and their hearts for a moment
to quail. In less than ten minutes, the church was empty, and the males
of the congregation were engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict
with the savages, who, having availed themselves of the one unguarded
pass, had quietly eluded the vigilance of the scouts, and assembled in
force on the outskirts of the settlement.

Fortunately for the worshipers that morning, the anxiety of Master
Corrie for the welfare of his fair Alice induced him to slip out of the
church just after the sermon began. Hastening to the pastor's house, he
found the child sound asleep on a sofa, and a savage standing over her
with a spear in his hand. The boy had approached so stealthily that the
savage did not hear him. Remembering that he had left his pistol on the
kitchen table, he darted round to the back door of the house, and
secured it just as Alice awoke with a scream of surprise and terror, on
beholding who was near her.

Next moment Corrie was at her side, and before the savage could seize
the child, he leveled the pistol at his head and fired. The aim was
sufficiently true to cause the ball to graze the man's forehead, while
the smoke and fire partially blinded him.

It was this shot that first alarmed the natives in church, and it was
the yell uttered by the wounded man, as he fell stunned on the floor,
that called forth the answering yell from the savage host, and
precipitated the attack.

It was sufficiently premature to give the people of the settlement time
to seize their arms; which, as has been said, they had placed so as to
be available at a moment's notice.

The fight that ensued was a desperate, and almost indiscriminate, melee.
The attacking party had been so sure of taking the people by surprise
that they formed no plan of attack; but simply arranged that, at a given
signal from their chief, a united rush should be made upon the church,
and a general massacre ensue. As we have seen, Corrie's pistol drew
forth the signal sooner than had been intended. In the rush that
immediately ensued, a party dashed through the house, the boy was
overturned, and a savage gave him a passing blow with a club that would
have scattered his brains on the floor had it taken full effect; but it
was hastily delivered; it glanced off his head, and spent its force on
the shoulder of the chief, who was thus unfortunate enough to be wounded
by friends as well as foes.

On the first alarm, Gascoyne sprang up, and