with sawed boards, and cloven clapboards, or shingles. They were, many
of them, two stories in front, with the roof sloping off behind to a
single one; the windows few and small, and frequently so fitted as to be
opened with difficulty, and affording but a scanty supply of light and
air. Two or three of the best constructed were occupied as garrisons,
where, in addition to the family, small companies of soldiers were
quartered. On the high grounds rising from the river stood the mansions
of the well-defined aristocracy of the little settlement,--larger and
more imposing, with projecting upper stories and carved cornices. On the
front of one of these, over the elaborately wrought entablature of the
doorway, might be seen the armorial bearings of the honored family of
Saltonstall. Its hospitable door was now closed; no guests filled its
spacious hall or partook of the rich delicacies of its ample larder.
Death had been there; its venerable and respected occupant had just been
borne by his peers in rank and station to the neighboring graveyard.
Learned, affable, intrepid, a sturdy asserter of the rights and liberties
of the Province, and so far in advance of his time as to refuse to yield
to the terrible witchcraft delusion, vacating his seat on the bench and
openly expressing his disapprobation of the violent and sanguinary
proceedings of the court, wise in council and prompt in action,--not his
own townsmen alone, but the people of the entire Province, had reason to
mourn the loss of Nathaniel Saltonstall.

Four years before the events of which we are about to speak, the Indian
allies of the French in Canada suddenly made their appearance in the
westerly part of the settlement. At the close of a midwinter day six
savages rushed into the open gate of a garrison-house owned by one
Bradley, who appears to have been absent at the time. A sentinel,
stationed in the house, discharged his musket, killing the foremost
Indian, and was himself instantly shot down. The mistress of the house,