Page:Awful phenomena of nature -- snow storms, third of March and twenty-third April, 1827.pdf/20

 house already surrounded! They heard the discharge of the muskets, the shrieks of the women and children, and, being destitute of arms, saved their own lives by flight. The savage ministers of vengeance had entered the old man’s chamber, and shot him through the head. He fell dead into the arms of his wife, who died distracted next day by the horror of her husband’s fate. The design was to butcher all the males under seventy who lived in the valley, the number of whom amounted to two hundred; but some of the detachments did not arrive soon enough to secure the passes, so that eight and thirty persons only suffered; the greater part of whom were surprised in their beds, and hurried into eternity before they had time to implore the Divine mercy! Campbell, having perpetrated this brutal massacre, ordered all the houses to be burned, made a prey of all the cattle and effects that were found in the valley, and left the helpless women and children naked and forlorn, without covering, food, or shelter, in the midst of the snow that covered the whole face of the country, at the distance of six miles from any inhabited place. Distracted with grief and horror, surrounded by the shades of night, shivering with cold, and appalled with the apprehension of immediate death, from the swords of those who had murdered their friends and kinsmen, they could not endure such a complication of calamities, but generally perished in the waste before they could receive the least comfort or assistance."