's retreat. A volley was presently heard, and several of the
party were seen running back towards the house. Elisha Plaisted and his
companions had fallen into an ambuscade of two hundred Indians. One or
more of them were shot, and the unfortunate bridegroom was captured. The
distress of his young wife, who was but eighteen, may be imagined.

Two companies of armed men in the pay of Massachusetts were then in
Wells, and some of them had come to the wedding. Seventy marksmen went
to meet the Indians, who ensconced themselves in the edge of the forest,
whence they could not be dislodged. There was some desultory firing, and
one of the combatants was killed on each side, after which the whites