[Footnote: The outrages of the Indians along the route led many to join the army. None of their bloody acts caused more general execration than the murder of Jane McCrea. This young lady was the betrothed of a Captain Jones of the British army. She lived near Fort Edward in the family of her brother, who, being a whig, started for Albany on Burgoyne's approach. But she, hoping to meet her lover, lingered at the house of a Mrs. McNeil, a staunch loyalist, and a cousin of the British general, Fraser. Early one morning the house was surprised by Indians, who dragged out the inmates and hurried them away toward Burgoyne's camp. Mrs. McNeil arrived there in safety. A short time after, another party came in with fresh scalps, among which she recognized the long glossy hair of her friend. The savages, on being charged with her murder, declared that she had been killed by a chance shot from a pursuing party; whereupon they had scalped her to secure the bounty. The precise truth has never been known. Captain Jones possessed himself of the sad memento of his betrothed, and resigned. The government refusing his resignation, he deserted, and for more than fifty years lived remote from society, a heart-broken man.] BURGOYNE'S DIFFICULTIES.--In the meantime, before Gates took command, two events occurred which materially deranged the plans of Burgoyne. 1. St. Leger had been sent to take Fort Schuyler, thence to ravage the Mohawk Valley and join Burgoyne's army at Albany. General Arnold being dispatched to relieve that fort, accomplished it by a stratagem. A half-witted tory boy who had been taken prisoner, was promised his freedom, if he would spread the report among St. Leger's troops that a large body of Americans was close at hand. The boy, having cut holes in his clothes, ran breathless into the camp of the besiegers, showing the bullet-holes and describing his narrow escape from the enemy. When asked their number, he mysteriously pointed upward to the leaves on the trees. The Indians and British were so frightened that they fled precipitately, leaving their tents and artillery behind them. [Footnote: Fort Stanwix, on the site of Rome, N. Y., in 1776 was named after Gen. Schuyler.] [Illustration: THE ALARM AT FORT SCHUYLER.] 2. Burgoyne sent a detachment under Colonel Baum to seize the supplies the Americans had collected at Bennington, Vt. General Stark with the militia met him there. As Stark saw the British lines forming for the attack, he exclaimed, "There are the red-coats; we must beat them today, or Molly Stark is a widow." His patriotism and bravery so inspired his raw troops that they defeated the British regulars and took about six hundred prisoners.