such of the men as resisted, butchered some of the
women and children, and seized and bound the rest. Some of the villagers
escaped in the confusion, like Stoddard, and either fled half dead with
cold towards Hatfield, or sought refuge in the fortified house of
Jonathan Wells.

The house of Stebbins, the minister's next neighbor, had not been
attacked so soon as the rest, and the inmates had a little time for
preparation. They consisted of Stebbins himself, with his wife and five
children, David Hoyt, Joseph Catlin, Benjamin Church, a namesake of the
old Indian fighter of Philip's War, and three other men,--probably
refugees who had brought their wives and families within the palisaded
enclosure for safety. Thus the house contained seven men, four or five
women, and a considerable number of children. Though the walls were
bullet-proof, it was not built for defence. The men, however, were well
supplied with guns, powder, and lead, and they seem to have found some
means of barricading the windows. When the enemy tried to break in, they
drove them back with loss. On this, the French and Indians gathered in
great numbers before the house, showered bullets upon it, and tried to
set it on fire. They were again repulsed, with the loss of several
killed and wounded; among the former a Caughnawaga chief, and among the
latter a French officer. Still the firing continued. If the assailants
had made a resolute assault, the defenders must have been overpowered;
but to risk lives in open attack was contrary to every maxim of forest
warfare. The women in the house behaved with great courage, and moulded
bullets, which the men shot at the enemy. Stebbins was killed outright,
and Church was wounded, as was also the wife of David Hoyt. At length
most of the French and Indians, disgusted with the obstinacy of the
defence, turned their attention to other quarters; though some kept up
their fire under cover of the meeting-house and another building within
easy range of gunshot.

This building was the house of Ensign John Sheldon, already mentioned.
The Indians had had some difficulty in mastering it; for the door being
of thick oak plank, studded with nails of wrought iron and well barred,
they could not break it open. After a time, however, they hacked a hole
in it, through which they fired and killed Mrs. Sheldon as she sat on
the edge of a bed in a lower room. Her husband, a man of great
resolution, seems to have been absent. Their son