"The important crisis was now come when the very existence of Connecticut, under Providence, was to be determined by the sword in a single action, by the good conduct of less than eighty men." They proved themselves, as the event shows, worthy of the occasion, and properly conscious of the interest at stake. To God they looked for aid and courage, at an hour when the decision was to be made, whether all that they held dear in life should be secured, or wrenched from them for ever. [Illustration: Captain Mason and his Party attacking the Pequod Fort in the Swamp.] Two hours before day, the troops were in motion for the assault. At this juncture, Mason's Indians entirely lost their resolution, and began to fall back. The captain bid them not to fly, but to surround the fort at any distance they pleased, and there remain witnesses of the courage of the English. Without delay, the fort was approached on two opposite sides, the Pequods having just before been aroused from sleep by the cry of one of their number, "Owanux, Owanux!"--Englishmen, Englishmen! He had, at that instant, been awakened by the barking of a dog. While the Pequods were rallying, Mason's troops advanced, and poured in a fire through the openings of the palisades, and wheeling off to a side barricaded only with brush, rushed into the fort, sword in hand. Notwithstanding the suddenness of the attack, and their great confusion, the enemy made a desperate resistance. Concealing themselves in and behind their wigwams, they maintained their ground stoutly against the English, who, advancing in different directions, cut down every Indian they met. But the victory was not certain--it had not been achieved. Mason felt it to be an awful moment. Happily it occurred to him to burn the Indian wigwams. The shout was immediately uttered, "We must burn them!" It was done. In a few moments the mats, with which their dwellings were covered, were in a blaze, and the flames spread in every direction. As the fire increased, the English retired without the fort, and environed it on every side. The Indians now recovering courage, formed another circle exterior to that of the English. The amazed Pequods, driven from their covert by fire, climbed the palisades, and presenting themselves in full view, more than one hundred were shot down. Others, sallying forth from their burning cells, were shot, or cut in pieces with the sword. In the mean time, many perished in the flames within the fort. The battle, in this locality, continued about an hour, and the scene of terror and blood is hardly to be described. Seventy wigwams were consumed, and between five and six hundred of the enemy, of all descriptions, strewed the ground, or were involved in the burning pile. This victory was achieved with the loss only of two men killed and twenty wounded.