Giles had proposed that we divide the ammunition equally, and this was being done when the sentinels on the eastern wall gave the alarm. It seemed to me as if the words had no more than been spoken when, looking in that direction, I saw, coming over the stockade like a black cloud, hundreds upon hundreds of the naked foe, whooping and yelling, as they struck here and there at our fellows with their hatchets. Three of the Minute Boys fell at the first rush, even before I had time to summon the others to the blockhouse. Amid the howls and exulting cries of the savages, I heard Stephen Morley ordering the women to put into execution the plan which had been agreed upon, and as we lads and men ran into or behind the blockhouse, I knew, without seeing, that the helpless members of our little company were streaming out through the narrow gate, but believed that, once on the plain, they would be met by those whose chief delight is to butcher the helpless. Then came that which you may call a battle, if such a name can be given to an encounter where less than twenty were opposed to three or four hundred. We stood our ground, firing as rapidly as it was possible to recharge our weapons, and kept up such a shower of lead that, strange as it may seem, the savages wavered and hung back, when, by coming forward at full speed, they could have trampled us under foot. There we held them in check,--how long I know not; but it seemed to me that half the night was gone before the foremost of the curs gathered courage enough to make the dash. At that instant I felt a grip upon my shoulder, and Master Bartlett was shouting in my ear: “We have done all that men can, and more than many would. Now let us take such chance for our lives as remains.” It seems pitiful a lad should be forced to set down the fact that, after having brought himself to the point where he believed it his duty to stand up fighting until death overtook him, he should beat a retreat, and yet that was what we did. Now, looking back, when it is possible to view the matter calmly, my wonder is that we had not done the same thing before the second assault, knowing as we did what the end must be. At that time it would have been more than an even chance we might succeed in the escape by marching in a solid body to the river, where, plunging into the stream, we could take our chances of swimming to the opposite shore or of drifting down. Then there would have been a possibility of retreating without such loss as we afterward suffered, and without benefiting those whom we were bound to protect. [Illustration: “GILES MARCH AND I EACH TOOK HIM BY THE HAND.”]