[751] The town was pillaged and burned, not excepting the
church, where ornaments of some value were found. On the side of the
rangers, Captain Ogden and six men were wounded, and a Mohegan Indian
from Stockbridge was killed. Rogers was told by his prisoners that a
party of three hundred French and Indians was encamped on the river
below, and that another party of two hundred and fifteen was not far
distant. They had been sent to cut off the retreat of the invaders, but
were doubtful as to their designs till after the blow was struck. There
was no time to lose. The rangers made all haste southward, up the St.
Francis, subsisting on corn from the Indian town; till, near the eastern
borders of Lake Memphremagog, the supply failed, and they separated into
small parties, the better to sustain life by hunting. The enemy followed
close, attacked Ensign Avery's party, and captured five of them; then
fell upon a band of about twenty, under Lieutenants Dunbar and Turner,
and killed or captured nearly all. The other bands eluded their
pursuers, turned southeastward, reached the Connecticut, some here, some
there, and, giddy with fatigue and hunger, toiled wearily down the wild
and lonely stream to the appointed rendezvous at the mouth of the
Amonoosuc.
[Footnote 751: Rogers says "about six hundred." Other accounts say six
or seven hundred. The late Abbe Maurault, missionary of the St. Francis
Indians, and their historian, adopts the latter statement, though it is
probably exaggerated.
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