The massacre would have been still more complete, had not information been given, the preceding night, to a Mr. Pace, by an Indian domesticated in his house, and treated as a son, who, being pressed to murder his benefactor, disclosed the plot to him. He immediately carried the intelligence to Jamestown, and the alarm was given to some of the nearest settlements, which were thereby saved. At some other places, too, where the circumstances of the attack enabled the English to seize their arms, the assailants were repulsed. [Sidenote: General war.] This horrible massacre was succeeded by a vindictive and exterminating war, in which the wiles of the Indians were successfully retaliated on themselves. During this disastrous period, many public works were abandoned; the college institution was deserted; the settlements were reduced from eighty to eight; and famine superadded its afflicting scourge to the accumulated distresses of the colony.[36] [Footnote 36: Robertson. Chalmer. Stith.] As soon as intelligence of these calamitous events reached England, a contribution was made by the adventurers for the relief of the sufferers; arms from the tower were delivered to the treasurer and company; and several vessels were dispatched with those articles which might best alleviate such complicated distress. [Sidenote: Dissension and dissolution of the company.] But the dissolution of the company was rapidly approaching. That corporation contained many men of the first rank and talents in the nation, who in their assemblies, were in habits of discussing the measures of the crown with the accustomed freedom of a popular body. Two violent factions, which assumed the regular appearance of court and country parties, divided the company, and struggled for the ascendancy. James endeavoured to give the preponderance to the court party, but his endeavours were unsuccessful; and his failure disposed him to listen to complaints against a corporation, whose deliberations he found himself unable to control. To their mismanagement he ascribed the slow progress made by the colony, and the heavy losses that had been sustained.[37] [Footnote 37: _Ibid._] {1623} {1624} [Sidenote: Colony taken into the hands of the King.]