King Philip's war was marked by more than one strange incident. One of these occurred a few days after the saving of Brookfield. The people in Hadley were at church, when they were attacked by a large body of Indians. The preacher, as many a one had done before him, bounded down from the pulpit and was among the first to rush outside and catch up one of the guns stacked there, and to lead in the defense. The assault was so sudden and fierce that it was impossible to rally all the people from their panic. The cool-headed hurried the women and children into the church, or rather compelled them to stay there, while the men strove to beat back the hostiles. [Illustration: AN INDIAN WIGWAM] It quickly became clear that the day was lost unless the brave but scattered men, each of whom was fighting on his own hook, could have a leader, who would bring order out of the wild chaos. Suddenly the leader appeared, and not one of the amazed people could tell where he came from. He was tall, with a long, flowing white beard, and carried a sword in one hand. Swinging it over his head, he shouted his commands in the ringing tones of a trumpet, and with wonderful quickness brought order and confidence where all had been confusion in the leaderless defense. Placing himself at their head, he led a charge which scattered the Indians like chaff. Then, when all danger had gone, the strange deliverer vanished as strangely as he had appeared. He had come, he had acted, and now he was gone. Many believed he was more than a human being,--one sent by heaven to save them in their peril. But he was as much flesh and blood as those whom he had rescued, being no other than General Goffe, who had fled with another comrade from England, for having been one of the judges who sentenced Charles I. to the scaffold. When the son of the executed king came to the throne, after the death of Cromwell, and the passing away of the Commonwealth, Charles II. ordered the death of all those who had condemned his father. Goffe and Whalley fled to the American colonies, and though search was made for them, their friends kept them hidden, and they were never arrested. General Goffe was hiding in the house of one of these friends at Hadley at the time of the Indian attack. Peeping out, he saw the dreadful danger, caught up his sword and rushed to the defence. When all danger was over, he quietly went back to his hiding place, and lived a number of years afterward.