The enemy were to be
destroyed, root and branch, and the English were to receive a lesson that
would drive them in terror within the shelter of the Halifax stockades.
In a few minutes the party was on the march, and moving now with the
greatest secrecy and care.
During that silent march, every minutest detail of which stamped itself
indelibly on Pierre's memory, the lad clung desperately to the thought of
all the injuries, real or pretended, which the English had inflicted upon
his people. He dared not let himself think of the unoffending settlers
trustfully sleeping in their homes. He strove to work himself up to some
sort of martial ardor that might prevent him feeling like an assassin.
Presently the rippling of the Kenneticook made itself heard on the quiet
night, and then the dim outlines of the lonely and doomed hamlet rose
into view.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SURPRISE.
The midnight murderers were at the very doors before even a dog gave
warning. Then several curs raised a shrill alarm, and a great mastiff,
chained to his kennel in the yard of the largest house, snapped his chain
and sprang upon the raiders. The dog bore an Indian to the ground, and
then fell dead, with a tomahawk buried in his skull. At the same moment
the long, strident yell of the Micmacs rang through the hamlet, and a
half dozen hatchets beat in every door. There was no time for resistance.
The butchers were at the bedsides of their victims almost ere the latter
were awake.
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