Massacre At Williams Henry, Part Iv

...He struck with the gunstock, smashed the man’s teeth, then dropped the weapon and ran hurriedly, Indians saw him, three of them gave chase, he dashed for the woods in a deadly race. Around him the woods were filled with the yells of men and women, fleeing like himself, cut down or captured, to be sold as slaves up north in Quebec, where war captives paid. He tripped over roots, he ducked behind trees, and ever behind him came their swift feet, for hours he ran, his lungs howling, yet still he heard the bastards following. But there were less feet now, two sets of them, he heard ragged breaths coming from both men, he heard words that he could not understand, bits and pieces of the sound as he ran. He came to a stream, rock-choked and rapid, behind a large boulder mid-stream he hid, and picked up a rock the size of his foot, against a musket it wouldn’t do much good. But by the creek’s edge he heard angry shouts, between the two men, there could be no doubt, they were arguing from the tone of their words, were they thinking this more work than its worth? One threw up his hands, started walking north, the other cursed him, and walked down the shore, looking for tracks, still focused on his prize, how near Ned was he did not realize… Until Ned leapt out, hurled the rock at his head, it hit and the man slumped to the riverbed. Ned sprinted for him, slammed down with both fists, then jerked the brave’s head in a brutal twist. The man went lax, fell into the water, Ned took his gun, his knives and his powder, waited not a moment, kept going south, as fast as his battered frame would allow. He reached Fort Edward come the next morning, other survivors had come, trickling, hundreds of souls dead in the massacre, the British claimed Montcalm had broken his word! News spread quite far of the great treachery, cries of horror at the French perfidy, in the colonies it was soon to be said that a surrender would just leave you dead. Montcalm himself was soon in a hard place, his native allies saw him as a disgrace tor trying to temper their victory many of them left, his numbers did bleed... CONCLUDES IN PART V.