They were gentlefolk of some substance, and had carved out of the wilderness a very pretty manor with orchards and flower gardens.

I had never been to the place, but I had heard the praise of it from dwellers on the Rappahannock.

No Indians came near them, and there they abode, happy in their solitude--a husband and wife, three little children, two French servants, and a dozen negroes.
A week ago tragedy had come like a thunderbolt.

At night the stockade was broke, and the family woke from sleep to hear the war-whoop and see by the light of their blazing byres a band of painted savages.

It seems that no resistance was possible, and they were butchered like sheep.
The babes were pierced with stakes, the grown folk were scalped and tortured, and by sunrise in that peaceful clearing there was nothing but blood-stained ashes.
Word had come down the Rappahannock.