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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher
+by William Henry Withrow
+
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+Title: Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher
+
+Author: William Henry Withrow
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6826]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 28, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVILLE TRUEMAN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Seth Hadley, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+This file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions.
+
+
+
+
+NEVILLE TRUEMAN,
+
+THE
+
+PIONEER PREACHER.
+
+A TALE OF THE WAR OF 1812.
+
+BY THE
+
+REV. W. H. WITHROW, M.A.
+
+
+
+
+TO THE
+
+REV. EGERTON RYERSON, D.D., LL.D.,
+
+WHOSE LONG LIFE
+
+HAS BEEN DEVOTED TO THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY,
+
+THIS
+
+"Story of the War,"
+
+WHOSE HISTORY
+
+HE HAS WITH GRAPHIC PEN RECORDED,
+
+IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
+
+BY
+
+THE AUTHOR.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In this short story an attempt has been made--with what success
+the reader must judge--to present certain phases of Canadian life
+during the heroic struggle against foreign invasion, which first
+stirred in our country the pulses of that common national life,
+which has at length attained a sturdier strength in the
+confederation of the several provinces of the Dominion of Canada.
+It will he found, we think, that the Canadian Methodism of those
+troublous times was not less patriotic than pious. While our
+fathers feared God, they also honoured the King, and loved their
+country; and many of them died in its defence. Reverently let us
+mention their names. Lightly let us tread upon their ashes.
+Faithfully let us cherish their memory. And sedulously let us
+imitate their virtues.
+
+A good deal of pains has been taken by the careful study of the
+most authentic memoirs, documents, and histories referring to the
+period; by personal examination of the physical aspect of the
+scene of the story; and by frequent conversations with some of the
+principal actors in the stirring drama of the time--most of whom,
+alas! have now passed away--to give a verisimilitude to the
+narrative that shall, it is hoped, reproduce in no distorted
+manner this memorable period.
+
+W. H. W.
+
+TORONTO, March 1st, 1880.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+War Clouds
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+The Eve of Battle
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Queenston Heights
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+The Wages of War
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A Victory and its Cost
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The Capture of York
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+The Fall of Fort George
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+The Fortunes of War
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A Brave Woman's Exploit
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Disasters and Triumphs
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Elder Case in War Time
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A Dark Tragedy--The Burning of Niagara
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A Stern Nemesis--A Ravaged Frontier
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+Toronto of Old
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A Quarterly Meeting in the Olden Time
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+The "Protracted Meeting"
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+Heart Trials.
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+The Tragedy of War.
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+Chippewa and Lundy's Lane.
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+The Closing of the War.
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Closing Scenes. NEVILLE TRUEMAN, THE PIONEER PREACHER [Footnote:
+The principal authorities consulted for the historical portion of
+this story are:--Tupper's Life and Letters of Sir Isaac Brock,
+Auchinleck's and other histories of the War, and Carroll's,
+Bangs', and Playter's references to border Methodism at the period
+described. Many of the incidents, however, are derived from the
+personal testimony of prominent actors in the stirring drama of
+the time, but few of whom still linger on the stage. For reasons
+which will be obvious, the personality of some of the characters
+of the story is Slightly veiled under assumed names.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+WAR CLOUDS.
+
+
+  Now lower the dreadful clouds of war;
+  Its threatening thunder rolls afar;
+  Near and more near the rude alarms
+  Of conflict and the clash of arms
+  Advance and grow, till all the air
+  Rings with the brazen trumpet blare.
+
+
+Towards the close of a sultry day in July, in the year 1812, might
+have been seen a young man riding along the beautiful west bank of
+the Niagara River, about three miles above its mouth. His
+appearance would anywhere have attracted attention. He was small
+in person and singularly neat in his attire. By exposure to
+summer's sun and winter's cold, his complexion was richly bronzed,
+but, as he lifted his broad-leafed felt hat to cool his brow, it
+could be seen that his forehead was smooth and white and of a
+noble fulness, indicating superior intellectual abilities. His
+hair was dark,
+
+    --his eye beneath
+  Flashed like falchion from its sheath.
+
+
+His bright, quick glances, alternating with a full and steady
+gaze, betokened a mind keenly sympathetic with emotions both of
+sorrow and of joy. His dress and accoutrements were those of a
+travelling Methodist preacher of the period. He wore a suit of
+"parson's grey," the coat having a straight collar and being
+somewhat rounded away in front. His buckskin leggings, which
+descended to his stirrups, were splashed with mud, for the day had
+been rainy. He was well mounted on a light-built, active-looking
+chestnut horse. The indispensable saddle-bags, containing his
+Greek Testament, Bible, and Wesley's Hymns, and a few personal
+necessaries, were secured across the saddle. A small, round,
+leathern valise, with a few changes of linen, and his coarse
+frieze great-coat were strapped on behind. Such was a typical
+example of the "clerical cavalry" who, in the early years of this
+century, ranged through the wilderness of Canada, fording or
+swimming rivers, toiling through forests and swamps, and carrying
+the gospel of Christ to the remotest settlers in the backwoods.
+
+Our young friend, the Rev. Neville Trueman, afterwards a prominent
+figure in the history of early Methodism, halted his horse on a
+bluff jutting out into the Niagara River, both to enjoy the
+refreshing breeze that swept over the water and to admire the
+beautiful prospect. At his feet swept the broad and noble river,
+reflecting on its surface the snowy masses of "thunderhead"
+clouds, around which the lightning still played, and which,
+transfigured and glorified in the light of the setting sun, seemed
+to the poetic imagination of the young man like the City of God
+descending out of heaven, with its streets of gold and foundations
+of precious stones, while the rainbow that spanned the heavens
+seemed like the rainbow of the Apocalypse round about the throne
+of God.
+
+Under the inspiration of the beauty of the scene, the young
+preacher began to sing in a clear, sweet, tenor voice that song of
+the ages, which he had learned at his mother's knee among the
+green hills of Vermont--
+
+  Jerusalem the golden,
+    With milk and honey blest,
+  Beneath thy contemplation,
+    Sink heart and voice opprest,
+
+  I know not, oh! I know not
+    What joys await me there;
+  What radiancy of glory,
+    What bliss beyond compare.
+
+  They stand, those walls of Zion,
+    All jubilant with song,
+  And bright with many an angel,
+    And all the martyr throng.
+
+  With jasper glow thy bulwarks,
+    Thy streets with emeralds blaze,
+  The sardius and the topaz
+    Unite in thee their rays.
+
+  Thine ageless walls are bonded
+    With amethyst unpriced;
+
+  The saints build up its fabric,
+    The corner-stone is Christ.
+
+[Footnote: We cannot resist the temptation to give a few lines of
+the original hymn of Bernard of Clugny, a Breton monk of English
+parentage of the 12th century--"the sweetest of all the hymns of
+heavenly homesickness of the soul," and for generations one of the
+most familiar, through translations, in many languages. The rhyme
+and rhythm are so difficult, that the author was able to master
+it, he believed, only by special inspiration of God.
+
+  Urbs Syon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora,
+  Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis et cor et ora,
+  Nescio, nescio, quae jubilatio, lux tibi qualis,
+  Quam socialia gaudia, gloria quam specialis.]
+
+For a moment longer he gazed upon the broad, flowing river which
+divided two neighbouring peoples, one in language, in blood, in
+heroic early traditions, and the common heirs of the grandest
+literature the world has ever seen, yet severed by a deep, wide,
+angry-flowing stream of strife, which, dammed up for a time, was
+about to burst forth in a desolating flood that should overwhelm
+and destroy some of the fairest fruits of civilization in both
+countries. As he gazed northward, he beheld, on the eastern bank
+of the river, the snowy walls and grass-grown ramparts of Fort
+Niagara, above which floated proudly the stars and stripes.
+
+As he gazed on the ancient fort, the memories of its strange
+eventful history came thronging on his mind from the time that La
+Salle thawed the frozen ground in midwinter to plant his
+palisades, to the time that the gallant Prideaux lay mangled in
+its trenches by the bursting of a cohorn--on the very eve of
+victory. These memories have been well expressed in graphic verse
+by a living Canadian poet--a denizen of the old borough of
+Niagara. [Footnote: William Kirby, Esq., in CANADIAN METHODIST
+MAGAZINE for May, 1878.]
+
+  Two grassy points--not promontories--front
+  The calm blue lake--the river flows between,
+  Bearing in its full bosom every drop
+  Of the wild flood that leaped the cataract.
+  And swept the rock-walled gorge from end to end.
+  'Mid flanking eddies, ripples, and returns,
+  It rushes past the ancient fort that once
+  Like islet in a lonely ocean stood,
+  A mark for half a world of savage woods;
+  With war and siege and deeds of daring wrought
+  Into its rugged walls--a history
+  Of heroes, half forgotten, writ in dust.
+
+  Two centuries deep lie the foundation stones,
+  La Salle placed there, on his adventurous quest
+  Of the wild regions of the boundless west;
+  Where still the sun sets on his unknown grave.
+  Three generations passed of war and peace;
+  The Bourbon lilies grew; brave men stood guard;
+  And braver still went forth to preach and teach
+  Th' evangel, in the forest wilderness,
+  To men fierce as the wolves whose spoils they wore.
+
+  Then came a day of change. The summer woods
+  Were white with English tents, and sap and trench
+  Crept like a serpent to the battered walls.
+  Prideaux lay dead 'mid carnage, smoke, and fire
+  Before the Gallic drums beat parley--then
+  Niagara fell, and all the East and West
+  Did follow: and our Canada was won.
+
+As the sun sank beneath the horizon, the flag slid down the
+halyards, and the sullen roar of the sunset gun boomed over the
+wave, and was echoed back by the dense forest wall around and by
+the still low-hanging clouds overhead. A moment later the British
+gun of Fort George, on the opposite side of the river, but
+concealed from the spectator by a curve in the shore, loudly
+responded, as if in haughty defiance to the challenge of a foe.
+
+Turning his horse's head, the young man rode rapidly down the
+road, beneath a row of noble chestnuts, and drew rein opposite a
+substantial-looking, brick farmhouse, but with such small windows
+as almost to look like a casematad fortress. Dismounting, he threw
+his horse's bridle over the hitching-post at the gate, and passed
+through a neat garden, now blooming with roses and sweet peas, to
+the open door of the house. He knocked with his riding-whip on the
+door jamb, to which summons a young lady, dressed in a neat calico
+gown and swinging in her hand a broad-leafed sunhat, replied.
+Seeing a stranger, she dropped a graceful "courtesy,"--which is
+one of the lost arts now-a-days,--and put up her hand to brush
+back from her face her wealth of clustering curls, somewhat
+dishevelled by the exercise of raking in the hayfield.
+
+"Is this the house of Squire Drayton?" asked Neville, politely
+raising his hat.
+
+The young lady, for such she evidently was, though so humbly
+dressed--_simplex munditiis_--replied that it was, and
+invited the stranger into the large and comfortable sitting-room,
+which bore evidence of refinement, although the carpet was of
+woven rags and much of the furniture was home-made.
+
+"I have a letter to him from Elder Ryan," said Neville, presenting
+a document elaborately folded, after the manner of epistolary
+missives of the period.
+
+"Oh, you're the new presiding elder, are you?" asked the lady. "We
+heard you were coming."
+
+"No, not the presiding elder," said Neville, smiling at the
+unwonted dignity attributed to him, "and not even an elder at all;
+but simply a Methodist preacher on trial--a junior, who may be an
+elder some day."
+
+"Excuse me," said the young lady, blushing at her mistake. "Father
+has just gone to the village for his paper, but will be back
+shortly. Zenas, take the preacher's horse," she continued to a
+stout lad who had just come in from the hayfield.
+
+"I will help him," said Neville, proceeding with the boy. It was
+the almost invariable custom of the pioneer preachers to see that
+their faithful steeds were groomed and fed, before they attended
+to their own wants.
+
+Miss Katherine Drayton--this was the young lady's name--was the
+eldest daughter of Squire Drayton, of The Holms, as the farm was
+called, from the evergreen oaks that grew upon the riverbank. Her
+mother having been dead for some years, Katherine had the
+principal domestic management of the household. This duty, with
+its accompanying cares, had given her a self-reliance and maturity
+of character beyond her years. She deftly prepared a tasteful
+supper for the new guest, set out with snowy napery and with the
+seldom-used, best china.
+
+"Hello! what's up now?" asked her father, cheerily, as he entered
+the door. He is worth looking at as he stands on the threshold,
+almost filling the doorway with his large and muscular frame. He
+had a hearty, ruddy, English look, a frank and honest expression
+in his light blue eyes, and an impulsiveness of manner that
+indicated a temper--
+
+  That carries anger as the flint bears fire,
+  Which much enforced, showeth a hasty spark,
+  And straight is cold again.
+
+He was not a Methodist, but his dead wife had been one, and for
+her sake, and because he had the instincts of a gentleman, of
+respect to the ministerial character, he extended a hospitable
+welcome to the travelling Methodist preachers, who were almost the
+only ministers in the country except the clergyman of the English
+Church in the neighbouring village of Niagara.
+
+"The new preacher has come, father. He brought this letter from
+Elder Ryan," said Katherine, handing him the missive.
+
+The Squire glanced over it and said, "Any one that Elder Ryan
+introduces is welcome to this house. He is a right loyal
+gentleman, if he did come from the States. I am afraid, though,
+that the war will make it unpleasant for most of those Yankee
+preachers."
+
+"Why, father, is there any bad news?" anxiously inquired the young
+girl.
+
+"Ay! that there is," he replied, taking from his pocket the
+_York Gazette_, which had just reached Niagara, three or four
+days after the date of publication.
+
+Here the young preacher returned to the house, and was cordially
+welcomed by the Squire. When mutual greetings were over, "This is
+a bad business," continued the host, unfolding the meagre,
+greyish-looking newspaper. "I feared it would come to this, ever
+since that affair of the _Little Belt_ and _President_
+last year. There is nothing John Bull is so sensitive about as his
+ships, and he can't stand defeat on the high seas."
+
+"War is not declared, I hope," said Neville, with much
+earnestness.
+
+"Yes, it is," replied the Squire, "and what's more, Hull has
+crossed the Detroit River with three thousand men. [Footnote:
+Rumour had somewhat exaggerated the number of his force. It was
+only twenty-five hundred.] Here is part of his proclamation. He
+offers 'peace, liberty, and security,' or, 'war, slavery, and
+destruction.' Confound his impudence," exclaimed the choleric
+farmer, striking his fist on the table till the dishes rattled
+again. "He may whistle another tune before he is much older."
+
+"What'll Brock do, father?" exclaimed Zenas, who had listened with
+a boy's open-mouthed astonishment to the exciting news.
+
+"He'll be even with him, I'se warrant," replied the burly Squire.
+"He will hasten to the frontier through the Long Point country,
+gathering up the militia and Indians as he goes. They are serving
+out blankets and ammunition at the fort to-night. I saw Brant at
+Navy Hall. He would answer for his two hundred tomahawks from the
+Credit and Grand River; and Tecumseh, he said, would muster as
+many more. We'll soon hear good news from the front. The
+Commissary has given orders for the victualling of Fort George. We
+are to take in all our hay and oats, beef cattle, and flour next
+week."
+
+"O Father, mayn't I go with Brock"? exclaimed the young enthusiast
+Zenas, "I'm old enough."
+
+"We may soon be busy enough here, my son. No place is more exposed
+than this frontier. The garrisons at Forts Porter and Niagra are
+being strengthened, and I could see the Yankee militia drilling as
+I rode to the village."
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted the thoughtless boy, "won't it be fun? We'll
+show them how the Britishers can fight."
+
+"God grant, my son," said the farmer solemnly, "that we may not
+see more fighting than we wish. I've lived through one bloody war
+and I never want to see another. But if fight we must for our
+country, fight we will."
+
+"And I'm sure none more bravely than Zenas Drayton," said
+Katherine proudly, laying her hand on her brother's head.
+
+"You ought to have been a boy, Kate," said her father admiringly.
+"You've got all your mother's pluck."
+
+"I'd be ashamed if I wouldn't stand up for my country, father: I
+feel as if I could carry a musket myself."
+
+"You can do better, Kate: you can make your country worth brave
+men dying for," and he fondly kissed her forehead, while something
+like a tear glistened in his eyes.
+
+For a time Neville Trueman mused without speaking, as if the prey
+of conflicting emotions. At last he said with solemn emphasis, "My
+choice is made: I cast in my lot with my adopted country. I
+believe this invasion of a peaceful territory by an armed host is
+a wanton outrage and cannot have the smile of Heaven. I daresay I
+shall encounter obloquy and suspicion from both sides, but I must
+obey my conscience."
+
+"Young man, I honour your choice," exclaimed the Squire
+effusively, grasping his hand with energy. "I know what it is to
+leave home, and kindred, and houses and lands for loyalty to my
+conscience and my King. I left as fair an estate as there was in
+the Old Dominion because I could not live under any other flag
+than the glorious Union Jack under which I was born. It was a
+dislocating wrench to tear myself away from the home of my
+childhood and the graves of my parents for an unknown wilderness.
+Much were we tossed about by sea and land. Our ship was wrecked
+and its passengers strewn like seaweed on the Nova Scotia coast--
+some living and some dead--and at last, after months of travel and
+privation, on foot, in ox carts and in Durham boats, we found our
+way, I and a few neighbours, to this spot, to hew out new homes in
+the forest and keep our oath of allegiance to our King."
+
+The old U. E. Loyalist always grew eloquent as he referred to his
+exile for conscience' sake and to the planting by the conscript
+fathers of Canada of a new Troy under the aegis of British power.
+
+"_I_ came of regular Yankee stock," said Mr. Trueman. "My
+mother was a Neville--one of the Nevilles of Boston. She heard
+Jesse Lee's first sermon on Boston Common, and joined the first
+Methodist society in the old Bay State. My father was one of Ethan
+Allen's Green Mountain Boys, and assisted at the capture of
+Ticonderoga. He was also a volunteer at Bunker Hill. It was then
+he met my mother, being billeted at her father's house."
+
+"You have rebel blood in you and no mistake," said the Squire.
+
+"I believe the colonists were right in resisting oppression in
+'76," continued Neville; "but I believe they are wrong in invading
+Canada now, and I wash my hands of all share in their crime."
+
+"We will not quarrel about the old war," said the veteran
+loyalist. "The _Gazette_ here says that many of your
+countrymen agree with you about the new one. At the declaration of
+hostilities the flags of the shipping at Boston were placed at
+half-mast and a public meeting denounced the war as ruinous and
+unjust."
+
+"I foresee a long and bloody strife," said Neville.
+
+"Neither country will yield without a tremendous struggle. It is
+ungenerous to attack Great Britain now, when, as the champion of
+human liberty, she is engaged in a death-wrestle with the arch
+despot Napoleon."
+
+"But Wellington will soon thrash Boney," interjected Zenas, who
+was an ardent admirer of the Peninsular hero, "and then his
+redcoats will polish off the Yankees, won't they, father?"
+
+"If you had seen as much of the horrors of war, my boy, as I have,
+you would not be so eager for it. God forbid it should deluge this
+frontier with blood; but if it do, old as I am, I will shoulder
+the old Brown Bess there above the fireplace that your grandfather
+bore at Brandywine and Yorktown."
+
+"What I dread most is the effect on religion," said Trueman.
+"Several of the Methodist preachers are, like myself, American-
+born, and we all are stationed by an American bishop. I am afraid
+many will go back to the States, and all will be liable to
+suspicion as disloyal to this country by the bigoted and
+prejudiced. But I shall not forsake my post, nor leave these
+people as sheep without a shepherd. If there is to be war and
+bloodshed and wounds and sudden death on this frontier circuit,
+they will need a preacher all the more, and, God helping me, I'll
+not desert them.
+
+"I am a man of peace, and fight not with worldly weapons, but I
+can, perhaps, help those who do."
+
+"God bless you for that speech, my brave lad," exclaimed the
+Squire. "Nobody questions _my_ loyalty, and if need arise,
+I'll give you a paper, signed with my name as a magistrate, that
+will protect you from harm."
+
+Kate had sat quiet, busily sewing, during this conversation, but
+her heightened colour and her quickened breathing bore witness
+that she was no uninterested listener. With a look of deep
+gratitude, she quietly said, "We are all very much obliged to you,
+Mr. Neville, for your noble resolve."
+
+The young man thought that grateful look ample compensation for
+the mental sacrifice that he had made, and an inspiration to
+unfaltering fidelity in carrying it into effect.
+
+The next morning all was bustle and excitement at the farmhouse.
+"All hands were piped," to use a sea phrase, to aid in the
+revictualling of the fort, the orders for which were urgent.
+Breakfast was served in the huge kitchen, the squire, his guest,
+his children, and the hired men all sitting at the same table,
+like a feudal lord, with his men-at-arms, in an old baronial hall.
+
+"Father," said Zenas, "Tom Loker and Sandy McKay have gone off
+with the militia. They went to the village last night and signed
+the muster-roll. I saw them marching past with some more of the
+boys and the redcoats early this morning."
+
+"I saw them, too," said the squire. "They needn't have given me
+the slip that way. It will leave me short-handed; but I wouldn't
+have said nay if they wanted to go."
+
+After breakfast Neville mounted his horse and rode off to the
+place appointed for holding the Methodist Conference,--the new
+meeting-house near St. David's. He soon overtook the detachment of
+militia, which was marching to join, at Long Point, the main force
+which Brock was to lead thither from York by way of Ancaster. He
+noticed that the men, though tolerably well armed, were very
+indifferently shod for their long tramp over rough roads. They had
+no pretence to uniform save a belt and cartouch box, and a blanket
+rolled up tightly and worn like a huge scarf. As He walked his
+horse for awhile beside Tom Loker who had groomed his horse the
+night before, he told him what the squire had said about his
+joining the militia.
+
+"Did he now?" said Tom. "Then my place will be open for me when I
+return. We'll be back time enough to help run in that beef and pork
+into the fort, won't we, Sandy?"
+
+"That's as God pleases," said the Scotchman, a sturdy, grave-
+visaged man. "Ilka bullet has its billet; an' gin we're to coom
+back, back we'll coom, though it rained bullets all the way."
+
+Neville bade them God speed and rode on to "Warner's meeting-
+house," as it was called. It was a large frame structure, utterly
+devoid of ornament, near the roadside. "Hitching" his horse to the
+fence, he went in. A meagre handful of Methodist preachers were
+present--not more than a dozen--indeed, the entire number in the
+province was very little more than that. In the chair, in front of
+the quaint, old-fashioned pulpit, which the present writer has
+often occupied, sat a man who would attract attention anywhere. He
+was nearly six feet in height, and of very muscular development;
+indeed tradition asserted that he had once been a prize-fighter.
+His dark hair was closely cut, which increased his resemblance to
+that especially unclerical and un-Methodistic character. This was
+the Rev. Henry Ryan, the Presiding Elder of the Upper Canada
+District--extending from Brockville to the Detroit River.
+[Footnote: The whole of Lower Canada formed another district, of
+which the celebrated Nathan Bangs was at that time Presiding
+Elder.] In a full rich voice, in which the least shade of an Irish
+accent could be discerned, he was addressing the little group of
+men before him. The ministers labouring in Canada had expected to
+meet their American brethren; but, on account of the outbreak of
+the war, the latter had remained on their own side of the river,
+and held their Conference near Rochester, New York State. The
+bishop, however, appointed the Canadian ministers to their
+circuits, but the relations of Methodism in the two countries were
+almost entirely interrupted during the war. A few of the ministers
+labouring in Canada obeyed what they conceived the dictates of
+prudence, and returned to the United States; but the most of them,
+although cut off from fellowship, and largely from sympathy with
+the Conference and Church by which they were appointed, continued
+steadfast at their posts and loyal to the institutions of the
+country, notwithstanding the obloquy, suspicion, and persecution
+to which they were often subjected. In this course they were
+greatly sustained and encouraged by the unfaltering faith and
+energy of Elder Ryan, who, though subsequently in his history he
+became a religious agitator, was at this period a most zealous and
+effective preacher, one who, in the words of Bishop Hedding,
+"laboured as if the thunders of the day of judgment were to follow
+each sermon." During the agitations and civil convulsions by which
+the country was disturbed, he continued to meet the preachers in
+annual conference, and endeavoured to maintain the ecclesiastical
+organization of Methodism till it was permitted to renew its
+relations with the mother Church of the United States.
+
+On the present occasion, Elder Ryan gave a rousing exhortation,
+like the address of a general on the eve of a battle, that
+inspired courage in every heart. Then followed a few hours of
+deliberation and mutual council on the course to be adopted in the
+critical circumstances of the time. Certain prudential
+arrangements were made for maintaining the connexional unity of
+the Church under the stress of disorganizing influences, and
+certain provisions effected for the unforeseen contingencies of
+the war. Then, after commending one another to God in fervent
+prayer, and invoking His guidance of their lives and His blessing
+on their labours, they sang that noble battle hymn and marching
+song of Charles Wesley's:--
+
+  In flesh we part awhile,
+    But still in spirit joined,
+  To embrace the happy toil
+    Thou hast to each assigned;
+  And while we do Thy blessed will,
+    We bear our heaven about us still.
+
+They looked like a forlorn hope, like a despised and feeble
+remnant, but they were animated with the spirit of a conquering
+army. With many a hearty wring of the hand and fervent "God bless
+you!" and, not without eyes suffused with tears, they took their
+leave of one another, and fared forth on their lonely ways to
+their remote and arduous fields of toil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE EVE OF BATTLE.
+
+
+The next scene of our story opens on the eve of an eventful day in
+the annals of Canada. About sunset in an October afternoon,
+Neville Trueman reached The Holms, after a long and weary ride
+from the western end of his circuit, which reached nearly to the
+head of Lake Ontario. The forest was gorgeous in its autumnal
+foliage, like Joseph in his coat of many colours. The corn still
+stood thick, in serried ranks, in the fields, no longer plumed and
+tasseled like an Indian chief, but rustling, weird-like, as an
+army of spectres in the gathering gloom. The great yellow pumpkins
+gleamed like huge nuggets of gold in some forest Eldorado. The
+crimson patches of ripened buckwheat looked like a blood-stained
+field of battle: alas! too true an image of the deeper stains
+which were soon to dye the greensward of the neighbouring height.
+
+The change from the bleak moor, over which swept the chill north
+wind from the lonely lake, to the genial warmth of Squire
+Drayton's hospitable kitchen was most agreeable. A merry fire of
+hickory wood on the ample hearth--it was long before the time of
+your close, black, surly-looking kitchen stoves--snapped and
+sparkled its hearty welcome to the travel-worn guest. It was a
+rich Rembrant-like picture that greeted Neville as he entered the
+room. The whole apartment was flooded with light from the leaping
+flames which was flashed back from the brightly-scoured milk-pans
+and brass kettles on the dresser--not unlike, thought he, to the
+burnished shields and casques of the men-at-arms in an old feudal
+hall.
+
+The fair young mistress, clad in a warm stuff gown, with a snowy
+collar and a crimson necktie, moved gracefully through the room,
+preparing the evening meal. Savoury odours proceeded from a pan
+upon the coals, in which were frying tender cutlets of venison--
+now a luxury, then, in the season, an almost daily meal.
+
+The burly squire basked in the genial blaze, seated in a rude
+home-made armchair, the rather uncomfortable-looking back and arms
+of which were made of cedar roots, with the bark removed, like our
+garden rustic seats. Such a chair has Cowper in his "Task"
+described,--
+
+            "Three legs upholding firm
+  A messy slab, in fashion square or round.
+  On such a stool immortal Alfred sat,
+  And swayed the sceptre of his infant realms:
+  And such in ancient halls may still be found."
+
+At his feet crouched Lion, the huge staghound, at times half
+growling in his sleep, as if in dreams he chased the deer, and
+then, starting up, he licked his master's hand and went to sleep
+again.
+
+On the opposite side of the hearth, Zenas was crouched upon the
+floor, laboriously shaping an ox-yoke with a spoke-shave. For in
+those days Canadian farmers were obliged to make or mend almost
+everything they used upon the farms.
+
+Necessity, which is the mother of invention, made them deft and
+handy with axe and adze, bradawl and waxed end, anvil and forge.
+The squire himself was no mean blacksmith, and could shoe a horse,
+or forge a plough coulter, or set a tire as well as the village
+Vulcan at Niagara.
+
+"Right welcome," said the squire, as he made room for Neville near
+the fireplace, while Katherine gave him a quieter greeting and
+politely relieved him of his wrappings. "Well, what's the news
+outside?" he continued, we must explain that as Niagara, next to
+York and Kingston, was the largest settlement in the province, it
+rather looked down upon the population away from "the front," as
+it was called, as outsiders almost beyond the pale of
+civilization.
+
+"No news at all," replied Neville, "but a great anxiety to hear
+some. When I return from the front, they almost devour me with
+questions."
+
+The early Methodist preachers, in the days when newspapers or
+books were few and scarce, and travel almost unknown, were in one
+respect not unlike the wandering minstrels or trouveres, not to
+say the Homeric singers of an earlier day. Their stock of news,
+their wider experience, their intelligent conversation, and their
+sacred minstrelsy procured them often a warm welcome and a night's
+lodging outside of Methodist circles. They diffused much useful
+information, and their visits dispelled the mental stagnation
+which is almost sure to settle upon an isolated community. The
+whole household gathering around the evening fire, hung with eager
+attention upon their lips as, from their well-stored minds, they
+brought forth things new and old. Many an inquisitive boy or girl
+experienced a mental awakening or quickening by contact with their
+superior intelligence; and many a toil-worn man and woman renewed
+the brighter memories of earlier years as the preacher brought
+them glimpses of the outer world, or read from some well-worn
+volume carried in his saddle-bags pages of some much-prized
+English classic.
+
+"Well, there has been news in plenty along the line here," said
+the squire, "and likely soon to be more. The Americans have been
+massing their forces at Forts Porter, Schlosser, and Niagara, and
+we expect will be attempting a crossing somewhere along the river
+soon."
+
+"They'll go back quicker than they came, I guess, as they did at
+Sandwich," said Zenas, who took an enthusiastically patriotic view
+of the prowess of his countrymen.
+
+"I reckon the 'Mericans feel purty sore over that business," said
+Tom Loker, who, with Sandy McKay, had come in, and, in the
+unconventional style of the period, had drawn up their seats to
+the fire. "They calkilated they'd gobble up the hull of Canada;
+but 'stead of that, they lost the hull State of Michigan an' their
+great General Hull into the bargain," and he chuckled over his
+play upon words, after the manner of a man who has uttered a
+successful pun.
+
+"You must tell us all about it," said Neville: "I have not heard
+the particulars yet."
+
+"After supper," said the squire. "We'll discuss the venison first
+and the war afterwards," and there was a general move to the
+table.
+
+When ample justice had been done to the savoury repast, Miss
+Katherine intimated that a good fire had been kindled in the
+Franklin stove in the parlour, and, in honour of the guest,
+proposed an adjournment thither.
+
+The squire, however, looked at the leaping flames of the kitchen
+fire as if reluctant to leave it, and Neville asked as a favour to
+be allowed to bask, "like a cat in the sun," he said, before it.
+
+"I'm glad you like the old-fashioned fires," said the farmer.
+"They're a-most like the camp-fire beside which we used to bivouac
+when I went a-sogering. I can't get the hang o' those new-fangled
+Yankee notions," he continued, referring to the parlour stove,
+named after the great philosopher whose name it bore.
+
+A large semicircle of seats was drawn up around the hearth. The
+squire took down from the mantel his long-stemmed "churchwarden"
+pipe.
+
+"I learned to smoke in Old Virginny," he said apologetically. "Had
+the real virgin leaf. It had often to be both meat and drink when
+I was campaigning there. I wish I could quit it; but, young man,"
+addressing himself to Neville, "I'd advise you never to learn.
+It's bad enough for an old sojer like me; but a smoking preacher I
+don't admire."
+
+Zenas, crouched by the chimney-jamb, roasting chestnuts and
+"popping" corn; Sandy, with the characteristic thrift of his
+countrymen, set about repairing a broken whip-stock and fitting it
+with a new lash; Tom Loker idly whittled a stick, and Miss
+Katharine drew up her low rocking-chair beside her father, and
+proceeded to nimbly knit a stout-ribbed stocking, intended for his
+comfort--for girls in those days knew how to knit, ay, and card
+the wool and spin the yarn too.
+
+"Now, Tom, tell us all about Hull's surrender," said Zenas, to
+whom the stirring story was already an oft-told tale.
+
+"Wall, after I seed you, three months agone," said Tom, nodding to
+Neville, and taking a fresh stick to whittle, "we trudged on all
+that day and the next to Long P'int, an' a mighty long p'int it
+wuz to reach, too. Never wuz so tired in my life. Follering the
+plough all day wuz nothing to it. But when we got to the P'int, we
+found the Gineral there. An' he made us a rousin' speech that put
+new life into every man of us, an' we felt that we could foller
+him anywheres. As ther wuz no roads to speak of, and the Gineral
+had considerable stores, he seized all the boats he could find."
+
+"Requiseetioned, they ca' it," interjected Sandy.
+
+"Wall, it's purty much the same, I reckon," continued Tom, "an' a
+queer lot o' boats they wuz--fishin' boats, Durham boats, scows
+[Footnote: In the absence of roads, boats were much used for
+carrying corn and flour to and from the mills, and for the
+conveyance of farm produce.]--a'most anythin' that 'ud float.
+Ther' wuz three hundred of us at the start, an' we picked up more
+on the way. Wall, we sailed an' paddled a matter o' two hundred
+miles to Fort Malden, an' awful cramped it wuz, crouchin' all day
+in them scows; an' every night we camped on shore, but sometimes
+the bank wuz so steep an' the waves so high we had to sail on for
+miles to find a creek we could run into, an' once we rowed all
+night. As we weathered P'int Pelee, the surf nearly swamped us."
+
+"What a gran' feed we got frae thae gallant Colonel Talbot!"
+interjected Sandy McKay. "D'ye mind his bit log bothie perched
+like a craw's nest atop o' yon cliff. The 'Castle o' Malahide,' he
+ca'd it, no less. How he speered gin there were ony men frae
+Malahide in the auld kintry wi' us! An' a prood man he was o' his
+ancestry sax hunnerd years lang syne. Methinks he's the gran'est
+o' the name himsel'--the laird o' a score o' toonships a' settled
+by himsel'. Better yon than like the gran' Duke o' Sutherland
+drivin' thae puir bodies frae hoose an' hame. Lang suld Canada
+mind the gran' Colonel Talbot [Footnote: Posterity has not been
+ungrateful to the gallant colonel. In the towns of St. Thomas and
+Talbotville, his name is commemorated, and it is fondly cherished
+in the grateful traditions of many an early settler's family. He
+died at London, at the age of eighty, in 1853.] But was na it fey
+that him as might hae the pick an' choice o' thae braw dames o'
+Ireland suld live his lane, wi' out a woman's han' to cook his
+kail or recht up his den, as he ca'd it."
+
+"I've been at his castle," said Neville, "and very comfortable it
+is: He lives like a feudal lord,--allots land, dispenses justice,
+marries the settlers, reads prayers on Sunday, and rules the
+settlement like a forest patriarch." "Tell about Tecumseh," said
+Zenas, in whose eyes that distinguished chief divided the honours
+with General Brock.
+
+"Wall," continued Loker, "at Malden there wuz a grand pow-wow, an'
+the Indians wore their war-paint and their medals, and Tecumseh
+made a great harangue. He was glad, he said, their great father
+across the sea had woke up from his long sleep an' sent his
+warriors to help his red children, who would shed the last drop of
+their blood in fighting against the 'Merican long knives." "And
+they'll do it, too," chimed in Zenas, in unconscious prophecy of
+the near approaching death of that brave chief and many of his
+warriors.
+
+"An' Tecumseh," continued the narrator, "drawed a map of Detroit
+an' the 'Merican fort on a piece o' birch bark, as clever, I
+heered the Gineral say, as an officer of engineers."
+
+"But was na yon a gran' speech thae General made us when we were
+tauld tae attack thae fort?" exclaimed Sandy with martial
+enthusiasm. "Mon, it made me mind o' Wallace an' his 'Scots wham
+Bruce hae aften led.' I could ha' followed him 'gainst ony odds,
+though odds eneuch there were--near twa tae ane, an' thae big guns
+an' thae fort tae their back."
+
+"Wasn't I glad to see the white flag come from the fort as we
+formed column for assault, instead o' the flash o' the big guns,
+showin' their black muzzles there," Loker ingenuously confessed.
+"I'm no coward, but it makes a feller feel skeery to see those
+ugly-lookin' war dogs splttin' fire at him."
+
+"Hae na I tell't ye," said Sandy, somewhat sardonically, "gin
+ye're born tae be hangit, the bullet's no made that'll kill ye."
+
+"Ye're as like to be hanged yerself," said Tom, somewhat
+resentfully, giving the proverb a rather literal interpretation.
+
+"Tush, mon, nae offence, its ony an auld Scotch saw, that. But an
+angry mon was yon tall Captain Scott [Footnote: Afterwards Major-
+General Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the United States army. The
+prisoners were sent to Montreal and Quebec. Hull was subsequently
+court-marshalled for cowardice and condemned to death, but he was
+reprieved on account of Revolutionary service.] at thae surrender.
+How he stamped an' raved an' broke his sword."
+
+"I am sure the Gineral was very kind to them. On our march home,
+the prisoners shared and fared as well as we did."
+
+"I heard," said Neville, "that Hull was afraid the Indians would
+massacre the women and children who had taken refuge in the fort."
+
+"No fear of that," said Loker. "Tecumseh told the Gineral they had
+sworn off liquor during the war. It's the fire-water that makes
+the Indian a madman, an' the white man, too."
+
+"Well, thank God," said Neville, "it is a great and bloodless
+victory. I hope it will bring a speedy peace."
+
+"I am afraid not," said the squire, arousing from his doze in the
+"ingle nook." "We had a seven years' struggle of it in the old
+war, and I fear that there will have to be some blood-letting
+before these bad humours are cufed. But we'll hope for the best.
+Come, Katharine, bring us a flagon of your sweet cider."
+
+The sturdy brown flagon was brought, and the gleaming pewter mugs
+were filled--it was long before the days of Temperance Societies--
+even the preacher thinking it no harm to take his mug of the
+sweet, amber-coloured draught.
+
+Neville read from the great family Bible that night the majestic
+forty-sixth psalm, so grandly paraphrased in Luther's hymn,
+
+  "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott;"
+
+the favourite battle-hymn, chanting which the Protestant armies
+marched to victory on many a hard-fought field--the hymn sung by
+the host of Gustavus Adolphus on the eve of the fatal fight of
+Lutzen.
+
+As he read the closing verses of the psalm the young preacher's
+voice assumed the triumphant tone of assured faith in the glorious
+prophecy:
+
+"He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; He breaketh
+the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in
+the fire.
+
+"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the
+heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
+
+"The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge."
+
+"Amen!" unconsciously but fervently responded the soft low voice
+of Katherine Drayton to this prophecy of millennial peace, and
+this solemn avowal of present confidence in the Most High.
+
+Alas! before to-morrow's sun should set, her woman's heart should
+bleed at the desolations of war brought home to her very
+hearthstone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+QUEENSTON HEIGHTS.
+
+
+About seven miles from the mouth of the Niagara River, a bold
+escarpment of rock, an old lake margin, runs across the country
+from east to west, at a height of about three hundred feet above
+the level of Lake Ontario. Through this the river, in the course
+of ages, has worn a deep and gloomy gorge. At the foot of the
+cliff and on its lower slopes, nestled on the western side the
+hamlet of Queenston and on the eastern the American village of
+Lewiston. On the Canadian side, where the ascent of the hill was
+more abrupt, it was overcome by a road that by a series of sharp
+zigzags gained the tableland at the top. Halfway up the height was
+a battery mounting an 18-pound gun, and manned by twelve men, and
+on the bank of the river, some distance below the village, was
+another mounting a 24-pound carronade. On either side of the rocky
+pass from which the river flows, the spiry spruces and cedars with
+twisted roots grapple with the rocks and cling to the steep
+slopes.
+
+The river emerges from the narrow gorge, a dark and tortured
+stream. For seven miles since its plunge over the great cataract,
+it has been convulsed by raging rapids and rugged rocks and by a
+seething whirlpool. As it here glides out into a wider channel, it
+bears the evidences of its tumultuous course in the resistless
+sweep of its waters and the dangerous eddies and "boilers" by
+which its dark surface is disturbed. At this point is a favourite
+fishing-ground. The schools of herring attempting to ascend the
+river are here unable to overcome the swiftness of the current and
+are caught in large quantities by the rude seines and nets of the
+neighbouring fishermen, a waggon-load sometimes being caught in a
+few hours. Notwithstanding the invasion of Canada by Hull and the
+capture of Detroit by Brock, a sort of armed truce was observed
+along the Niagara frontier; and Brock had orders from Sir George
+Provost, Commander-in-Chief and Governor-General, to stand
+strictly on the defensive. As the schools of fish at this season
+of the year were running finely, the fishermen of the villages on
+each side of the river were eagerly engaged in securing their
+finny harvest, on which much of their winter food supply depended.
+As this was a mutual necessity, each party, by a tacit consent,
+was allowed to ply this peaceful avocation, for the most part,
+undisturbed by hostile demonstrations of the other.
+
+For the defence of the whole frontier of thirty-four miles from
+Fort Erie to Fort George, Brock had only some fifteen hundred men,
+of whom at least one-half were militiamen and Indians. On the
+American side of the river, a force of over six thousand regulars
+and militia were assembled for the invasion of Canada. These were
+distributed along the river from Fort Niagara to Buffalo. Brock
+was compelled, therefore, still further to weaken his already
+scanty force by being on the alert at all points, as he knew not
+at which one the attack would be made. Consequently there were
+only some three hundred men, mostly militia, quartered at
+Queenston at the time of which we write. They were billeted at the
+inn and houses of the village and in the neighbouring farmhouses
+and barns.
+
+The morning of the thirteenth of October, a day ever memorable in
+the annals of Canada, broke cold and stormy. Low hung clouds
+mantled the sky and made the late dawn later still, and cast still
+darker shadows on the sombre clumps of spruce and pines that
+clothed the sides of the gorge, and on the sullen water that
+flowed between. A couple of fishermen of the neighbourhood who
+were serving in the militia had been permitted by the officer in
+command to attend to their seines, with the injunction to keep a
+sharp look-out at the same time, and to be ready at an instant's
+summons to join the ranks. As the schools of herring were in full
+run, they had remained all night in the little bothie or hut, made
+of spruce boughs, down at the water-side, that they might at the
+earliest dawn draw their seine and set it again unmolested by the
+stray shots from the opposite side, which, notwithstanding the
+truce, had of late occasionally been fired. At the same season of
+the year, the same operation can still be witnessed at the same
+place--the narrow ledge beneath the cliff, along the river-bank,
+especially near the abutment of the broken Suspension Bridge.
+
+The elder of the two men was a sturdy Welshman--Jonas Evans by
+name--a Methodist of the Lady Huntingdon connexion. The other, Jim
+Larkins, was Canadian born, the son of a neighbouring farmer.
+About four o'clock in the morning they emerged from their spruce
+booth and began hauling with their rude windlass upon the seine,
+heavily laden with fish.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed Jonas to his companion, "what noise is that? I
+thought I heard the splash of oars."
+
+"It is only the wash of the waves upon the shore or the sough of
+the wind among the pines. You're likely to hear nothing else this
+time o' day, or o' night rather."
+
+"There it is again," said the old man, peering into the darkness,
+"And I'm sure I heard the sound o' voices on the river. See
+there!" he exclaimed as a long dark object was descried amid the
+gloom. "There is a boat, and there behind it is another; and I
+doubt not there are still others behind. Run, Jim, call out the
+guard. The Lord hath placed us here to confound the devices of the
+enemy."
+
+Snatching from the booth his trusty Brown Bess musket, without
+waiting to challenge, for he well knew that this was the vanguard
+of the threatened invasion, he fired at the boat, more for the
+purpose of giving the alarm than in the expectation of inflicting
+any damage on the moving object in the uncertain light.
+
+The sound of the musket shot echoed and re-echoed between the
+rocky cliffs, and repeated in loud reverberations its thrilling
+sound of warning.
+
+"Curse him! we are discovered," exclaimed the steersman of the
+foremost boat, with a brutal oath. "Spring to your oars, lads! We
+must gain a footing before the guard turns out or it's all up with
+us. Pull for your lives!"
+
+No longer rowing cautiously with muffled oars, but with loud
+shouts and fairly churning the surface of the water into foam,
+they made the boat--a large flat-bottomed barge--bound through the
+waves. Another and another emerged rapidly from the darkness, and
+their prows successively grated upon the shingle as they were
+forced upon the beach. The invading troops leaped lightly out with
+a clash of arms, and at the quick, sharp word of command, formed
+upon the beach.
+
+Meanwhile, on the cliff above, the sharp challenge and reply of
+the guard, the shrill _reveille_ of the bugle, and the quick
+throbbing of the drums calling to arms is heard. The men turn out
+with alacrity, and are soon seen, in the grey dawn, running from
+their several billets to headquarters, buckling their belts and
+adjusting their accoutrements as they run. Soon is heard the
+measured tramp of armed men forming in companies to attack the
+enemy. Sixty men of the 49th Grenadiers, under the command of
+Captain Dennis, and Captain Halt's company of militia advance with
+a light 3-pounder gun against the first division of the enemy,
+under Colonel Van Renssclaer, who has formed his men on the beach
+and is waiting the arrival of the next boats. These are seen
+rapidly approaching, but to get them safely across the river is a
+work of great difficulty and danger. The current is swift, and the
+swirling eddies are strong and constantly changing their position.
+On leaving the American shore, they were obliged to pull up stream
+as far as possible. But when caught by the resistless sweep of the
+current, they were borne rapidly down, their track being an acute
+diagonal across the stream. To reach the only available landing-
+place, they must again row up stream in the slack water on the
+Canadian side, their whole course being thus like the outline of
+the letter 'N'. [Footnote: The present writer has a vivid
+remembrance of a night-passage of the river under circumstances of
+some peril. It was in a small flat-bottomed scow. Shortly after
+leaving the American shore, a tremendous storm of thunder,
+lightning, rain, and hail burst over the river. The waves, crested
+with snowy foam which gleamed ghastly in the dim light of our
+lantern, threatened to engulf our frail bark. The boatman strained
+every nerve and muscle, but was borne a mile down the river before
+he made the land. That distance he had to retrace along the
+rugged, boulder-strewn, and log-encumbered shore. We reached the
+landing in a still more demoralized condition than the American
+invaders, but met a warmly hospitable, not hostile, reception.]
+
+Of the thirteen boats that left the American shore, three were
+driven back by the British fire--the little three-pounder and the
+two batteries doing good service as their hissing shots fell in
+disagreeably close proximity to the boats, sometimes splashing
+them with spray, and once ricocheting right over one of them.
+
+The first detachment of invaders were driven with some loss behind
+a steep bank close to the water's edge, but they were soon
+reinforced by fresh arrivals, and, being now in overwhelming
+strength, steadily fought their way up the bank.
+
+Meanwhile, where was Brock? Such, we venture to think, was the
+most eager thought of every mind on either side. He was speeding
+as fast as his good steed could carry him to his glorious fate.
+The previous night, at head-quarters at Fort George, he had called
+his staff together and, in anticipation of the invasion, had given
+to each officer his instructions. In the morning, agreeably to his
+custom, he rose before day. While dressing, the sound of the
+distant cannonade caught his attentive ear. He speedily roused his
+aides-de-camp, Major Glegg and Colonel Macdonel, and called for
+his favourite horse, Alfred, the gift of his friend, Sir James
+Craig. His first impression was that the distant firing was but a
+feint to draw the garrison from Fort George. The real point of
+attack he anticipated would be Niagara, and he suspected an
+American force to be concealed in boats around the point on which
+Fort Niagara stood, ready to cross over as soon as the coast was
+clear. He determined, therefore, to ascertain personally the
+nature of the attack before withdrawing the garrison.
+
+With his two aides, he galloped eagerly to the scene of the
+action. As he approached Queenston Heights, the whole slope of the
+hill was swept by a heavy artillery and musketry fire from the
+American shore. Nevertheless, with his aides, he rode at full
+speed up to the 18-pounder battery, midway to the summit.
+Dismounting, he surveyed the disposition of the opposed forces and
+personally directed the fire of the gun. At this moment firing was
+heard on the crest of the hill commanding the battery. A
+detachment of American troops under Captain (afterwards General)
+Wool had climbed like catamounts the steep cliff by an unguarded
+fisherman's path. Sir Isaac Brock and his aides had not even time
+to remount, but were compelled to retire with the twelve gunners
+who manned the battery. This was promptly occupied by the
+Americans, who raised the stars and stripes. Brock, having first
+despatched a messenger to order up reinforcements from Fort George
+and to command the bombardment of Fort Niagara, [Footnote: This
+was done with such vigour that its fire was silenced and its
+garrison compelled for the time to abandon it.] determined to
+recapture the battery. Placing himself at the head of a company of
+the Forty-ninth he charged up the hill under a heavy fire. The
+enemy gave way, and Brock, by the tones of his voice and the
+reckless exposure of his person, inspirited the pursuit of his
+followers. His tall figure--he was six feet two inches in height,
+--his conspicuous valour, and his general's epaulettes and cockade
+attracted the fire of the American sharpshooters, and he fell,
+pierced through the breast by a mortal bullet. As he fell upon his
+face, a devoted follower rushed to his assistance. "Don't mind
+me," he said. "Push on the York volunteers," and with his ebbing
+life sending a love-message to his sister in the far-off Isle of
+Guernsey, the brave soul passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE WAGES OF WAR.
+
+
+At The Holms, as may well be supposed, the rude alarum of war, at
+the very door, as it were, threw the quiet household into unwonted
+excitement. The early cannonade brought every member of the family
+with eager questioning into the great kitchen.
+
+"It has come," said the squire, "the day I have long looked for.
+We muse meet it like brave men."
+
+"God defend the right," added Neville, with solemn emotion.
+
+"And forgive and pity our misguided enemies," said Katharine, the
+tears standing in her eyes.
+
+"And send them back quicker than they came," exclaimed Zenas, with
+some more hard words of boyish petulance.
+
+"We must help to send them, eh, Sandy?" said Tom Loker.
+
+"Ay, please God," devoutly answered Mr. McKay. "I doubt na He will
+break them in pieces like a potter's vessel--a vessel fitted for
+destruction."
+
+After a hurried breakfast the two men hastened to join their
+militia company, Mary having first filled their haversacks with a
+liberal supply of bread and cheese, ham sandwich, and, at Sandy's
+special request, a quantity of oaten bannocks.
+
+"They're aye gude to fecht or march on," he said, "an' we're like
+eneuch to hae baith to thole or ere we win hame again."
+
+The apparition of Sir Isaac Brock and his aides galloping past the
+house in the early dawn, and an hour later of the breathless
+messenger returning to hurry up re-enforcements, and of the troops
+from Fort George marching by to the inspiring strains of "The
+British Grenadiers," had been witnessed by Zenas, and had excited
+his highest enthusiasm. "Now, father," he said, "the time has come
+for me to do my part for my country."
+
+"You shall, my son," said the squire tenderly. "Even as David went
+to his brethren in the camp, shall you bear succour to the brave
+fellows who are fighting our battles. Some of them may sorely want
+help before the day is over."
+
+"And I," said Neville, "will go with him. I hope I may be of some
+use, too."
+
+"That you may," answered the squire. "I only fear there may be but
+too much need for your services."
+
+With busy hands the old soldier and his son loaded the waggon with
+such articles as his military experience had taught him would be
+most needed by men exposed to all the deadly vicissitudes of war.
+Katharine prepared a great boilerful of tea--"The best thing in
+the world," said the squire, "for fighting men." All the bread in
+the house, a huge round of cold beef and half a dozen smoked hams,
+a large cheese, several jars of milk, and the last churning of
+great yellow rolls of butter were gladly given to the patriotic
+service. With his own hands the squire put up a generous parcel of
+his best Virginia leaf tobacco. "I know well," he said, "how it
+soothes the pain of wounds and numbs the pangs of hunger." More
+thoughtful provision still, Kate, with a sigh, brought out the
+stout roll of lint bandage which, at her father's suggestion, she
+had prepared for the unknown contingencies of the border war.
+
+"O this is dreadful, father," she said. "It seems almost like
+making a shroud before the man who is to wear it is dead."
+
+"It may save some poor fellow's life, my dear," he answered, "and
+one must always prepare for the worst, war is such an uncertain
+game. Indeed, wounds and death are almost the only things certain
+about it."
+
+"Keep in the rear of the troops, my son, and take your orders from
+Major Sheaffe or of the army surgeon. I told them both what we
+were sending, as they passed. Keep out of gunshot and avoid
+capture: the time may come only too soon when you'll share the
+battle's brunt yourself."
+
+"I wish it were to-day, father. I'd give almost anything to be
+with Brock and his brave fellows."
+
+"So would I, my son; but I must be the home-guard. It would never
+do to leave Kate and the maids unprotected, with an invasion so
+near. And no work can be more important than may be before you
+both before you return."
+
+The brave boy drove off to the scene of action, the distant rattle
+of musketry, and at short intervals the loud roar of the cannon,
+making his heart throb with martial enthusiasm. The young preacher
+communed with his own heart on the unnatural conflict between his
+own kinsmen after the flesh and the compatriots of his spiritual
+adoption--and was still. The brave old veteran, shouldering the
+musket that had done good service at Brandywine and Germantown,
+patrolled the river road bounding the farm.
+
+As they approached the village of Queenston, Neville and Zenas
+found that a temporary lull in hostilities had taken place. The
+Americans had possession of the heights, and were strongly re-
+enforced from the Lewiston side of the river.
+
+The redcoats from Fort George--about four hundred men of the 41st
+regiment, together with a part of the 49th, which had already been
+in action--were about to march by a by-road apparently away from
+the scene of action.
+
+"Hello!" said Zenas to young Ensign Norton, of the 41st regiment,
+who was a frequent visitor at his father's house. "I don't
+understand this. You are not running away from these fellows are
+you? Why don't you drive the Yankees from that battery?"
+
+"We intend to, young Hotspur, but it would be madness to charge up
+that hill in face of those guns. We are to take them in flank, I
+suppose, and drive them over the cliff."
+
+"Where's Brock?" asked the boy, jealous of the fame of his hero,
+which he seemed to think compromised by this prudent counsel.
+
+"Have not you heard," said Norton, with something between a sigh
+and a sob? "He'll never lead us again. He lies in yonder house,"
+pointing to a long, low, poor-looking dwelling-house on the left
+side of the road.
+
+"What! dead? killed--so soon?" cried the boy, turning white, and
+then flushing red, and unconsciously clenching his fists as he
+spoke.
+
+"Yes, Mister," said a war-bronzed soldier standing by, who looked
+doubly grim from the blood trickling down his powder-blackened
+cheek from a scalp wound received during the morning skirmish. "I
+stood anear him when he fell, an' God knows I'd rather the bullet
+had struck me; my fighting days will soon be over, anyhow. But
+we'll avenge his death afore the day is done. They call us the
+green tigers, them fellers do, an' there's not a man of us won't
+fight like a tiger robbed of her whelps, for not a man of us
+wouldn't 'a' died for the General."
+
+"To the right, wheel, forward march!" came the order from the
+Colonel, and the "green tigers" filed on with the grim resolve to
+conquer or to die.
+
+The militia, clad chiefly in homespun frieze, with flint-lock
+muskets and stout cartridge boxes at their belts, were drawn up at
+the roadside, and were being supplied with ammunition, previous to
+following the regulars.
+
+A number of Indians, whose chief dress was a breach clout and
+deerskin leggings, formidable in their war-paint and war plumes,
+with scalping-knives and tomahawks, were only partially held in
+hand by Chief Brant, conspicuous by his height, his wampum fillet
+and eagle plumes, and his King George's medal on his breast.
+
+"Drive on to the village," said Major-General Sheaffe, who was now
+chief in command, to Zenas as he passed. "You will find plenty to
+do there."
+
+At the house where Brock's body lay, a single sentry stood at
+guard, his features settled in a fixed and stony stare, as though
+by a resolute effort controlling his emotions. Beyond the village
+a strong guard was drawn up, and two field pieces, with their
+gunners, occupied the road.
+
+Soldiers were passing in and out of a large barn which stood near
+the roadside. They came in groups of two each from the trampled
+hill slope, bearing on stretchers their ghastly burden of bleeding
+and wounded men. Although coming within musket-range of the
+American force, no molestation was offered. Their work of humanity
+was felt to be too sacred for even red-handed War to disturb.
+Indeed, both American and British wounded were cared for with
+generous impartiality.
+
+Zenas and Neville, assisted by an officer's orderly, conveyed
+their hospital stores into the barn. On bundles of unthreshed
+wheat, or on trusses of hay, were a number of writhing, groaning,
+bleeding forms, a few hours since in the vigour of manhood's
+strength, now maimed, some of them for life, some of them marked
+for death, and one ghastly form already cold and rigid, covered by
+a blood-stained sheet At one side they beheld an army surgeon with
+his sleeves rolled up, but, notwithstanding this precaution,
+smeared with blood, kneeling over a poor fellow who lay upon a
+truss of hay, and probing his shoulder to trace and, if possible,
+extract a bullet that had deeply penetrated.
+
+"Why, Jim Larkins, is that you?" exclaimed Zenas, recognizing an
+old neighbour and recent schoolfellow.
+
+"Yes, Zenas, all that's left of me. I won't fight no more for one
+while, I guess," he answered, as he moaned with agony as the
+doctor probed the wound.
+
+"Give him a drink," said the doctor, and Zenas, as tenderly as a
+girl, supported his head and held to his parched lips a mug of
+cold and refreshing tea.
+
+"Blessings on the kind heart that sent that," said the wounded
+man.
+
+"It was Kate," said Zenas.
+
+"I knowed it must be," murmured Jim, who was one of her rustic
+admirers. "Tell her," he continued, in the natural egotism of
+suffering, "she never did a better deed. Heaven reward her for
+it."
+
+Zenas thought of the benediction pronounced on the cup of cold
+water given for the Master, and rejoiced in the privilege of
+ministering to these wounded and, it might be, dying men.
+
+"You'll have to lose your arm, my good fellow," said the doctor,
+kindly, but in a business-like way, "the bone is badly shattered."
+"I was afear'd o' that ever since I got hit. I was just a-takin'
+aim when I missed my fire,--I didn't know why, didn't feel
+nuthin', but I couldn't hold the gun. Old Jonas Evans, the Methody
+local preacher, was aside me, a-prayin' like a saint and a-
+fightin' like a lion. 'The Lord ha' mercy on his soul,' I heared
+him say as he knocked a feller over. Well, he helped me out o' the
+fight as tender as a woman, and then went at it again as fierce as
+ever."
+
+"Don't talk so much, my good follow," said the doctor, who had
+been preparing ligatures to tie the arteries and arranging his
+saw, knife, and tourniquet within reach. The operation was soon
+over, Jim never flinching a bit. Indeed, during action, and for
+some time after, the sensibilities seem, by the concurrent
+excitement, mercifully deadened to pain.
+
+"I'd have spared t'other one too, an' right willin'," said the
+faithful fellow, "if it would have saved Brock."
+
+Zenas, at the doctor's direction, held the poor fellow's shattered
+arm till the amputation was complete. As the dissevered limb grew
+cold in his hands, he seemed more distressed than its late owner.
+Instead of laying it with some others near the surgeon's table, he
+wrapped it tenderly, as though it still could feel, in a cloth,
+and going out where a fatigue party were burying on the field of
+battle--clad in their military dress, in waiting for the last
+trump and the final parade at the great review--the victims of the
+fight, he laid the dead arm reverently in the ground, and covered
+it with its kindred clay. He thought of his sister's remark, about
+preparing the shroud before death, but here was he burying part of
+the body of a man who was yet alive.
+
+Neville, meanwhile, had been speaking words of spiritual comfort
+and counsel to the wounded and the dying, and receiving their last
+faint-whispered messages to loved ones far away. He also read,
+over the ghastly trench in which the dead were being buried--one
+wide, long, common grave, in which lay side by side friend and
+foe, those recently arrayed in battle with each other, slain by
+mutual wounds, and now at rest and for ever--the solemn funeral
+service. As he pronounced the words, "Dust to dust, ashes to
+ashes," the earth was thrown on the uncoffined dead, and then over
+the soldiers' grave their comrades fired their farewell volley and
+again mounted guard against the foe.
+
+Zenas received a lesson in surgery that day of which he found the
+benefit more than once before the war was over. He was soon able
+to apply one of Katharine's lint bandages or dress a wound with a
+deftness that elicited the commendation not only of the subject of
+his ministration, but even of the knight of the scalpel himself.
+Neville, too, evinced no little skill in the surgeon's beneficent
+art.
+
+"Young Drayton," said the surgeon, "I think we shall have to
+trespass on the hospitality of your house on behalf of Captain
+Villiers, here. He has received a severe gunshot wound, from which
+he will be some time in convalescing. I know no place where he
+will be so comfortable, and I know the squire will make him
+welcome."
+
+"Of course he will," said Zenas, with alacrity. "He would make
+even those wounded Yanks welcome, much more an officer of the
+King."
+
+While Neville remained to minister to the dying, Zenas made a
+comfortable bed of hay in his now empty waggon, on which the
+wounded captain was placed, with a wheat sheaf for a pillow, and
+drove carefully to The Holms. He was preceded by a waggon
+conveying a number of wounded soldiers to the military hospital at
+Niagara. As this load of injured and anguished humanity was driven
+down and up the steep sides of the ravine which crosses the road
+to the north of the village, at every jolt over the rough stones a
+groan of agony was wrung from the poor fellows, that made the
+heart of Zenas ache with sympathy and when the team stopped at the
+top of the hill, the blood ran from the waggon and stained the
+ground. War did not seem to the boy such a glorious thing as when
+he saw the gallant redcoats in the morning marching to the
+stirring strains of the "British Grenadiers." The boy seemed to
+have become a man in a few hours. Not less full of enthusiasm and
+high courage, but more serious and grave, and never again was he
+heard vapouring about the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war."
+[Footnote: Accounts of several of the above-mentioned incidents
+were gleaned from the conversation of an intelligent lady,
+recently deceased, who, as a young girl, was an eye-witness of the
+leading events of the war.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A VICTORY AND ITS COST.
+
+
+While the events just described had been taking place, an
+important movement was made for the recovery of Queenston Heights.
+Major-General Sheaffe, with a force of about nine hundred redcoats
+and militia, made a circuitous march through the village of St.
+David's, and thus gained the crest of the heights on which the
+enemy were posted. Here he was re-enforced by the arrival of a
+company of the 41st grenadiers and a body of militiamen from
+Chippewa.
+
+With a volley and a gallant British cheer, they attacked, about
+two o'clock in the afternoon, the American force, which had also
+been re-enforced to about the same number as the British. Courage
+the enemy had, but they lacked the confidence and steadiness
+imparted by the presence of the veteran British troops.
+Nevertheless, for a time they stoutly stood their ground; but,
+soon perceiving the hopelessness of resistance, they everywhere
+gave way, and retreated precipitately down the hill to their place
+of landing. The Indians, like sleuth hounds that had broken leash,
+unhappily could not be restrained, and, shrieking their blood-
+curdling war-whoops, pursued with tomahawk and reeking blade the
+demoralized fugitives. Many stragglers were cut off from the main
+body and attempted to escape through the woods. These were
+intercepted and driven back by the exasperated Indians, burning to
+avenge the death of Brock, for whom they felt an affection and
+veneration for which the savage breast would scarce have been
+deemed capable.
+
+Terrified at the appearance of the enraged warriors, many of the
+Americans flung themselves wildly over the cliff and endeavoured
+to scramble down its rugged and precipitous slope. Some were
+impaled upon the jagged pines, others reached the bottom bruised
+and bleeding, and others, attempting to swim the rapid stream,
+were drowned in its whirling eddies. One who reached the opposite
+shore in a boat made a gesture of defiance and contempt toward his
+foes across the river, when he fell, transpierced with the bullet
+of an Indian sharpshooter.
+
+Two brothers of the Canadian militia fought side by side, when, in
+the moment of victory, a shot pierced the lungs of the younger, a
+boy of seventeen, with a fair, innocent face. His brother bore him
+from the field in his arms, and, while the life-tide ebbed from
+his wound, the dying boy faltered--
+
+"Kiss me, Jim. Tell mother--I was not--afraid to die," and as the
+blood gushed from his mouth, the brave young spirit departed.
+
+All that day, and on many a foughten field thereafter, the living
+brother heard those dying words, and in his ear there rang a wild
+refrain, which nerved his arm and steeled his heart to fight for
+the country hallowed by his brother's blood.
+
+  "O, how the drum beats so loud!
+  'Close beside me in the fight,
+  My dying brother says, 'Good night!'
+  And the cannon's awful breath
+  Screams the loud halloo of Death!
+    And the drum,
+    And the drum
+    Beats so loud!"
+
+Such were some of the dreadful horrors with which a warfare
+between two kindred peoples was waged; and such were some of the
+costly sacrifices with which the liberties of Canada were won. As
+from the vantage ground of these happier times we look back upon
+the stern experiences of those iron days, they inspire a blended
+feeling of pity and regret, not unmingled with a vague remorse,
+shot through and through our patriotic pride and exultation, like
+dark threads in a bright woof. Through the long centuries of
+carnage and strife through which the race has struggled up to
+freedom, how faint has seemed the echo of the angel's song, "Peace
+on earth, good will to men."
+
+ "I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus,
+    The cries of agony, the endless groan.
+  Which, through the ages that have gone before us,
+    In long reverberations reach our own.
+
+ "Is it, O man with such discordant noises,
+    With such accursed instruments as these,
+  Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices,
+    And jarrest the celestial harmonies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Down the dark future, through long generations,
+    The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease;
+   And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations
+    I hear once more the voice of Christ say, 'Peace!'
+
+  "Peace! and no longer from its brazen portals
+     The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies!
+   But beautiful as songs of the immortals,
+     The holy melodies of love arise."
+
+The result of the battle of Queenston Heights was the
+unconditional surrender of Brigadier Wadsworth and nine hundred
+and fifty officers and privates as prisoners of war. But this
+victory, brilliant as it was, was dearly bought with the death of
+the loved and honored Brock, the brave young Macdonnell, and those
+of humbler rank, whose fall brought sorrow to many a Canadian
+home.
+
+ "Joy's bursting shout in whelming grief was drowned,
+    And victory's self unwilling audience found;
+  On every brow the cloud of sadness hung,--
+    "The sounds of triumph died on every tongue."
+
+Three days later all that was mortal of General Brock and his
+gallant aide-de-camp was committed to the earth with mournful
+pageantry. With arms reversed and muffled drums and the wailing
+strains of the "Dead March," the sad procession passed, while the
+half-mast flags and minute guns of both the British and American
+forts attested the honour and esteem in which the dead soldiers
+were held by friends and foes alike. Amid the tears of war-bronzed
+soldiers and even of stoical Indians they were laid in one common
+grave in a bastion of Fort George. A grateful country has since
+erected on the scene of the victory--one of the grandest sites on
+earth--a noble monument to the memory of Brock, and beneath it,
+side by side, sleeps the dust of the heroic chief and his faithful
+aide-de-camp--united in their death and not severed in their
+burial.
+
+As Neville and the squire and Zenas turned away from the solemn
+pageant of which they had been silent spectators, the latter
+remarked,
+
+"Captain Villiers said he'd almost give his other arm to be able
+to be present to-day and lay a wreath on the coffin of his gallant
+chief. As he couldn't come, he wrote these verses, which he wished
+me to post to the York _Gazette_. He said I might read them
+to you, Mr. Trueman, before I sent them." And the boy, not very
+fluently, but with a good deal of feeling, read the following
+lines:--
+
+ "Low bending o'er the ragged bier,
+  The soldier drops the mournful tear,
+  For life departed, valour driven,
+  Fresh from the field of death, to Heaven.
+
+ "But Time shall fondly trace the name
+  Of BROCK upon the scrolls of Fame,
+  And those bright laurels, which should wave
+  Upon the brow of one so brave,
+  Shall flourish vernal o'er his grave."
+
+Neville commended the graceful tribute with generous warmth, when
+Zenas remarked,
+
+"The Captain will be glad to hear you like them. Leastways, I
+suppose so. He read them himself to Kate this morning, and seemed
+pleased because they made her cry."
+
+"He is a brave gentleman," says the squire. "I fear it will be
+long before he mounts his horse, again."
+
+"O he'll soon be round again," chimed in Zenas. "He said Kate
+would be his Elaine, to nurse the wounded Lancelot back to life.
+Who was Lancelot?"
+
+"Some of those moon-struck poetry fellows, I'll be bound," said
+the squire contemptuously.
+
+"Nay, a very gallant knight," said Neville, who had when a boy,
+read with delight Sir Thomas Mallory's book of King Arthur; but he
+did not seem to relish the comparison and led the conversation
+into a serious vein, as befitting the solemn occasion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CAPTURE OF YORK.
+
+
+After the battle of Queenston Heights an armistice of a month
+followed, during which each party was gathering up its strength
+for the renewal of the unnatural conflict. General Smyth, who had
+succeeded Van Rensselaer, assembled a force five thousand strong,
+for the conquest of Canada. At the expiration of the armistice, he
+issued a Napoleonic proclamation to his "companions in arms."
+"Come on, my heroes" it concludes; "when you attack the enemy's
+batteries let your rallying word be: 'The cannon lost at Detroit,
+or death.'"
+
+At length, before day-break on the morning of November 28th--a
+cold, bleak day--a force of some five hundred men, in eighteen
+scows, attempted the capture of Grand Island, in the Niagara
+River. A considerable British force had rallied from Fort Erie and
+Chippewa. In silence they awaited the approach of the American
+flotilla. As it came within range, a ringing cheer burst forth,
+and a deadly volley of musketry was poured into the advancing
+boats. A six-pounder, well served by Captain Kerby, shattered two
+of the boats; and the Americans, thrown into confusion, sought the
+shelter of their own shore.
+
+General Smyth now sent a summons for the surrender of Fort Erie.
+Colonel Bishopp, its commandant, sarcastically invited him to
+"come and take it." After several feints the attempt was
+abandoned, and the army went into winter quarters. Smyth, an empty
+gasconader, was regarded, even by his own troops, with contempt,
+and had to fly from the camp to escape their indignation. He was
+even hooted and fired at in the streets of Buffalo, and was,
+without trial, dismissed from the army,--a sad collapse of his
+vaunting ambition.
+
+In the meanwhile, General Dearborn, with an army of ten thousand
+men, advanced by way of Lake Champlain to the frontier of Lower
+Canada. The Canadians rallied _en masse_ to repel the
+invasion, barricaded the roads with felled trees, and guarded
+every pass. On the 20th of November, before day, an attack was
+made by fourteen hundred of the enemy on the British out-post at
+Lacolle, near Rouse's Point; but the guard, keeping up a sharp
+fire, withdrew, and the Americans, in the darkness and confusion,
+fired into each other's ranks, and fell back in disastrous and
+headlong retreat. The discomfited general, despairing of a
+successful attack on Montreal, so great was the vigilance and
+valour of the Canadians, retired with his "Grand Army of the
+North" into safe winter quarters, behind the entrenchments of
+Plattsburg. A few ineffectual border raids and skirmishes, at
+different points of the extended frontier, were characteristic
+episodes of the war during the winter, and, indeed, throughout the
+entire duration of hostilities.
+
+In their naval engagements the Americans were more successful. On
+Lake Ontario, Commodore Chauncey equipped a strong fleet, which
+drove the Canadian shipping for protection under the guns of
+Niagara, York, and Kingston. He generously restored the private
+plate of Sir Isaac Brock, captured in one of his prizes.
+
+In these naval conflicts the greatest gallantry was exhibited in
+the dreadful work of mutual slaughter. The vessels reeked with
+blood like a shambles, and, if not blown up or sunk, became
+floating hospitals of deadly wounds and agonizing pain.
+
+In the United States Congress this unnatural strife of kindred
+races was vigorously denounced by some of the truest American
+patriots. Mr. Quincy, of Massachusetts, characterized it as the
+"most disgraceful in history since the invasion of the
+buccaneers." But the Democratic majority persisted in their stern
+policy of implacable war.
+
+The patriotism and valour of the Canadians were, however, fully
+demonstrated. With the aid of a few regulars, the loyal militia
+had repulsed large armies of invaders, and not only maintained the
+inviolable integrity of their soil, but had also conquered a
+considerable portion of the enemy's territory. [Footnote:
+Condensed from Withrow's History of Canada, 8vo. edition, chap.
+xxii.]
+
+The winter dragged its weary length along. Its icy hand was laid
+upon the warring passions of man, and, for a time, they seemed
+stilled. Its white banners of snow proclaimed a truce--the trace
+of God--through all the land. Apprehensions of a sterner conflict
+during the coming year filled every mind, but caused no dismay,--
+only a firm resolve to do and dare--to conquer or to die--for
+their firesides and their homes.
+
+Neville Trueman toiled through the wintry woods, the snowdrifts,
+and the storms to break the bread of life to the scattered
+congregations of his far-extended circuits. His own flock, who
+knew the man, knew how his loyalty had been tested, and what
+sacrifices he had made for his adopted country. By a few religious
+and political bigots, however, his American origin was a cause of
+unjust suspicion and aspersion, which stung to the quick his
+sensitive nature. He was especially made to feel the unreasoning
+and bitter antipathy of the Indians to the nation of American
+"long-knives," with whom they classed him, notwithstanding his
+peaceful calling and his approved loyalty.
+
+One day Trueman entered the bark wigwam of an Indian chief, for
+the double purpose of obtaining shelter from a storm and of trying
+to teach the truths of the Christian religion to those devotees of
+pagan superstition. He found several young braves assembled at a
+sort of council, gravely smoking their long pipes in dignified
+silence. His entrance was the occasion of not a few dark scowls
+and sinister glances.
+
+"Ugh! Yankee black-robe," sneered one of the braves. "Friend of
+the 'long-knives.' The day of fight at Big Rapids him strike up my
+arm as me going to tomahawk Yankee prisoner. Had great mind to
+kill him, too."
+
+"Ugh!" echoed another; "me see him helping wounded 'long-knife,'
+just like him brother."
+
+"No! Him good King George's man," exclaimed the old chief, who had
+seen his impartial ministration to the wounded of both armies.
+"Him love Injun. Teach him pray to true Great Spirit."
+
+But not always did he find such a true friend among the red men;
+and not unfrequently was the scalping-knife half unsheathed, or
+the tomahawk grasped, and dark brows scowled in anger, as he
+sought the wandering children of the forest for their soul's
+salvation. But their half-unconscious fear of the imagined power
+of the pale-face medicine-man, their involuntary admiration of his
+undaunted courage, and, let us add, the protecting providence of
+God, prevented a hair of his head from being harmed.
+
+The spring came at length with strange suddenness, as it often
+comes in our northern land, causing a magical change in the face
+of nature. A green flush overspread the landscape. The skies
+became soft and tender, with glorious sunsets. The delicate-veined
+white triliums and May-apples took the place of the snowdrifts in
+the woods; and the air was fragrant and the orchards were abloom
+with the soft pink and white apple-blossoms.
+
+The little town of Niagara was like a camp. The long, low barracks
+on the broad campus were crowded with troops, and the snowy gleams
+of tents dotted the greensward. The wide grass-grown streets were
+gay with the constant marching and counter-marching of red-coats,
+and the air was vocal with the shrill bugle-call or the frequent
+roll of the drums. Drill, parade, and inspection, artillery and
+musket practice, filled the hours of the day. Fort George had been
+strengthened, victualled, and armed. That solitary fort was felt
+to be the key that, apparently, held possession of the south-
+western peninsula of Canada.
+
+One evening, early in May, a motley group were assembled in the
+large mess-room of the log barracks of the fort. It was a long low
+room built of solid logs. The thick walls were loop-holed for
+musketry, and on wooden pegs, driven into the logs, the old Brown
+Bess muskets of the soldiers were stacked. Rude bunks were ranged
+along one side, like berths in a ship, for the men to sleep in.
+The great square, naked timbers of the low ceiling were embrowned
+with smoke, as was also the mantel of the huge open fire-place at
+the end of the room. The rudely-carved names and initials on the
+wall betrayed the labours of an idle hour. Around the ample
+hearth, during the long winter nights, the war-scarred veterans
+beguiled the tedium of a soldier's life with stories of battle,
+siege, and sortie, under Moore and Wellington, in the Peninsular
+wars; and one or two grizzled old war-dogs had tales to tell of
+
+  "Hair-breadth 'scapes in the imminent deadly breach"--
+
+of exploits done in their youth during Arnold's siege of Quebec,
+or at Brandywine and Germantown.
+
+Now the faint light of the tallow candles, in tin sconces, gleams
+on the scarlet uniforms and green facings of the 49th regiment, on
+the tartan plaid of the Highland clansman, on the frieze coat and
+polished musket of the Canadian militiaman, and on the red-skin
+and hideous war-paint of the Indian scout, quartered for the night
+in the barracks. In one corner is heard the crooning of the
+Scottish pipes, where old Allan Macpherson is playing softly the
+sad, sweet airs of "Annie Laurie," "Auld Lang Syne," and "Bonnie
+Doon;" while something like a tear glistens in his eye as he
+thinks of the sweet "banks and braes" of the tender song.
+Presently he is interrupted by a sturdy 49th man, who trolls a
+merry marching song, the refrain of which is caught up by his
+comrades:
+
+ "Some talk of Alexander and some of Hercules,
+  Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these;
+    But of all the world's great heroes
+      There are none that can compare,
+    With a tow-row-row-row-row-row-row,
+      To the British Grenadiers!"
+
+In another corner old Jonas Evans, now a sergeant of militia, was
+quietly reading his well-thumbed Bible, while others around him
+were shuffling a greasy pack of cards, and filling the air with
+reeking tobacco-smoke and strange soldiers' oaths. When a
+temporary lull, in the somewhat tumultuous variety of noises
+occurred, he lifted his stentorian voice in a stirring Methodist
+hymn:
+
+ "Soldiers of Christ, arise,
+    And put your armour on,
+  Strong in the strength which God supplies
+    Through His eternal Son.
+  Stand then against your foes,
+    In close and firm array:
+  Legions of wily fiends oppose
+    Throughout the evil day."
+
+The old man sang with a martial vigour as though he were charging
+the "legions of fiends" at the point of the bayonet. In a shrewd,
+plain, common-sense manner, he then earnestly exhorted his
+comrades-in-arms to be on their guard against the opposing fiends
+who especially assailed a soldier's life. "Above all," he said,
+"beware of the drink-fiend--the worst enemy King George has got.
+He kills more of the King's troops than all his other foes
+together." Then, with a yearning tenderness in his voice, he
+exhorted them to "ground the weapons of their rebellion and enlist
+in the service of King Jesus, the great Captain of their
+salvation, who would lead them to victory over the world, the
+flesh, and the devil, and at last make them kings and priests
+forever in His everlasting kingdom in the skies."
+
+Those rude, reckless, and, some of them, violent and wicked men,
+fascinated by the intense earnestness of the Methodist local-
+preacher, listened with quiet attention. Even the Indian scout
+seemed to have some appreciation of his meaning, and muttered
+assent between the whiffs of tobacco-smoke from his carved-stone,
+feather-decked pipe. The moral elevation which Christian-living
+and Bible-reading will always give, commanded their respect, and
+the dauntless daring of the old man--for they knew that he was a
+very lion in the fight, and as cool under fire as at the mess-
+table--challenged the admiration of their soldier hearts.
+
+Once a drinking, swearing bigot constituted himself a champion of
+the Church established by law, and complained to the commanding
+major that "the Methody preacher took the work out of the hands of
+their own chaplain,"--an easy-going parson, who much preferred
+dining with the officers' mess to visiting the soldiers' barracks.
+
+"If he preaches as well as he fights, he can beat the chaplain,"
+said the major. "Let him fire away all he likes, the parson won't
+complain; and some of you fellows would be none the worse for
+converting, as he calls it. If you were to take a leaf out of his
+book yourself, Tony, and not be locked up in the guard-house so
+often, it would be better for you!"
+
+With the tables thus deftly turned upon him, poor Antony Double-
+gill, as he was nick-named, because he so often contrived to get
+twice the regulation allowance of "grog," retired discomfitted
+from the field.
+
+While the group in the mess-room were preparing to turn into their
+sleeping-bunks, the sharp challenge of the sentry, pacing the
+ramparts without, was heard. The report of his musket and, in a
+few moments, the shrill notes of the bugle sounding the "turn
+out," created an alarm. The men snatched their guns and side-arms,
+and were soon drawn up in company on the quadrangle of the fort.
+The clang of the chains of the sally-port rattled, the draw-bridge
+fell, the heavy iron-studded gates swung back, and three prisoners
+were brought in who were expostulating warmly with the guard, and
+demanding to be led to the officer for the night. When they were
+brought to the light which poured from the open door of the guard-
+room, it was discovered with surprise that two of the prisoners
+wore the familiar red and green of the 49th regiment, and that the
+third was in officer's uniform. But their attire was so torn,
+burnt, and blackened with powder, and draggled and soaked with
+water, that the guard got a good deal of chaffing from their
+comrades for their capture.
+
+"This is treating us worse than the enemy," said one of the
+soldiers, "and that was bad enough."
+
+The adjutant now appeared upon the scene to inquire into the cause
+of the disturbance.
+
+"I have the honour to bear despatches from General Sheaffe," said
+the young officer; when the adjutant promptly requested him to
+proceed to his quarters, and sent the others to the mess-room,
+with orders for their generous refreshment.
+
+There their comrades gathered round them, eagerly inquiring the
+nature of the disaster, which, from the words that they had heard,
+they inferred had befallen the left wing of the regiment,
+quartered at the town of York. In a few brief words they learned
+with dismay that the capital of the country was captured by the
+enemy, that the public buildings and the shipping were burned,
+that the fort was blown up, and that a heavy loss had befallen
+both sides.
+
+While the men dried their water-soaked clothes before a fire
+kindled on the hearth, and ate as though they had been starved,
+they were subject to a cross-fire of eager questions from every
+side, which they answered as best they could, while busy plying
+knife and fork, and "re-victualling the garrison," the corporal
+said, "as though they were expecting a forty days' siege."
+
+"And siege you may have, soon enough," said Sergeant Shenston, the
+elder of the two men. "Chauncey and Dearborn will drop down on
+_you_ before the week's out."
+
+Disentangling the narrative of the men from the maze of questions
+and answers in which it was given, its main thread was as follows:
+
+Early on the morning of the 27th of April, Chauncey, the American
+commodore, with fourteen vessels and seventeen hundred men, under
+the command of Generals Dearborn and Pike, lay off the shore a
+little to the west of the town of York, near the site of the old
+French fort, now included in the new Exhibition Grounds. The town
+was garrisoned by only six hundred men, including militia and
+dockyard men, under Gen. Sheaffe. Under cover of a heavy fire,
+which swept the beach, the Americans landed, drove in the British
+outposts, which stoutly contested every foot of ground, and made a
+dash for the dilapidated fort, which the fleet meanwhile heavily
+bombarded. Continual re-enforcements enabled them to fight their
+way through the scrub oak woods to within two hundred yards of the
+earthen ramparts, when the defensive fire ceased. General Pike
+halted his troops, thinking the fort about to surrender. Suddenly,
+with a shock like an earthquake, the magazine blew up, and hurled
+into the air two hundred of the attacking column, together with
+Pike, its commander. [Footnote: The magazine contained five
+hundred barrels of powder and an immense quantity of charged
+shells.] Several soldiers of the retiring British garrison were
+also killed. This act, which was defended as justifiable in order
+to prevent the powder from falling into the hands of the enemy,
+and as in accordance with the recognized code of war, was severely
+denounced by the Americans, and imparted a tone of greater
+bitterness to the subsequent contest.
+
+The town being no longer tenable, General Sheaffe, after
+destroying the naval stores and a vessel on the stocks, retreated
+with the regulars towards Kingston. Colonel Chewett and three
+hundred militiamen were taken prisoners, the public buildings
+burned, and the military and naval stores, which escaped
+destruction, were carried off. The American loss was over three
+hundred, and that of the British nearly half as great. [Footnote:
+See Withrow's History of Canada, 8vo. edition, chap. xxiii.]
+
+"How did you get your clothes so burnt?" asked the corporal, when
+the narrative was concluded, pointing to the scorched and powder-
+blackened uniform of the narrator.
+
+"It is a wonder I escaped at all," said Sergeant Shenstone. "I was
+nearly caught by the explosion. I was helping a wounded comrade to
+escape, when, looking over the ramparts, I beheld the enemy so
+close that I could see their teeth as they bit the cartridges, and
+General Pike, on the right wing, cheering them on--so gallant and
+bold. I was a-feared I would be nabbed as a prisoner, and sent to
+eat Uncle Sam's hard-tack in the hulks at Sackett's Harbour, when,
+all of a sudden, the ground trembled like the earthquakes I have
+felt in the West Indies; then a volcano of fire burst up to the
+sky, and, in a minute, the air seemed raining fire and brimstone,
+as it did at Sodom and Gomorrah. It seemed like the judgment-day.
+I was thrown flat on the ground, and when I tried to get up I was
+all bruised and burnt with the falling clods and splinters, and my
+comrade was dead at my side. I crawled away as soon as I could--
+there was no thought then of making prisoners."
+
+"But what gar'd the magazine blaw up? Was it an accident?" asked
+old Allan McPherson, the Highland piper, who had listened eagerly
+to the tragic story.
+
+"No accident was it. Sergeant Marshall, of the artillery, a
+desperate fellow, who swore the enemy should lose more than they
+would gain by taking the fort, laid and fired the train. The
+General had already given the order to retreat, and knew nothing
+of it."
+
+"God forgie him!" exclaimed the old Scotchman. "Yon's no war ava--
+it's rank murder. I can thole a fair and square stan up fecht, but
+yon's a coward trick."
+
+"Ye'd say so," said Private McIntyre, Shenstone's comrade, "gin ye
+saw the hale place reeking like a shawmbles, an' the puir'
+wretches lying stark and scaring like slaughtered sheep. I doubt
+na it was a gran' blunder as weel as a gran' crime. Forbye killing
+some o' oor ain folk it will breed bad bluid through the hale war.
+I doubt na it will mak it waur for ye, for Fort George's turn mun
+come next."
+
+"I hear Dearborn swore to avenge the death of General Pike. All
+the vessels' flags were half-mast, and the minute-guns boomed
+while they rowed his dead body, wrapped in the stars and stripes,
+to the flag-ship; and Chauncey carried off all the public
+property, even to the mace and Speaker's wig from the Parliament
+House, and the fire-engine of the town." [Footnote: These were
+conveyed to Sackett's Harbour and deposited in the dockyard
+storehouse, where they were exhibited as trophies of the
+conquest.]
+
+"How did you get away with the despatches?" asked Jonas Evans. "I
+should think Chauncey would try to take us by surprise, but the
+Lord would not let him."
+
+"To avoid capture," said Shenstone, "Sheaffe placed the Don
+between him and the enemy as soon as possible, and broke down the
+bridge behind him. There were only four hundred of us altogether.
+Captain Villiers, who had recovered from his wound, and Ensign
+Norton set out on horseback, with despatches for Fort George; and,
+in case they should be captured, Lieutenant Foster undertook to
+convey them by water, and we volunteered to accompany him. We got
+a fisherman's boat at Frenchman's Bay. It was a long, tough pull
+across the lake, I tell you. At night the wind rose, and we were
+drenched with spray and nearly perished with cold. After two days
+hard rowing against head wind, we made land, but were afraid to
+enter the river till nightfall. We slipped past Fort Niagara
+without detection, but had like to be murdered by your sentry
+here. We might well ask to be saved from our friends."
+
+An unwonted stir soon pervaded the fort and camp. Again the
+ponderous gates yawned and the draw-bridge fell, and orderlies
+galloped out into the night to convey the intelligence to the
+frontier posts, and to order the concentration of every available
+man and gun at Fort George. The sentries were doubled on the
+ramparts and along the river front. The entire garrison was on the
+_qui vive_ against a surprise. The next day Captain Villiers,
+with his companion, reached the fort, fagged out with their
+hundred miles' ride in two days--they had been compelled to make a
+wide _detour_ to avoid capture. The whole garrison was in a
+ferment of excitement and hard work. Stores, guns, ammunition,
+accoutrements were overhauled and inspected. The army bakery was
+busy day and night. Forage and other supplies of every sort were
+brought in. Extra rations were made ready for issue, and every
+possible precaution taken against an anticipated attack, which, it
+was felt, could not long be delayed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE FALL OF FORT GEORGE.
+
+
+But short respite was granted before the fall of the blow which,
+for a time, annihilated British authority on the frontier. On the
+third day after the reception of the evil tidings of the capture
+of York, Chauncey's fleet was seen in the offing; but for six days
+adverse winds prevented it from landing the American troops
+beneath the protection of the guns of Fort Niagara. Day after day
+they stood off and on, but were unable to make the land. "The
+stars in their courses fought against Sisera," said Jonas Evans,
+as he watched the baffled fleet, "and the Lord, with the breath of
+His mouth, fighteth for us."
+
+At length, having landed General Dearborn and his troops, Chauncey
+conveyed his wounded to Sackett's Harbour, the great American
+naval depot on Lake Ontario, and hastened back with a strong body
+of re-enforcements. The gallant Colonel Vincent, commandant at
+Fort George, bated not a jot of heart or hope,--although he was
+able to muster only some 1,400 troops. Yet these, with spade and
+mattock, toiled day after day to strengthen its ramparts and
+ravelins, and to throw up new earthworks and batteries. One fatal
+want, however, was felt. The stock of ammunition was low, and as
+Chauncey, with his fleet, had the mastery of the lake, it could
+not be replenished from the ample supply at Fort Henry, at
+Kingston.
+
+At length the fateful day arrived. On the twenty-sixth of May, at
+early dawn, Chauncey's ships, fifteen in number, were drawn up in
+crescent form off the devoted town, their snowy sails gleaming in
+the morning sun. On the opposite sides of the river the grim forts
+frowned defiance at each other, and guarded, like stern warders,
+the channel between them. The morning _reveille_ seemed the
+shrill challenge to mortal combat. Sullen and silent, like
+couchant lions, through the black embrasures the grim cannon
+watched the opposite shores; and at length, from the feverish lips
+of the guns of the American fort, as if they could no longer hold
+their breath, leap forth, in breath of flame and thunder roar, the
+fell death-bolts of war. The fierce shells scream through the air
+and explode within the quadrangle of Fort George, scattering
+destruction and havoc, or, perchance, bury themselves harmlessly
+in the earthen ramparts. The ships take up their part in the
+dreadful chorus. From their black sides flash forth the tongues of
+flame and wreaths of smoke, and soon they get the range with
+deadly precision. The British guns promptly reply. The gunners
+stand to their pieces, though an iron hail is crashing all around
+them. Now one and another is struck down by a splinter or fragment
+of shell, and, while another steps into his place, is borne off to
+the bomb-proof casemates, where the surgeon plies his ghastly but
+beneficent calling.
+
+For hours the deadly cannonade continues, but amid it all, the
+dead General, buried in a disused bastion, sleeps calmly on:
+
+"He has fought his last fight, he has waged his last battle, No
+sound shall awake him to glory again."
+
+Jonas Evans, who had been an old artilleryman, takes the place of
+a wounded gunner, lifts the big sixty-eight pound balls, rams them
+home, and handles the linstock as coolly as if on parade. "Bless
+the Lord!" he said to a comrade while the piece was being pointed,
+"I am ready to live or die; it's no odds to me. For me to live is
+Christ, to die is gain. Sudden death would be sudden glory.
+Hallelujah! I believe I am doing my duty to my country, to God and
+man, and my soul is as happy as it can be this side heaven."
+
+Strange words for such a scene of blood! Strange work for a
+Christian man to do! It seems the work of demons rather than of
+men, and yet godly men have, with an approving conscience, wielded
+the weapons of carnal warfare. But in this much at least all will
+agree: An unjust war is the greatest of all crimes, and even a
+just war is the greatest of all calamities. And all will join in
+the prayer, Give peace in our time, O Lord, and hasten the day
+when the nations shall learn war no more!
+
+Neville Trueman, who had a pass from Colonel Vincent to visit the
+Methodist troops in the fort, felt himself summoned thither, as to
+a post of duty, at the first sounds of the cannonade. He was soon
+busily engaged, skilfully helping the surgeon and ministering
+alike to the bodies and the souls of the wounded soldiers. He also
+found time to visit the ramparts and speak words of cheer and
+encouragement to the members of his spiritual flock. Although shot
+and shell screamed through the air, and fragments and splinters
+were flying in dangerous proximity, he felt himself sustained by
+the grace of God. Amid these dreadful scenes he knew no fear, and
+his calm serenity inspired confidence courage and in others.
+
+The bombardment lasted a large part of the day. Fort George was
+severely damaged. Several of its guns were dismounted, and the
+whole place rendered almost untenable.
+
+The night was one of much anxiety. The force of the enemy was
+overwhelming. The fate of the fortress seemed certain; but
+Vincent, with gallant British pluck, resolved to hold it to the
+last. The wearied troops snatched what refreshment and repose they
+could amid the confusion and discomfort and danger by which they
+were surrounded. At intervals during the night the American fort
+kept up a teasing fire, more for the purpose of causing annoyance
+and preventing rest than with the object of doing any serious
+damage. As a mere pyrotechnic spectacle it was certainly a grand
+sight to watch the graceful curves of the live shells through the
+air--a parabola of vivid brightness against the black sky, as the
+burning fuse, fanned by its rapid motion, glowed like a shooting-
+star. The loud detonation, and explosion of fiery fragments that
+followed, however, was rather discomposing to the nerves, and
+unfavourable for restful slumber to the weary warriors.
+
+Another cruel refinement of war was still more disconcerting. In
+order, if possible, to ignite the barracks, the gunners of Fort
+Niagara kept firing at intervals red-hot cannon balls. A vigilant
+look-out for these had to be kept, and a fire brigade was
+specially organized to drown out any incipient conflagration that
+might occur.
+
+A similar compliment was paid by the artillerists of Fort George.
+No little skill was required in handling these heavy red-hot
+projectiles. In order to prevent a premature explosion of the
+charge, a wet wad was interposed between the powder and the red-
+hot ball. In the walls of Fort Mississauga, at Niagara, may still
+be seen the fire-places for heating the shot for the purpose here
+described.
+
+But, notwithstanding the tumult, the roar of the cannon near at
+hand, the explosion of shells, and the thud of the balls striking
+the casemates, or burying themselves in the earthen ramparts, the
+weary garrison snatched what repose was possible; for the morrow,
+it was felt, would tax their energies to the utmost.
+
+The morning of May 27th dawned as bright and beautiful as in
+Eden's sinless garden--as fair as though such a deadly evil as war
+were unknown in the world. The American shipping stood in closer
+to the shore. The bombardment was renewed with intenser fury. It
+was evident that an attempt was about to be made to laud a hostile
+force on Canadian ground. Every available man, except those
+required to work the guns of Fort George, and a guard over the
+stores, as hurried down to the beach to prevent, if possible, the
+landing. Boat after boat, filled with armed men, their bayonets
+gleaming in the morning sunshine, left the ships, and, under cover
+of a tremendous fire from the American fort and fleet, gained the
+shore. First Colonel Scott, with eight hundred riflemen, effected
+a landing. They were promptly met by a body of British regulars
+and militia, and compelled to take refuge under cover of the steep
+bank which lined the beach to the north of the town. From this
+position they kept up a galling fire on the British troops in the
+open field. The broadsides of the fleet also swept the plain, and
+wrought great havoc among the brave militia defending their native
+soil. To escape the deadly sweep of the cannon they were obliged
+to prostrate themselves in the slight depressions in the plain.
+Notwithstanding the inequality of numbers, the main body of the
+enemy were three times repulsed before they could gain a foothold
+on the beach.
+
+At length, after three hours desperate struggle, a hostile force
+of six thousand men stood upon the plain. The conflict then was
+brief but strenuous. Many were the incidents of personal heroism
+that relieved, as by a gleam of light, the darkness of the
+tragedy. Jonas Evans was in the foremost files, and, as they lay
+upon the ground, his comrade on either side was killed by round
+shot from the ships, but, as if he bore a charmed life, he escaped
+unhurt. Loker and McKay, while bearing off a wounded militia-man,
+were captured, as were many others. At length the bugles sounded a
+retreat. Slowly and reluctantly the British troops fell back
+through the town. A strong rear-guard halted in the streets,
+seeking the shelter of the houses, and stubbornly holding the foe
+at bay while Vincent made his preparations for abandoning Fort
+George. All that valour and fidelity could do to hold that
+important post had been done. But how were a few hundred weary and
+defeated men to withstand a victorious army of six-fold greater
+strength? [Footnote: The details of the account above given were
+narrated to the author by the venerable Father Brady, for many
+years class-leader of the Methodist Church at Niagara, who was an
+actor in the events described.]
+
+The guns of the fort were spiked and overthrown, and baggage,
+ammunition, and moveable stores were hastily loaded on teams
+volunteered for the service, to accompany the retreat of the army.
+With a bitter pang, Vincent ordered the destruction of the fort
+which he had so gallantly defended. When the last man had retired,
+with his own hand he fired the train which caused the explosion of
+the powder magazine. When the victorious army marched in, they
+found only the breached and blackened walls, the yawning gates,
+and dismantled ramparts of the fort. From the shattered flagstaff,
+where it still waved defiantly, though rent and seared by shot and
+shell, the brave red-cross flag was hauled down and replaced by
+the gaily fluttering stars and stripes.
+
+Many a time has the present writer wandered over the crumbling and
+grass-grown ramparts of the ruined fort, where the peaceful sheep
+crop the herbage and the little children play. Some of the old
+casemates and thick-walled magazines still remain, and are
+occupied by the families of a few old pensioners. In these low-
+vaulted chambers, with their deep and narrow embrasures, once the
+scene of the rude alarum of war, often has he held a quiet
+religious service with the lowly and unlettered inmates, who knew
+little of the thrilling history of their strange abode.
+
+Often at the pensive sunset hour, reclining in a crumbling
+bastion, has he tried to rehabilitate the past, and to summon from
+their lonely and forgotten graves upon the neighbouring
+battlefield, or in quiet church-yards, it may be, far beyond the
+sea, the groups of war-scarred veterans who once peopled the now
+desolate fort.
+
+Again is heard, in fancy, the quick challenge and reply, the
+bugle-call, the roll of drums, the sharp rattle of musketry, the
+deep and deadly thunder of the cannonade. How false and fading is
+felt to be the glory of arms, and how abiding victories of peace,
+more glorious than those of war!
+
+  The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
+    And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
+  Await alike the inevitable hour:
+    The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
+
+But hark! a loud report awakes the dreamer from his reverie. It is
+the sunset gun from old Fort Niagara; and as stern reality becomes
+again a presence, the gazer's glance rests on the peaceful beauty
+of the broad blue Lake Ontario, on which, at this quiet hour, so
+many eyes, long turned to dust, have rested in the years forever
+flown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE FORTUNES OF WAR.
+
+
+On the evening of the evacuation of Fort George, several of the
+actors in the busy drama of the time were assembled in the great
+kitchen of Squire Drayton's hospitable house. It was no time for
+ceremony, so everybody met in the common living room. Captain
+Villiers called to bid a hasty farewell to the kind family under
+whose roof he had for several months abode as an invalid soldier,
+and especially to take leave of the fair young mistress, through
+whose care he had become convalescent. Neville Trueman had
+resolved to follow the retreating army, both to avoid the
+appearance of any complicity or sympathy with the invaders; and
+that, in the severe conflict which was impending, his spiritual
+services might be available to the militia, of whom a considerable
+number were Methodists, and to such others as would accept them.
+Zenas had obtained his father's consent to volunteer for the
+militia cavalry service in this time of his country's need,
+although it left the farm without a single man, except the squire
+himself.
+
+"The maids and I will plant the corn and cut the wheat, too," said
+Kate, with the pluck of a true Canadian girl. "We'll soon learn to
+wield the sickle, though you seem to doubt it, Captain Villiers,"
+she went on, looking archly at the gallant captain, who smiled
+rather incredulously.
+
+"Nay, I am sure you will deserve to be honoured as the goddess
+Ceres of your Canadian harvest-fields, by the future generations
+of your country," politely answered the captain.
+
+"I would rather serve my country in the present, than receive
+mythical honours in the future," replied Kate.
+
+"We'll be back before harvest to drive the Yanks across the river,
+and get Sandy and Loker out of Fort Niagara," said Zenas. "Tom
+would gnaw his very fetters off to get free, if he wore any. But
+Sandy takes everything as it comes, as cool as you please. 'It was
+all appointed,' he says, and 'all for the best.'"
+
+"They will not keep the prisoners there," said the squire; "it is
+too near the border. Chauncey will likely take them off to
+Sackett's Harbour, and make them work in the dock-yards."
+
+"They won't make McKay do that," said the captain; "it would be
+against his conscience, and he would die first. He is the
+staunchest specimen of an old stoic philosopher I ever came
+across. Under the hottest fire to-day he was as cool as I ever saw
+him on parade. As he stooped to raise a wounded comrade a round
+shot struck and carried away his cartridge-box. Had he been
+standing up it would have cut him in two. He never blanched, but
+just helped the poor fellow off the field, when he was captured
+himself."
+
+"It is something more than stoicism," said Neville. "It is his
+staunch Scotch Calvinism. It is not my religious philosophy; but I
+can I honour its effects in others. It made heroic men of the
+Ironsides, the Puritans, and the Covenanters; but so will a trust
+in the loving fatherhood of God, without the doctrine of the
+eternal decrees."
+
+"We must not delay," said the captain. "The enemy's scouts will be
+looking up stragglers," and after a hasty meal he, with Neville
+and Zenas, rode away in the darkness, to join the rearguard of
+Vincent's retreating army.
+
+They had scarcely been gone five minutes when a loud knocking was
+heard at the front door of the house, and, immediately after, the
+trampling of feet in the hall. A peremptory summons was followed
+by the bursting open of the kitchen door, when two flushed and
+heated American dragoons, one a comet and the other a private,
+stood on the threshold.
+
+"Beg pardon, miss," said the officer, somewhat abashed at the
+attitude of indignant surprise assumed by Katharine. "But is
+Captain Villiers here? We were told he was."
+
+"You see he is not," said the young girl, with a queenly sweep of
+her arm around the room; "but you may search the house, if you
+please."
+
+"Oh, no occasion, as you say he is not here. I'll take the
+liberty, if you please, to help myself to a slight refreshment,"
+continued the spokesman, taking a seat at the table and beckoning
+to his companion to do the same. "You'll excuse the usage of war.
+We've had a hard day's work on light rations."
+
+"You might at least ask leave," spoke up the squire, with a sort
+of
+
+ "An Englishman's house is his castle,
+  An Englishman's crown is his hat,"
+
+Air,--"We would not refuse a bit and sup, even to an enemy."
+
+Glad of an excuse to detain the scouts as long as possible Kate
+placed upon the table a cold meat-pie, of noble proportions, and a
+flagon of new milk.
+
+The troopers were valiant trencher-men, whatever else they were,
+and promptly assaulted the meat-pie fort, as from its size and
+shape it deserved to be called.
+
+"You know this Captain Villiers, I suppose?" said the dragoon
+subaltern at length; "I had particular instructions to secure his
+capture."
+
+"Oh yes! I know him very well," answered Kate. "He was here sick
+for three months last winter."
+
+"And very good quarters and good fare he had, I'll be bound," said
+the fellow, with an air of insolent familiarity. "And when was he
+here last, pray?"
+
+ "About half-an-hour ago," said Kate, knowing that by this time he
+must be beyond pursuit.
+
+"Zounds!" cried the trooper, springing to his feet, "why did you
+not tell me that before?"
+
+"Because you did not ask me, sir," said the maiden demurely, while
+her black eyes flashed triumph at her father, who sat in his arm
+chair stolidly smoking his pipe.
+
+With an angry oath, the fellows hurried out of the house as
+unceremoniously as they had entered, when Kate and her father had
+a merry laugh over their discomfiture.
+
+Next morning the troopers appeared again, in angry humour. "That
+was a scurvy trick you played us last night, old gentleman," said
+the elder.
+
+"No trick at all," said the squire. "I hope you were pleased with
+your entertainment? Did you catch your prisoner?" he asked, with a
+somewhat malicious twinkle of his eye towards Kate, who was in the
+room.
+
+"No, we didn't; but we came upon the enemy's rear-guard, and
+nearly got captured ourselves. But you'll have to pay for your
+little game, by liberal supplies for Dearborn's army."
+
+The staunch old loyalist, who would willingly impoverish himself
+to aid the King's troops, stoutly refused to give "a single groat
+or oat," as he expressed it, to the King's enemies. It was
+"against his conscience," he said.
+
+"We'll relieve you of your scruples," said the officer. "I want
+some of those horses in your pasture to mount my troop of
+dragoons," and going oat of the house he ordered the half-score of
+troopers without to dismount and capture the horses in the meadow.
+The men, after a particularly active chase, captured three out of
+six horses. The others defied every effort to catch them. The
+troopers threatened to shoot them, but the cornet forbade it, and
+ordered the squire to send them to head-quarters during the day--a
+command which he declined to obey. Such were some of the ways in
+which the loyal Canadians were pillaged of their property by their
+ruthless invaders.
+
+The squire indeed demanded a receipt from the officer for the
+property thus "requisitioned."
+
+"Oh yes! I'll give you a receipt," said that individual, "and much
+good may it do you," and that was all the good it did do him, for
+he never received a cent of compensation.
+
+Colonel Vincent, in the meantime, had withdrawn the garrisons from
+the frontier forts on the Niagara river. He retreated with sixteen
+hundred men toward the head of the lake, and took up a strong
+position on Burlington Heights, near Hamilton. In the now peaceful
+Protestant cemetery to the west of the city may still be trace
+among the graves the mouldering ramparts and trenches of this once
+warlike camp. Dearborn despatched a force of three thousand men,
+with two hundred and fifty cavalry and nine field-pieces, under
+Generals Chandler and Winder, to dislodge the Canadian force. On
+the 6th of June they encamped at Stony Creek, seven miles from
+Vincent's lines. The position of the latter was critical. Niagara
+and York had both been captured. Before him was a victorious foe.
+His ammunition was reduced to ninety rounds. He was extricated
+from his peril by a bold blow. Colonel John Harvey, having
+reconnoitered the enemy's position, proposed a night attack.
+Vincent heartily co-operated. At midnight, with seven hundred
+British bayonets, they burst upon the American camp. A fierce
+fight ensued in which the enemy were utterly routed. The British,
+unwilling to expose their small number to a still superior force,
+retired before daybreak, with four guns and a hundred prisoners,
+including both of the American Generals. The victory, however, was
+purchased with the loss of two hundred men killed or missing. A
+venerable old lady, recently deceased, has described to the writer
+the dreary procession of waggons laden with wounded men that filed
+past her father's door on their return to the British head-
+quarters. The battle was fought early on Sunday morning, near the
+house of "Brother Gage," a good Methodist, as his appellation
+indicates. [Footnote: Carroll's "Case and His Cotemporaries," Vol
+I., p. 307.] On that sacred day, so desecrated by the havoc of
+war, he gathered the neighbours together and buried the slain,
+friend and foe, in one wide, common grave. Among the traditions of
+the war is one which records that the boys of the Gage family
+gathered up a peck of bullets which had been intercepted by the
+stone fence bounding the lane that led to the house.
+
+The Americans, after destroying their camp stores and leaving the
+dead unburied, retreated to Forty Mile Creek, where they effected
+a junction with General Lewis, advancing to their aid with two
+thousand men. At daybreak on the 8th of June, the American camp
+was shelled by Commodore Yeo's fleet. The enemy retreated to Fort
+George, abandoning their tents and stores, which were captured by
+Vincent. Their baggage, shipped by batteaux to the fort, was
+either taken by the fleet or abandoned on the shore. [Footnote:
+Withrow's History of Canada, 8vo. ed., chap. xxiii.1.316]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A BRAVE WOMAN'S EXPLOIT.
+
+
+Neville Trueman, found ample occupation in ministering to the sick
+and wounded, and in visiting his scattered flock throughout the
+invaded territory. He was enabled, incidentally, to render
+important service to his adopted country. It was toward the end of
+June, that one afternoon he was riding through the forest in the
+neighbourhood of the Beaver Dams, near the town of Thorold,--a
+place which received its name from the remarkable constructions of
+the industrious animal which has been adopted as the national
+emblem of Upper Canada,--where there was a small force of British
+troops posted. In the twilight he observed a travel-worn woman
+approaching upon the forest pathway, with an air of bodily
+weariness, yet of mental alertness and anxiety. As she drew near,
+he recognized a worthy Canadian matron, whom he had, more than
+once, seen in his congregation in the school-house at the village
+of Chippewa.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Secord!" he exclaimed, reining up his horse as she
+attempted to pass him, furtively trying to conceal her face, "are
+not you afraid to be so far from home on foot, when the country is
+so disturbed?"
+
+"Thank God it is you, Mr. Trueman!" she eagerly replied. "I was
+afraid it might be one of the American scouts. 'Home,' did you
+say? I have no home," she added in a tone of bitterness.
+
+"Can't I be of some service to you? Where is your husband?"
+Neville asked, wondering at her distraught air.
+
+"Haven't you heard?" she replied. "He was sore wounded at
+Queenston Heights, and will never be a well man again; and our
+house was pillaged and burned. But we're wasting time; what reck
+my private wrongs when the country is overrun by the King's
+enemies? How far is it to the camp?"
+
+"Farther than you can walk without resting," he answered." You
+seem almost worn out."
+
+"Nineteen miles I've walked this day, through woods and thicket,
+without a bit or sup, to warn the King's troops of their danger."
+
+"What danger?" asked Neville, wondering if her grief had not
+somewhat affected her mind.
+
+"The enemy are on the move--hundreds of them--with cannon and
+horses. I saw them marching past my cottage this very morning, and
+I vowed to warn the King's soldiers or die in the attempt. I
+slipped unseen into the woods and ran like a deer, through bypaths
+and, 'cross lots, and I must press on or I may be too late."
+
+Not for a moment did this American-born youth hesitate as to his
+duty to his adopted country. Wheeling his horse he exclaimed, "You
+brave woman, you've nobly done your part, let me take you to the
+nearest house and then ride on and give the alarm."
+
+"I hoped to have done it myself," she said. "But it is best as it
+is. Never mind me. Every minute is precious."
+
+Without waiting for more words, Neville waved his hand in
+encouragement, and putting spurs to his horse was out of sigh in a
+moment. In a few minutes he galloped up to the post held by the
+British picket, and flung himself off his reeking steed--incurring
+imminent risk of being bayoneted by the sentry, because he took no
+notice of his peremptory challenge. Bursting into the guard-room,
+he called for the officer of the day, Lieutenant Fitzgibbon. A few
+words conveyed the startling intelligence--the alarm was promptly
+given--the bugle sounded the "turn cut"--the guard promptly
+responded--the men rushed to arms. Messengers were despatched to
+an outpost where Captain Ker was posted with two hundred Indians,
+and to Major de Heren, commanding a body of troops in the rear.
+
+Neville, followed by two files of soldiers, returned to meet the
+brave Canadian matron to whose patriotic heroism was due the
+rescue of the little post from an unexpected attack by an
+overwhelming force. They found her almost fainting from fatigue
+and the reaction from the overstrung tension of her nerves.
+Leaping from his horse, Neville adjusted his cloak so as to make a
+temporary side-saddle, and placed the travel-worn woman thereon.
+Walking by her side, he held the bridle-rein and carefully guarded
+the horse over the rugged forest path, the two soldiers falling
+behind as a rear-guard. As they approached the post at Beaver
+Dams, the redcoats gave a hearty British cheer. The guard turned
+out, and presented arms as though she were the Queen; and the
+gallant Lieutenant Fitzgibbon assisted the lady to alight with as
+dignified a courtesy as he could use to royalty itself. She was
+committed to the care of the good wife of the farm-house which
+formed the head-quarters of the post, and every means taken to
+ensure her comfort. By such heroism as this did the stout-hearted
+Canadian women of those stern war times serve their country at the
+risk of their lives.
+
+Vigorous efforts were now made for defence. Trees were hastily
+felled to blockade the road. A breastwork of logs was thrown up at
+a commanding position, in front of which was an abattis of young
+trees and brush piled up to obstruct approach. Lieutenant
+Fitzgibbon had only some forty-three regulars and two hundred
+Indiana, to oppose a force of nearly six hundred men, including
+fifty cavalry and two field-pieces. He must effect by stratagem
+what he could not effect by force. Every man who could sound a,
+bugle, and for whom a bugle could be found, was sent into the
+woods, and these were posted at considerable distances apart. The
+Indians and thirty-four red-coats, concealed behind trees, lined
+the road. Before long was heard the tramp of cavalry and rumble of
+the field-guns. As they came within range the buglers, with all
+the vigour in their power, sounded a charge, the shrill notes
+ringing through the leafy forest aisles. The Indians yelled their
+fearful war-whoop, and the soldiers gave a gallant cheer and
+opened a sharp fire.
+
+The ruse was as successful as that of Gideon and his three hundred
+men with their trumpets and pitchers, in the wars of the
+Philistines. After a spirited attack, the advanced guard fell back
+upon the main body of the enemy, which was thrown into confusion.
+Some of the cavalry horses were wounded, and dashed wildly through
+the ranks, increasing the disorder. The artillery horses caught
+the infection, and, plunging wildly, overturned one of the gun-
+carriages in the ditch. At this moment a body of twenty Canadian
+militia arrived, and Fitzgibbon, to carry out his ruse of affected
+superiority of numbers, boldly demanded the surrender of the
+enemy. Colonel Boerstler, the American commander, thinking the
+British must be strongly supported, to Lieutenant Fitzgibbon's
+astonishment consented. The latter did not know what to do with
+his prisoners, who were twice as many as his own force, including
+the Indians. The opportune arrival of Major de Keren and Captain
+Villiers, with two hundred men, furnished a sufficient force to
+guard the prisoners. The chagrin of the latter, on hearing of
+their deception and capture by a handful of red-coats and red-
+skins, was intense. The name of the heroic Canadian wife, Mrs.
+Laura Secord, to whose timely information this brilliant and
+bloodless victory was due, was honourably mentioned in the
+military despatches of the day; and her memory should be a
+perpetual inspiration to patriotic daring to every son and
+daughter of Canada. [Footnote: A portrait of Mrs. Secord, as a
+venerable old lady of ninety-two, in a widow's cap and weeds, is
+given in _Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812_,
+page 621; also her autograph and a letter describing her exploit.
+The Prince of Wales, after his return from Canada in 1860, caused
+the sum of L100 sterling to be presented her for her patriotic
+service. Lieutenant Fitzgibbon was made a Knight of Windsor
+Castle.]
+
+This event was one of the turning points of the campaign.
+Dearborn, whose forces were wasted away by disease, famine, and
+the fortunes of war, to about four thousand men, was beleaguered
+in Fort George by Vincent with less than half the number of
+troops. The British now assumed the offensive, and on the morning
+of the American national anniversary, the fourth of July, a small
+force of Canadian militia, under Colonel Clark, crossed at day-
+break from Chippewa to Fort Schlosser, captured the guard, and
+carried off a large quantity of provisions and ammunition, of
+which they were in much need.
+
+A week later, Colonel Bishopp, with two hundred and forty regulars
+and militia, crossed before day from Fort Erie to the important
+American post of Black Rock. The enemy were completely taken by
+surprise, and the block-houses, barracks, dockyard, and one
+vessel, were destroyed; and seven guns, two hundred stand of arms,
+and a large quantity of provisions captured.
+
+One day, about the middle of July, a dust-begrimed, sunburnt, yet
+soldierly-looking young fellow, notwithstanding the weather
+stained and faded appearance of his dragoon uniform, rode up to
+The Holms. He cantered familiarly up the lane and, throwing the
+reins on the neck of his horse, which proceeded of its own accord
+to the stable, entered, without knocking, the house.
+
+Kate was in the dairy, moulding the golden nuggets of butter with
+a wooden spatula. Stealing up on tip-toe, our dragoon threw his
+arms around the girl and gave her a hearty kiss, whose report was
+as loud as the smack which he instantly received on his cheek from
+the open palm of the astonished Katharine.
+
+"A pretty reception you give your brother," exclaimed the young
+man.
+
+"Why, Zenas!" cried Katharine, throwing her arms ground him, and
+giving him a kiss that more than made amends for the slap, "how
+you frightened me; you naughty boy. I thought it was one of those
+Yankee soldiers. They often come begging for cream or cherries,
+and get more impudent every day."
+
+"They won't come again, very soon," said Zenas, with all his old
+assurance. "We will lock them up safe enough in Fort George, and
+soon drive them back to their own side of the river. But give us
+something to eat. I'm hungry as a wolf. Where's father?"
+
+"In the ten-acre wheat field. He has to work too hard for his
+years, and can get no help for love or money," answered Kate, as
+she set before her brother on the great kitchen table a loaf of
+homemade bread, a pat of golden butter, a pitcher of rich cream,
+and a heaped platter of fragrant strawberries just brought in from
+the garden.
+
+"Didn't I say I'd be back to get in the wheat? And you see I've
+kept my word," said the lad. "This _is_ better than
+campfare," he went on, as the strawberries and cream rapidly
+disappeared with the bread and butter. "I have a message for you,
+Kate. Who do you suppose it is from?" said the rather raw youth,
+with a look that was intended to be very knowing.
+
+"If it's from the camp," replied Kate, calmly, "I know no one
+there except Captain Villiers and Mr. Trueman. Is it from either
+of them?"
+
+"Trueman is a first-rate fellow--a regular brick, you know, even
+if he _is_ a preacher. You ought to have seen how he stood up
+for them Yankee prisoners, and got our fellows to share their
+rations with them, although he had helped to bag the game himself.
+But the message is not from him, but from the captain. He says you
+saved his life twice,--once nursing him when he was sick, and once
+by keeping those Yankee scouts here, while we got away. We heard
+all about your adventure. Well, he's gone to help Proctor in
+Michigan, and might never come back, he said, and he asked me
+would I give you this, in case he fell, to show that he was not
+ungrateful; but I had better give it to you now, or I will be sure
+to lose it. I can't carry such trumpery in my saddle-bags;" and he
+handed his sister a small jewel-case. Katharine opened it, and saw
+an elegant cross, set with gems, lying on a purple velvet cushion.
+
+"He said his mother gave it to him when he was leaving home,"
+continued Zenas. "She was kind of High Church, I guess, and
+they're most the same as Catholics. He said he had a sort of
+presentiment that he'd get killed in the war, and he didn't want
+some wild Indian to snatch it from his body with his scalp, and
+give to his dusky squaw."
+
+Kate stood looking at the jewel, and knitting her brow in thought.
+At length she said, "I'll keep it for him till he comes back, as I
+am sure he will; and if he should not," and her voice quivered a
+little, for her tender woman's heart could not but shudder at the
+thought of a violent death,--"I will send it to his mother. I
+wrote to her for him when he was wounded,--Melton Lodge,
+Berkshire, is the address. But I will not anticipate his death in
+battle. I feel certain that he will come back."
+
+As the British lines were drawn firmly around Fort George, in
+which, having repaired the damage caused by the explosion, the
+Americans were closely beleaguered, Zenas had no difficulty in
+obtaining leave of absence to help to harvest the wheat. Other
+militiamen were also available for that service, which was as
+important as fighting, Colonel Vincent averred, as he gave
+permission to considerable numbers of his yeoman soldiery to
+return to their farms, while the others maintained the leaguer of
+the fort. Soon after the ingathering of the harvest, however,
+Vincent was compelled, by the re-enforcement of the enemy, to
+raise the blockade of Fort George, and again to return to his old
+position at Burlington Heights.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+DISASTERS AND TRIUMPHS.
+
+
+But we must return to trace briefly the general progress of public
+events. Sir James Yeo and Sir George Prevost, with seven vessels
+and a thousand men had, early in the season, sailed from Kingston
+to destroy the American shipping and stores at Sackett's Harbour.
+This object was only partly achieved in consequence of the
+impromptitude, not to say incompetence of the commander-in-chief.
+It was felt that the gallant Brock had not yet found his
+successor.
+
+In the month of July, Commodore Chauncey again appeared on Lake
+Ontario, with a largely augmented American fleet. With Colonel
+Scott and a force of infantry and artillery, he sailed for
+Burlington Heights, to destroy a quantity of British stores at
+that place, which was the principal depot of Vincent's army. A
+body of Glengury Fencibles had been sent from York to protect the
+depot, thus leaving the capital defenceless. Chauncey therefore
+sailed for York, and Scott, landing without opposition on the 23rd
+of July, burned the barracks, and such public buildings as had
+previously escaped, broke open the jail, and plundered both
+private and public stores. Chauncey then sailed for the Niagara.
+On the 8th of August, he came out of the river to give battle to
+Yeo's fleet of six vessels--less than half his own number. A
+running fight of two days' duration ensued. In endeavouring to
+escape from the British, two American vessels, the "Scourge," of
+eight, and the "Hamilton," of nine guns, capsized under press of
+sail, and went to the bottom with all on board, except sixteen
+men, who were rescued by the boats of the British fleet. Chauncey
+lost two other vessels by capture, and was glad again to seek
+refuge in Sackett's Harbour.
+
+Stirring events were also transpiring in the West. General
+Harrison, notwithstanding the disastrous defeat of Winchester, was
+determined, if possible, to drive the British out of Michigan. For
+this purpose he had, early in the spring, established a rendezvous
+at Fort Meigs, on the Miami River, near the western extremity of
+Lake Erie, and formed a depot of stores and provisions. The
+expense of victualling his army was enormous. It is estimated that
+every barrel of flour cost the American Government a hundred
+dollars. Stores of all kinds had to be carried on the backs of
+pack-horses through an almost pathless wilderness, and few of the
+animals survived more than one journey. It is estimated that the
+transport of each cannon to the lakes cost a thousand dollars.
+
+Meanwhile, two squadrons were preparing to contest the supremacy
+of Lake Erie. Perry, the American commodore, had nine vessels
+well-manned with experienced seamen, to the number of nearly six
+hundred, from the now idle merchant marine of the United States.
+Barclay, the British captain, had only fifty sailors to six
+vessels, the rest of the crew being made up of two hundred and
+forty soldiers and eighty Canadians. After alternately blockading
+each other in the harbours of Presqu' Isle and Amherstburg, the
+hostile fleets met on the 10th of September in the shock of
+battle, off Put-in Bay, at the western end of Lake Erie. Perry's
+flagship soon struck her colours, but Barclay, his own ship a
+wreck, could not even secure the prize. Through the lack of naval
+skill of the inexperienced landsmen, the British ships fouled, and
+were helplessly exposed to the broadside of the enemy. The heavier
+metal of Perry's guns soon reduced them to unmanageable hulks. The
+carnage was dreadful. In three hours, all their officers and half
+of their crews were killed or wounded. Perry dispatched to
+Washington the sententious message: "We have met the enemy. They
+are ours."
+
+The result of this defeat was most disastrous. All the advantages
+resulting from Brock's victory over Hull in the previous year were
+forfeited, Michigan was lost to the British, not again to be
+recovered. Proctor, short of provisions, cut off from supplies,
+exposed in flank and rear, and attacked in force in front, could
+only retreat. He dismantled the forts at Detroit and Amherstburg,
+destroyed the stores and public buildings, and fell back along the
+Thames with eight hundred and thirty white men, and five hundred
+Indians under Tecumseh. Harrison followed rapidly with three
+thousand five hundred men, several hundred of whom were cavalry,
+of which Proctor had none. He fell upon the British rear-guard at
+Moraviantown, October 4th, and captured over a hundred prisoners,
+and all the stores and ammunition. Proctor was forced the
+following day to fight at a disadvantage, on ill-chosen ground. He
+had also neglected to break down the bridges behind him, or to
+defend his position with breastworks, and only six hundred men
+were brought into action against sixfold odds. The mounted
+Kentucky riflemen rode through and through the British ranks,
+dealing, death on every side. The brave Tecumseh was slain at the
+head of his warriors. He had fought desperately, even against the
+mounted riflemen. Springing at their leader. Colonel Johnson, he
+dragged him to the earth. The dragoons rallied around their chief,
+and Tecumseh fell, pierced with bullets. The rout was complete.
+Proctor, with a shattered remnant of his troops, retreated through
+the forest to
+
+Burlington Heights, where, with two hundred and forty war-wasted
+men, he effected a junction with Vincent's command, which had been
+compelled for a time to raise the siege of Fort George, and lake
+up its old position. Harrison, the American general, assumed the
+nominal government of the western part of Upper Canada. [Footnote:
+See Withrow's History of Canada, pp. 318-322.]
+
+In these stirring scenes, Captain Villiers and Zenas Drayton bore
+an active part. After the harvest Zenas, eager for active service,
+had volunteered to join Proctor in the west, and had shared his
+disastrous retreat and defeat. From the camp at Burlington, he
+forwarded by Neville Trueman a letter to his sister Kate. The
+writing, grammar, and spelling were not quite as good as they
+might have been; but the schoolmaster was not abroad in Upper
+Canada in the early part of the century as he is now. The
+following is a copy of the letter, _vertatim et literatim_:--
+
+IN CAMP AT BURLINGTON HEIGHTS,
+October 10.
+
+"I take my pen in hand, leastways the quartermaster's, which he
+lent me, to let you know that I am well and hope you are enjoying
+the same blessing, also father and the sorel colt, about which I
+am mighty particular, as my roan has fallen lame. You will have
+heard about the fight at Moraviantown. It was a bad bizness. We
+was dead-beat with marching day after day, from Fort Maiden; and
+Harrison,--that's the Yankee general,--had a strong body of
+cavalry and captured nearly all our stores and amunishun. Our
+kurnel seemed to have kind of lost his head, too; (leastways,
+that's what I heared Captain Villiers say) and never broke down a
+single bridge, nor blockaded the road behind us. A few of us
+Niagara boys could soon have felled some trees that would stop
+their big guns pretty quick, but we had no axes. Backwoods
+fighting has to be done in backwoods way, with the axe and spade
+as much as with the musket. But some of these red coats fit in
+Spain with Wellington, and think what they don't know about
+fighting ain't worth knowing.
+
+"Well, at Moraviantown was an Indian church, built by a Dutch
+missionary from Pennsylvany, and a few houses, and our kurnel gave
+the word to halt and make a stand against the enemy. But the
+ground along the River Thames was black and mucky, almost like a
+swamp, and we was soon fagged out. Afore we knowed it almost, the
+Kentucky mounted rifles was on us a-shouting like mad. They rid
+right through our lines, cutting and hacking with their heavy
+sabres, and then they formed behind us and began firing with their
+muskets. Our line was completely broken, and badly cut up, and
+most of our fellows threw down their arms and surrendered on the
+spot. They could'nt do much else.
+
+"But Tecumseh never showed the white feather a bit. He and his
+braves was all painted and plumed, and he wore on his naked breast
+the King George's medal Crock gave him, and they emptied a good
+many saddles from behind the trees. When they saw it going so hard
+with our fellows, they yelled their war-whoop and rushed at the
+dragoons. Tecumseh pulled their kurnel off his horse, and was
+fighting like a wild cat when a dozen mounted rifles spurred to
+the spot, and riddled him with bullets. We'll never see his like
+again, Kate. No white man or red-skin ever was a better soldier.
+He died for his country like a hero, as he was. He should long be
+remembered, Captain Villiers says, by every Canadian as the
+bravest of the brave. [Footnote: An attempt was made in 1877, to
+identify his grave in order to pay fitting honours to his bones,
+but without success. His chief memorial has been the giving of his
+name to a township of that Canada for which he gave his life.
+
+An American poet has thus commemorated Tecumseh's last conflict
+with Colonel Johnson;
+
+ "The moment was fearful; a mightier foe
+    Had ne'er swung his battle-axe o'er him;
+  But hope nerved his arm for a desperate blow.
+    And Tecumseh fell prostrate before him.
+  He fought in defending his kindred and
+    With a spirit most loving and loyal,
+  And long shall the Indian, warrior sing
+    The deeds of Tecumseh the royal."]
+
+"Captain Villiers rallied a couple of companies and brought us off
+after a smart skermish. You'd think the Captain was in love with
+death, he was so reckless of his life. We made forced marches
+almost day and night, till we got to Ancaster; and, I tell you,
+glad men we was when we saw Vincent's lines. We're kind of rested
+now. Trueman was as good as a surgeon at dressing wounds and the
+like, and he had enough of it to do, besides his preaching and
+praying, and writing letters for the men. I got a scratch myself,
+but I thought I'd try and write to you. But I have to sit on the
+ground and write on a drum head, and its kind of tiresome.
+
+"No more at present from your loving brother,
+
+"Zenas.
+
+"Captain Villiers has asked me to add a post-scriptum, sending his
+polite regards."
+
+This was the first letter Kate had ever received in her life, for
+in these days His Majesty's mails were not heavily burdened with
+private correspondence; and she had never been further from home
+than to York once with her father in a schooner, to see the
+opening of the Parliament. She read her letter eagerly in her
+room, and then rushed back to the parlour exclaiming,
+
+"O Mr. Trueman, is he badly hurt?"
+
+"Zenas, do you mean?" asked the young preacher. "Well nothing
+dangerous if he keeps quiet; but he has a pretty severe sabre cut
+on his sword arm. But he's well cared for. Captain Villiers looks
+after him like a brother."
+
+"How kind of him," said Kate, with tears of gratitude in her eyes.
+
+"It is only paying a debt he owes you, I am sure," replied
+Neville; but as if unwilling to detract a particle from his merit,
+he added, "He behaved very bravely in the late action, and his
+praise is in every body's mouth at Vincent's camp."
+
+"Who? Zenas? I am sure of that," replied Kate proudly.
+
+"Zenas played a gallant part too. His wound is proof of that,"
+answered Mr. Trueman, "but I was speaking of the Captain."
+
+"Of course," said Kate, somewhat coldly, "but he is not my brother
+you know," and the conversation turned in another channel.
+
+We now proceed to notice briefly the progress of the war
+elsewhere. The Americans having overrun so large a part of Upper
+Canada, were free to concentrate their efforts on the reduction of
+Kingston and Montreal. Wilkinson, Commander-in-Chief of the forces
+on the Niagara and Upper St. Lawrence frontiers, received
+instructions to effect a junction with the "Army of the North"
+about to advance from Lake Champlain for the subjugation of Lower
+Canada. There were comparatively few British troops in the lower
+province, and only three thousand active militia, under General
+Sheaffe, for the protection of a thousand miles of frontier.
+
+In pursuance of the American plan of invasion, on the 24th of
+October, an army of nine thousand men, with ample artillery, under
+General Wilkinson, rendezvoused at Grenadier Island, near
+Sackett's Harbour; but the stone forts of Kingston, garrisoned by
+two thousand men under De Rottenburg, protected that important
+naval station from attack even by a fourfold force. Wilkinson,
+therefore, embarking his army in three hundred batteaux, protected
+by twelve gun-boats, in the bleak November weather threaded the
+watery mazes of the Thousand Islands in his menacing advance on
+Montreal. A British "corps of observation," eight hundred strong,
+under Colonel Morrison, followed the enemy along the river bank. A
+number of gun-boats also hung on the rear of the American
+flotilla, and kept up a teasing fire, to their great annoyance and
+injury. Wilkinson slowly made his way down the St. Lawrence,
+halting his army from time to time, to repel attack. Near
+Prescott, his flotilla of batteaux suffered considerably by a
+cannonade from the British batteries, as they were passing that
+place on a moonlight night. The molestation that he received from
+Morrison's corps and from the loyal local militia was so great
+that he was forced to land strong brigades on the Canadian shore
+in order to secure a passage for his boats. At the head of the
+Long Sault Rapids, Wilkinson detached General Boyd with a force of
+over two thousand men, to crush the opposing British corps. The
+collision took place at Chrysler's Farm,--a name thenceforth of
+potent memory. The battle-ground was an open field, with the river
+on the right, the woods on the left. For two hours the conflict
+raged. But Canadian valour and discipline prevailed over twofold
+odds, and the Americans retreated to their boats, leaving behind
+one of their guns captured by the British. Their loss in this
+engagement was over three hundred killed and wounded,--more than
+twice that of their opponents. Wilkinson's disorganized force
+precipitately descended the Long Sault Rapids, and awaited at St.
+Regis the approach of Hampton's army. It was destined to wait in
+vain.
+
+The invasion of Lower Canada by way of Lake Champlain had also
+been attended with serious disasters. Early in September, General
+Hampton, with a well appointed army of five thousand men, advanced
+from Plattsburg on that lake, with a view to a junction with
+Wilkinson's army, and a combined attack on Montreal. On the 21st
+of October he crossed the border, and pushed forward his forces
+along both sides of the Chateauguay River. Sir George Prevost
+called for a levy of the sedentary militia, who rallied loyally
+for the defence of their country. Colonel De Salaberry, with four
+hundred Voltigeurs,--sharpshooters every one,--took up a strong
+position at the junction of the Chateanguay with the Outarde,
+defended by a breastwork of logs and abattis. General Izzard, with
+a column three thousand five hundred strong, attempted to dislodge
+him. The Voltigeurs held the enemy well in check till they were in
+danger of being surrounded by sheer force of numbers. By a clever
+ruse, De Salaberry distributed his buglers widely through the
+woods in his rear, and ordered them to sound the charge. The
+enemy, thinking themselves assailed in force, everywhere gave way,
+and retreated precipitately from the field. Hampton soon retired
+across the borders to his entrenched camp at Plattsburg.
+Wilkinson, sick in body and chagrined in mind, learning the
+shameful defeat of the "Grand Army of the North," abandoned the
+idea of further advance on Montreal, scuttled his boats and
+batteaux, and retired into winter quarters on the Salmon River,
+within the United States boundary. Here he formed an entrenched
+camp, and sheltered his defeated army in wooden huts all the
+following spring.
+
+Thus the patriotism and valour of some fifteen hundred Canadian
+troops hurled hack from our country's soil two invading armies of
+tenfold strength, and made the names of Chrysler's Farm and
+Chateanguay memories of thrilling power, and pledges of the
+inviolable liberty of our land. [Footnote: See Withrow's History of
+Canada, 8vo. ed, pp. 322-325.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+ELDER CASE IN WAR TIME.
+
+
+We now return to trace the progress of events in Upper Canada.
+After the British disasters on Lake Erie, and at Moravian Town,
+Sir George Prevost instructed Vincent to fall back on Kingston,
+abandoning the western peninsula to the enemy--a desperate
+resolve, only to be adopted in the last extremity. At a council of
+war held at Burlington Heights, however, it was wisely decided by
+Vincent and his officers to stand their ground as long as
+possible. Colonel McClure, the commandant of the American force,
+was strongly posted at Twenty Mile Creek, and his foraging parties
+ravaged the country, and pillaged the inhabitants.
+
+The season for active operations in the field having now passed,
+the Canadian militia were dismissed to their homes with
+instructions to hold themselves in readiness for immediate action
+should necessity demand their aid. Zenas Drayton had returned to
+The Holms, quite recovered of his wound and covered with glory by
+the distinction it had conferred upon him. He strode about with a
+martial air, to the undisguised admiration of the maids of the
+household and of all the damsels of the neighbourhood. His
+father's eyes followed him sometimes with a look of pride, but
+oftener with one of glistening wistfulness, for in these troublous
+times pre-eminence of merit was pre-eminence of peril. But Kate
+lavished all the love and homage of her woman's heart upon her
+brother, as the ideal hero of her dreams. The lad was in a fair
+way to be spoiled, if he was not also pretty sure to have the
+conceit taken, out of him in the stern school of adversity.
+
+One evening, early in December, the family were sitting around
+their kitchen fire, which snapped and roared up the wide chimney
+throat as merrily as though such a thing as war had never been
+known. The squire and Zenas sat on opposite sides of the hearth
+comparing the old soldier's reminiscences of the Revolutionary War
+with the boy's recent military experiences. Between them sat Kate
+as she had sat on that memorable evening, more than a year before,
+on the eve of the fatal fight of Queenston Heights. How much she
+had lived in that short time! The outbreak of the war had found
+her a light-hearted girl; she had now the graver mien and
+sometimes the thought-weighted expression of a woman. But to-
+night, a look of happy contentment rested on her face an she gazed
+musingly on the glowing embers, or occasionally took part in the
+conversation of her father and brother.
+
+Suddenly was heard without the fierce harking of the mastiff
+watch-dog, which as suddenly subsided and was followed by a quick,
+joyous yelp of recognition. Shuffling feet were then heard in the
+outer kitchen, stamping off the snow.
+
+"Who can that he?" asked the squire.
+
+"Some of the neighbours, I suppose," said Kate, for the hospitable
+hearth presented rare attractions to the rustic swains of the
+vicinity.
+
+"Some of Kate's admirers I should say," laughed Zenas, as he rose
+to open the door, "only they don't hunt in couples."
+
+Two snow-besprinkled, travel-stained men, came in out of the
+darkness and stood revealed in the glowing fire-light as Sandy
+McKay and Tom Loker.
+
+"Welcome home! However did you get here?" asked the squire warmly
+shaking their hands, and making room for them at the fire. "We
+thought you were prisoners in the hulks at Sackett's Harbour."
+
+"So we were," replied Tom Loker with all his old _sang
+froid_, "longer than we wanted."
+
+"How did you like picking oakum for the Yankees, Sandy?" asked
+Zenas.
+
+"Nae oakum picked I," said Sandy with an air of grim
+determination. "It was clean against ma conscience to gi' aid or
+comfort to the King's enemies in ony way."
+
+"What did they say to that?" asked the squire. "I thought they had
+a way of overcoming scruple's of that sort."
+
+"They could na owercome mine," said Sandy.
+
+"They jest clapped him in the bilboes and kept him there for one
+while," interjected Tom. "For me, I'd rather pick all day at the
+tarred rope though it _was_ hard on the fingers."
+
+"Did they use you well otherwise?" asked Kate with commiseration
+in her voice.
+
+"Prisoners can na be choosers, Miss Katharine," responded Sandy.
+"I suppose our treatment was naithing by ordinair. We hadna thae
+oaten bannocks and hot kale ye aftens gave us. But warst o' a' was
+bein' pent in the close hot hulks 'tween decks, whaur ye couldna
+stan' upricht wi'out knocking your heid again the timmers, and
+whaur ye gat na a sough o' the blessed air o' heaven save what
+stole in through the wee port-holes. How we tholed it sae lang I
+dinna ken. We faured better after yon Methody parson came."
+
+"Ay, he wor a good un, he wor," said Tom.
+
+"Who was he?" asked Kate with much interest.
+
+"He wuzzn't much to look at," continued Tom; "that is, there
+wuzzn't much of him. But he had a heart big as a mountain; ther
+wuz nothin he wouldn't do for them poor prisoners. 'He wuz come to
+preach salvation,' he said, 'to them that wuz bound.' Case wuz his
+name,--a leettle man, but worth mor'n a dozen ornary men. I
+remember one day he came 'long side with a boat load of tea,
+coffee, sugar, and several jars of milk for the prisoners; and he
+preached, and prayed, and exhorted so long that it seemed as if he
+couldn't tear hisself away."
+
+We may be allowed here to quote, in illustration of the labours of
+that heroic man, Elder Case, to whom Canadian Methodism owes such
+a debt of gratitude, extracts of two of his letters written about
+this period:
+
+"I was present," he says, "a few hours after the battle of
+Sackett's Harbour, where I witnessed a scene of death and carnage
+more moving than ever I saw before. Numbers lay cold in death.
+Many were groaning with their wounds and bleeding in their gore.
+Myself and two preachers were in Rutland, about ten miles from the
+Harbour, and were about to commence clearing off a camp-ground,
+but on hearing the cannon and constant roll of small arms we gave
+up the idea of work and betook ourselves to prayer. Such
+sensations I never realized before. We knew many of our
+acquaintances were there, among whom were brethren in the Lord. We
+thought on the condition of the women whose husbands and sons were
+exposed; the welfare of the country, where so much was at stake,
+and the honour of the nation concerned; but more than this a
+thousand times--the immortal interests of the thousands who were
+engaged in the contest, Americans and Englishmen, all of one
+creation--alike the subjects of redeeming blood, all accountable
+to the King of kings, and deserving the same condemnation. With
+these reflections we immediately called the household and fell
+upon our knees in prayer, and the Lord poured on us the spirit of
+supplication. We wept aloud and prayed most fervently to the Ruler
+of nations and Saviour of men that He would pardon our national
+crimes, save men from death, and have mercy on the souls of those
+constantly falling in battle. You may suppose that the constant
+sound of the instruments of death gave weight to our concern, and
+ardency to our petitions, with all that grace could inspire.
+
+"We then mounted our horses and set out for the scene of action,
+that, if possible, we might afford some assistance as ministers,
+and administer consolation to the wounded and dying. When we
+reached the Harbour the British had retreated to their shipping,
+leaving part of the dead and wounded upon the field of battle.
+These, with the others, were brought in from the field; the dead
+were stretched side by side in rows, and the wounded on beds and
+straw in as comfortable a condition as could be expected. We were
+conducted by a friend to the several hospitals, where I saw the
+distress of about eighty wounded. I cannot describe my feelings to
+hear the groans of the wounded and dying, some pierced through the
+body, others through the head, some bruised by the falling of
+timbers, others with broken bones, and one whose face was shot
+away (save his under jaw) by a grape-shot. He was yet breathing
+strong. This was a shocking view. Some were in such pain they
+could not be conversed with; others being fatigued and broken of
+their rest were asleep, but we conversed with many who manifested
+seriousness, whom we pointed to the suffering, bleeding Saviour,
+and exhorted them to look to Him for mercy. Here I saw how useful
+a faithful and feeling chaplain might be. The best opportunity
+would present itself in alleviating the miseries of men in some
+degree, by procuring such things as the distressed most needed,
+and by comforting them in their afflictions; and here he might be
+heard though at another time his counsel might be slighted.
+
+"Having been without bread for a long time, many of the militia
+were very hungry. Some wanted coffee, some milk, some bread. We
+gave them the biscuits we carried down, but could procure no milk
+for them. I really desired to stay with them; my heart thirsted to
+do them good.
+
+"On leaving the Harbour, we called on some brethren, who, with
+their neighbours, carried down several gallons of milk, and
+distributed it among the wounded. We also represented their case
+to the congregation at the close of the camp-meeting, when twenty-
+five dollars were contributed and put into proper hands, who
+purchased coffee, sugar, and other delicacies which they much
+needed, and from time to time distributed among them. For this
+they were very thankful, and both English and American blessed me
+with many good wishes when I again visited the hospital, four
+weeks ago.
+
+"Our preachers on the lines have frequent opportunities of
+preaching to the soldiers, who are very fond of hearing. We find
+it necessary to avoid all political discussions, both in public
+and in private.
+
+"Having been kindly indulged by Col. Larned, commandant to the
+prisoners, we most joyfully embraced the privilege of proclaiming
+to them the sweet liberty of the Gospel. They were called together
+by their officers, and a more attentive congregation I never
+expect to address again. As soon as we began to sing there was
+weeping; and immediately on our kneeling to prayer they all knelt
+down, and here and there we heard the voice of 'Amen' to our
+petition for their salvation. I could not solve this till after
+the service. To my great surprise and mingled grief and joy,
+several brethren and acquaintances from Canada came and made
+themselves known unto us; they were militia in arms, and were
+taken near Fort George. Among these were Messrs. George Lawrence,
+leader at Four-Mile Creek; William Clinton, from the head of the
+lake, and Russel Hawley, brother of David Hawley, of the Bay of
+Quinte. Their captivity was an affliction which made friends more
+consoling." [Footnote: Carroll's Case and his Cotemporaries. Vol.
+I., pp. 316-20.]
+
+On this statement, Dr. Carroll thus comments:
+
+"Mr. Case says the Canadian prisoners 'were militia in arms,' but
+Mr. Lawrence was an exception. The reader will remember that he
+was one of the Methodist Palatine stock, and brother of John
+Lawrence, the second husband of Mrs. Philip Embury. In the war-
+time he was so advanced in years as to be exempt from militia
+duty, although his sons bore arms, and one of them was wounded the
+day his father was taken prisoner. Mr. Lawrence, senior, kept
+about the peaceful avocations of his farm, and continued to meet
+his little class in his own house in those stormy times. He was
+made a prisoner at his own door at Cross-Roads. [Footnote: About
+four miles west of Niagara.] The writer, though only a child of
+four years, was there, and remembers well his arrest, as he does,
+all events consecutively since the battle of Niagara. The
+Americans were then in the occupancy of Fort George, and a portion
+of the British army were entrenched at the Cross-Roads, about half
+a mile from Mr. Lawrence's residence. A general skirmish Lad taken
+place all that morning between the pickets and advanced guards of
+the two armies. A body of only ten American Indians, or white men
+disguised like Indians, advanced toward Mr. Lawrence's, where an
+officer's mess was kept and a guard of thirty soldiers posted.
+
+"The cowardly officer of the guard, one _McLeod_ (let his
+name go down to posterity), threatened to 'cut off the first man's
+head who fired a shot;' and they fled to the camp, leaving the
+women and children to the mercy of the savages. These latter, when
+they came up, shot a corporal of the Glengaries, a Mr. Smith, who
+chanced to be there, and who boldly stood on his defence. Mr.
+Lawrence thinking the matter some _emeute_ between the
+soldiers and our own Indians, passed through the front gate into
+the road and gave one of the savages his hand, who took and held
+it, while another came up with an angry countenance and grasped
+the old gentleman by the neck-cloth, and made him a prisoner. He
+and poor Smith, whom only the courage of a woman, Mrs. Cassaily,
+kept the savages from killing outright in the house, whither he
+had crawled, were led; away from our sight. Smith died on the
+road. The alarm was given before any one had broken last. We all
+fled. The writer's mother and her four youngest children, passing
+the camp, found the army preparing for march, and an elder son and
+brother just mounting his horse with a view to coming to our
+rescue. We followed the retreating army through the Black Swamp
+road all that weary day, and broke a twenty-four hours' fast at
+sunset. We had the supreme felicity of extending the hospitalities
+of our humble house in York to Mr. Lawrence, whom we all revered
+and loved as a father, towards the close of the war, on his way
+back from captivity." [Footnote: Case and his Cotemporaries. pp.
+320-22.]
+
+We return from this digression to the group at the fire-side of
+the Holms.
+
+"How did you get away?" asked Zenas.
+
+"Tam here gied 'em French leave," replied Sandy, "He just droppit
+oot o' a port-hole into the water after the guard made his rounds
+and got awa in the mirk; I wonner he was na droonded."
+
+"So I wuz e'en a'most. But wuss still was that villian of a sentry
+blazing away at me. It's lucky the night wuz so dark. But I
+thought I'd have to give up afore I got to land. I had to lie on
+the beach panting like a dying mackerel. Well, I walked all night
+to Cape Vincent, and at daybreak I just borrowed one of Uncle
+Sam's boats and paddled across to Wolfe's Island, and soon after
+got to Kingston."
+
+"How much longer did _you_ stay, Sandy?" asked the squire,
+who said the story reminded him of the adventures of the Yankee
+prisoners in the _Jersey_ hulk during the old war.
+
+"Weel Tam here helped me tae win oot, as I may say," replied
+Sandy. "He hadna eneuch of fechtin', sae he mun join thae yoemanry
+corps that followed Wilkinson's army doun the St Lawrence, and
+took part in the battle o' Windmill Point. They took a hantle o'
+preesoners there, and sune cam a' cartel' they ca' it, offering an
+exchange. We did garrison duty at Fort Henry awhile, and learned
+the big gun drill; it may come in useful yet."
+
+"How got you here?" asked the squire. "you never marched from
+Kingston at this time of year, surely."
+
+"No," said Tom Loker, "the ten-gun brig _William and Mary_,
+Captain Richardson, master, wuz a-carrying stores to Colonel
+Vincent at Burlington, and we got leave to take passage in her. We
+reached there last night and walked all day to get here, and glad
+we are to get back to our old quarters, the best we've seen since
+we left them." [Footnote: Captain Richardson afterwards became a
+distinguished minister and bishop of the Methodist Episcopal
+Church of Canada, and was for many years Agent of the Upper Canada
+Bible Society. He was under fire at the taking of Oswego, and
+while engaged rigging a pump, a round shot carried away his arm.
+We have heard him say in his own parlor, picking up a carpet ball,
+"It was a ball like this that took off my arm." He became, on
+recovery from his wound, sailing master of Sir James Yoe's flag
+ship the _St Lawrence_, a position requiring much nautical
+skill, as the huge kraken drew twenty-three feet of water, and
+carried something like a hundred guns. Few men were better known
+or more esteemed in Canada than Bishop Richardson. He died in
+1875, full of years and full of honours, beloved and regretted by
+all classes of the community.] By this time Kate had a hearty
+supper ready for the wanderers, to which they did ample justice
+before returning with grateful hearts to their old lodgings in the
+capacious attic. By such privations and sufferings on the part of
+her faithful yeomanry, were the liberties of Canada maintained in
+those stormy days of war and conflict.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A DARK TRAGEDY--THE BURNING OF NIAGARA.
+
+
+The victory of the British arms in Lower Canada led to vigorous
+efforts to drive the American invaders out of the upper province.
+Lieutenant-General Drummond assumed command, and at once resolved
+to regain possession of Fort George. Early in December he
+despatched Colonel Murray from Burlington Heights with a force
+of five hundred regulars and Indians to drive in the marauding
+bands of the enemy that were pillaging the country. McClure, the
+American general, fell back on Niagara and Fort George, and,
+fearing an attack in force, and his garrison being much reduced,
+resolved to evacuate the fort and abandon the country. But before
+doing so he resolved, in obedience to instructions from the War
+Department at Washington, to perpetrate an act of inhuman
+barbarity which shall hand down his name to infamy so long as the
+story shall be told. In order to deprive the British troops of
+winter quarters he determined to burn the town of Niagara,
+leaving the innocent and non-combatant inhabitants, helpless
+women and little children, the sick and infirm, homeless and
+shelterless amid the rigours of a Canadian winter.
+
+It is one of the dread results of international conflict that the
+inhabitants of the hostile frontiers, who may have previously
+dwelt in good fellowship and neighbourly helpfulness, are often
+changed to deadly enemies, and even claim for their bitter
+hostility the sanctions of duty. There was one conspicuous
+exception on the banks of the Niagara. Mary Lawson, the daughter
+of the village miller and merchant of the little hamlet of
+Youngstown, that nestled under the wing of Fort Niagara on the
+American side of the river, was as blithe and bonnie a lass of
+eighteen summers as ever gladdened a father's heart. Admirers Mary
+had in plenty, but the must eligible of them all, in the opinion
+of the village gossips, was young Ensign Roberts, attached to the
+American forces at the Fort.
+
+Not so, however, thought Mary. The favoured of her heart was a
+smart young Canadian, who for some time had acted as clerk in her
+father's store, and had shortly before opened a small
+establishment of his own on the opposite side of the river, in the
+thriving village of Niagara. Every Sunday young Morton crossed in
+his own light skiff to attend church with Mary; and on summer
+evenings many were the pleasant sails they had upon the shining
+reaches of the river, watching the sun go down in golden glory in
+the bosom of blue Ontario, and the silver moon bathe in its pale
+light the bosky foliage of the shores, beneath which, dark and
+heavy, crouched the stealthy shadows, while the river rippled
+calmly by.
+
+With the outbreak of the war, however, these pleasant sails and
+visits ceased. George Morton naturally espoused the cause of his
+native country, with which, too, all his commercial interests were
+identified. This brought him at once under the ban of Mary's
+father, and his visits were interdicted. Ensign Roberts took
+advantage of the absence of his rival to press his suit, which
+Squire Lawson favoured as being likely, he thought, to wean Mary
+from her forbidden attachment to one who was now her country's
+foe. But he little knew the depth and the strength of a woman's
+affection. The more her royalist lover was aspersed and maligned,
+the more warmly glowed her love, the more firm was her resolve to
+be faithful unto death.
+
+In the action which led to the British evacuation of Fort George,
+young Morton took an active part in endeavouring to repel the
+invasion of his country. As barge after barge transferred to the
+shore, under cover of a heavy fire, the hostile force from the
+crescent-shaped fleet that lay moored on the blue bosom of the
+lake before the town, he with the militia company to which he was
+attached, was lying in a hollow near the beach, to check if
+possible the advance of the foe. A round shot from the fleet
+struck the ground in front of him, covering him with earth and
+breaking the arm with which he was loading his musket. At the same
+moment a bullet from the enemy struck his nearest comrade, passing
+right through his body as he lay upon the ground. A slight quiver
+convulsed his frame, and then it was at rest forever. As the foe
+advanced in force, driving back the British, George, unable to
+retreat as rapidly as the rest, was taken prisoner and with others
+sent across to the American fort.
+
+Personally, George Morton received every kindness from the officer
+and surgeons of the American hospital; and in the gentle
+ministrations of Mary Lawson, which he shared with the rest of the
+wounded, he found a compensation for all his sufferings. Upon his
+partial convalescence he was released on parole, and returned to
+Niagara to look after his disorganized and partially ruined
+business. By his skill and industry, aided by the fictitious
+prosperity caused by the presence of a numerous army, before the
+winter it had become again exceedingly flourishing, but only to be
+ruthlessly and completely destroyed.
+
+Amid the active preparations made for the transfer of the American
+forces and _materiel_ of war across the river, preparatory to
+the destruction of Niagara, intelligence of the atrocious design
+came to the knowledge of Mary Lawson, chiefly through the
+indignant dissent and remonstrance of some of McClure's own
+officers against the unsoldier-like cruelty. The intrepid girl's
+resolve was taken on the instant. She determined under cover of
+the night to give the alarm to Morton, and through him to the
+inhabitants, that they might, if possible, frustrate the infamous
+design, or at least rescue their moveable property from
+destruction.
+
+It required no small courage to carry out her purpose. The winter
+had set in early and severe. The river was running full of ice,
+which rendered crossing, especially by night, exceedingly
+perilous. To this was added the danger of being challenged, and it
+might be shot, by the sentries of the American camp. But when did
+true love in man or woman stop to calculate chances, or hesitate
+to encounter danger or even death for the beloved one?
+
+It was on the 9th of December--a bleak, cold, cloudy night--that
+Mary, having secured the aid of her father's faithful servant,
+Michael O'Brian, a jolly but rather stupid Irishman, who knew no
+fear, escaped through the window of her room after the family had
+retired to rest, which was not till near midnight, and set forth
+on her perilous mission of mercy. In order to avoid the American
+sentries they attempted to cross about a mile above the camp, and
+in the murky darkness, fearlessly launched their little boat,
+steering by the lights in the town, slumbering unconscious of its
+fate, where some patient watcher kept her vigil beside a sick bed.
+
+The dark water eddied and gurgled amid the ice-floes, from which a
+ghastly gleam was reflected, like that from the face of a corpse
+dimly seen amid the dark. Occasionally a huge fragment of ice
+would grate, and crash, and crunch against the frail ribs of the
+boat, as if eager to crush it and frustrate the generous purpose
+of its passengers. But the strong arm of O'Brian pushed a way
+through the ice, while Mary sat wrapped in her cloak and in busy
+meditation in the bottom of the boat.
+
+But they had not calculated on the strength, of the current, and
+the resistance of the ice. In spite of every effort they were
+being rapidly borne down the stream. Another danger stared them in
+the face. Should they be carried into the lake with the floating
+ice, they might before morning be drifted out of sight of land and
+perish miserably of cold or hunger; or be dashed upon the ice-
+bound shore, where they could hear the waves roar harshly, like
+sea-beasts howling for their prey.
+
+But the bitter north wind, which had been such a source of
+discomfort, now proved their salvation from this imminent danger.
+Blowing fresher every moment it arrested the ice-drift, and formed
+a solid barrier from shore to shore and extending far up the
+river. But this in turn effectually prevented the progress of the
+little boat which had almost readied the Canadian shore; and worse
+still, the dim grey light of morning began to dawn.
+
+Suddenly the sight of a black object in the middle of a white
+field of now dense ice, and the sound of O'Brian's oar striving to
+force a passage through, caught the watchful eye and ear of the
+sentry near whose beat they had unfortunately drifted.
+
+"Halt!" rang out sharp and clear on the frosty air the challenge
+of the sentry.
+
+"Faith an' it's halted fast enough I am," answered Mickey.
+
+"Who goes there?" repeated the sentry's voice.
+
+"Sure I don't go at all, that's what's the matther," said the
+boatman, unconsciously anticipating a slang phrase of later times.
+
+"Advance and give the countersign," exclaimed the enraged soldier,
+who in martinet obedience to discipline, would challenge a
+drowning man before trying to save him.
+
+"It's that same I would if I could," replied the bewildered
+Irishman, "but I can't walk on wather, and this ice-slush isn't
+much betther." "Unless you answer, I'll fire," shouted the sentry,
+to whom Mickey's maunderings, half drowned by the crashing ice and
+gusty wind, were unintelligible.
+
+"Au' that same is the very thing I want, for it's starved wid the
+cowld I am," said the shivering creature, who with characteristic
+ingenuity had failed to apprehend the meaning of the menace
+addressed to him. But a sudden flash and the dull thud of a bullet
+against the ice beside him interpreted to his sluggish brain the
+danger in which he stood.
+
+"The saints be betune us an' harm," he exclaimed, devoutly
+crossing himself. "Oh, sure ye won't murder a body in cowld blood
+who's kilt entirely already. It's half drownded and froze I am,
+without being riddled like a cullender wid your bullets as well."
+
+"Why, Mickey O'Brian!" exclaimed the astonished soldier, who had
+by the gun-flash recognized the familiar features of a quondam
+friend; "why on earth didn't you tell your name, man? I might have
+killed you as dead as a door-nail."
+
+"An' a purty thrickit 'ud be for ye, too, Tommy Daily. It's not ashamed
+of my name I am, an' if I'd know'd it was you, I'd tould ye before.
+But help us out of this an' I'll bear ye no malice whativer."
+
+The guard had turned out at the report of the gun, and getting
+such planks as were available laid them on the floating ice; but
+still they could not reach the boat. Tommy Daily with fertile
+ingenuity tying some twine to his ramrod fired it over the skiff,
+when it was easy to send out a strong fisherman's line, which Mick
+tied to the thwarts, and a dozen strong arms drew the boat
+ashore. [Footnote: The present writer witnessed the rescue of a
+shipwrecked crew, in the manner here described, near this very
+spot.]
+
+The benumbed form of Mary was borne to the guard-room, and Ensign
+Roberts, the officer of the night, immediately sent for.
+
+"Why, Miss Lawson!" he exclaimed with astonishment, "to what can
+we owe your presence at such a time and place as this?"
+
+"To the inhumanity of your commander, and to my desire to rescue
+an innocent people from its consequences."
+
+"I regret, Miss Lawson, that my military duty prevents my
+permitting you to carry out your generous purpose. You will be
+entertained hero as comfortably as our rude accommodation will
+allow till the river clears, when you will be sent safely home."
+
+"Is this your generosity to a fallen foe, Mr. Roberts?" she
+exclaimed; but, too proud to ask a favour from a discarded suitor,
+she relapsed into haughty silence.
+
+But Colonel McClure was not without plain-spoken remonstrance
+against his contemplated act of inhumanity. In the prosecution of
+his spiritual functions Neville Trueman had free access to the
+people of the town of Niagara, many of whom were members, of his
+church or congregation. Among these a large number of American
+soldiers were billeted, and very burdensome and unwelcome guests
+they were. From the unusual commotion and covert threats and hints
+dropped by the soldiers on the eve of the evacuation, Trueman
+apprehended some serious disaster to the towns-people. With the
+prompt energy by which he was characterized, he resolved to
+proceed to head-quarters and to intercede for the devoted town. He
+was received by Colonel McClure with a cold and repellent dignity,
+and obtained only evasive answers. As he was about to leave the
+presence of that officer, the Colonel said in a constrained
+manner,--
+
+"Mr. Trueman, I respect your calling, and respect your character;
+I therefore advise you if you have any personal effects in the
+town to secure them at once, or I will not be answerable for the
+results."
+
+"I have only a few books and clothes," said Neville, "but there
+are families here who have much at stake. Surely no evil can be
+intended those innocent and non-combatant people."
+
+"There exist reasons of military necessity which I cannot expect
+you to appreciate," said the Colonel, stiffly.
+
+"There are no reasons that can justify inhumanity," replied
+Neville, stoutly," and inhumanity of the gravest character it
+would be to injure the persons or the property of these
+defenceless people."
+
+The gallant Colonel seemed rather to wince under these words, but,
+as if anxious to exculpate himself, he replied, "An officer has no
+option in carrying out the instructions received from the military
+authorities."
+
+"That will not remove from you, sir, the responsibility of the
+act, if, as I infer, the wanton destruction of this town is
+intended," replied Neville, with significant emphasis. "I make
+bold to affirm that the act will be as unwise as it will be cruel.
+It will provoke bitter retaliation. It will tenfold intensify
+hostile feeling. I know these people. I have travelled largely
+through this province, and mingled with all classes. They are
+intensely loyal to their sovereign. They would die rather than
+forswear their allegiance. They will fight to the last man and
+last gun before they will yield. If wanton outrage be inflicted on
+this frontier, I predict that fire and sword shall visit your
+cities, and a heritage of hatred shall be bequeathed to posterity,
+that all good men, for all time, will deplore."
+
+"Young man, I admire your zeal, although I may not appreciate your
+sympathy for a country which I understand is not your own,"
+answered the officer, haughtily. "I am, however, responsible for
+my acts not to you, but to the War Department at Washington. This
+interview is fruitless. I see no advantage to be gained by
+prolonging it."
+
+"Sir," said Neville, solemnly, as he rose to leave, "you are
+responsible to a higher tribunal than that at Washington. I have
+not learned to limit my sympathies and my instincts of humanity by
+a boundary line. You are a scholar, sir, and perhaps you remember
+the words of the Latin poet: 'Homo sum; humani nihil a me alien um
+puto.' I have the honour to wish you good day," and he bowed
+himself out.
+
+As he returned to the town he beheld soldiers going from house to
+house warning the people to turn out and remove their property,
+and proceeding, with inhuman alacrity, to set the buildings on
+fire. Then might be seen the women--most of the men were away with
+the troops--hastily gathering together their own and their
+children's clothing and a few treasured heirlooms, and with tears
+and bitter lamentation leaving their sheltering roof, going forth
+like the patriarch, not knowing whither they went The frost had
+set in early and severe. The snow lay deep upon the ground. Yet at
+thirty minutes' warning, of a hundred and fifty houses in Niagara,
+all were fired save one. There was scarce time to rescue the
+nursling babe, and the aged and infirm, from the doomed dwellings.
+The wife of Counsellor Dickson lay on a sick bed. Her husband was
+a prisoner on the American side of the river. The unfortunate lady
+"was carried, bed and all, and placed in the snow before her own
+door, where, shivering with cold, she beheld her house and all
+that was in it consumed to ashes."[Footnote: Jaines. Quoted by
+Auchinleck.] Of the valuable library, which had cost between five
+and six hundred pounds sterling, scarcely a book escaped.
+
+Late into the night burned the fires, reddening the midnight
+heavens with the lurid flames of comfortable homesteads, well-
+filled barns and is stacks of grain. Herds of affrighted cattle
+rushed wildly over the adjacent meadows, the kine lowing piteously
+with distended udders for the accustomed hands of their milkers at
+eventide. Of the hundred and fifty dwellings fired, only two or
+three escaped by accident, one of which still remains; and four
+hundred women and children were left to wander in the snow or seek
+the temporary shelter of some remote farm-house or Indian wigwam
+in the woods. Some wandered for days in the adjacent dismal "Black
+Swamp," feeding on frost-bitten cranberries, or on a casual rabbit
+or ground-hog.
+
+But a swift avenging followed the dastardly outrage. In two days
+the British re-occupied the site of the smouldering town, now but
+a waste; of blackened embers, which the Americans had, evacuated--
+horse, foot, and artillery--not a hoof being left behind. So
+precipitate had been their retreat, however, that a large quantity
+of stores, together with the barracks and tents, were left, which
+fell into the hands of the British. As the old red-cross flag was
+run again on the flag-staff of Fort George, an exultant cheer went
+up to heaven, and not a few eyes of those hardy militiamen were
+filled with tears. Their homes were but heaps of ashes, it was
+true; but their country remained; its soil was relieved from the
+foot of the invader, and their loyal allegiance to their sovereign
+had been shown by their costly sacrifice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+A STERN NEMESIS--A RAVAGED FRONTIER.
+
+
+On the evening of that eventful day, again a family gathering took
+place at The Holms--for so closely had trial, adventure, and
+suffering for a common cause knit together the guests and inmates,
+that they seemed like a family group. The sword of the
+grandfather, above the mantel, was now crossed by the cavalry
+sabre of Zenas, and the old Brown Bess was flanked by the
+dragoon's carbine. Good cheer in abundance spread the board, for
+the broad acres of the farm and the kindly ministries of nature
+had not stinted their yield on account of the red battle-year. But
+an air of pensiveness, almost of dejection, broken by sharp
+outbursts of indignation marked the social converse. Many
+incidents of privation and suffering, in consequence of the
+burning of the town, were told. Indeed the resources of the
+household had been taxed to the utmost to relieve the pressing
+distress, and every room and guest-chamber was filled with
+houseless refugees from the inclemency of the weather.
+
+"There will be a grim revenge for this, before long," said Captain
+Villiers, who had embraced the earliest opportunity to renew his
+homage at a shrine that had almost unconsciously become very dear.
+
+"In which I hope to take part," interjected Zenas, with a fierce
+gesture.
+
+"We must carry war into Africa," continued the Captain. "Hitherto,
+for the most part, we have acted on the defensive. The time has
+come when we must repay invasion by invasion, and outrage by
+retaliation." So does the cruel war-spirit grow by that on which
+it feeds.
+
+"That 'ere fort with its big guns a-grinnin' an' growlin' like
+mastiffs in their kennels, has bullied us long enough," said Tom
+Loker, who availed himself of the democratic simplicity of the
+times to express his opinion.
+
+"It wadna be sae muckle a job to tak it, I'm thinkin'," said Sandy
+McKay, looking up from his musket that he was oiling and cleaning;
+"it's no sae strang as it luiks. I ken its rayelins and demilunes
+unco weel, bein' sax weeks a prisoner wi'in thae walls. Gin your
+ance ower thae brig and inside the outworks it wad be easy eneuch
+tae win au' haud the fort."
+
+"That's the rub," said the squire, "to gain a footing and win the
+outworks. If they keep a vigilant watch it would be a difficult
+task. The only way would be to surprise the garrison. A few stout-
+hearted men, well supported, might overpower the guard. That's the
+way Ethan Allen took Ticonderoga, in the old war."
+
+"Father," said Zenas, with enthusiasm, "It can be done, and must
+be done, and I must help do it. I claim a place in the forlorn
+hope. I'd like to be the first man in."
+
+The old man winced a little at the awful contingency of death and
+danger for his soldier boy, so close at hand; and Kate gazed at
+him, with tears of sympathy filling her eyes and the blood
+mantling her cheek.
+
+"As God wills, my son," answered the sire. "I said the time might
+come when you should bear the battle's brunt. If your heart calls
+you I will not say nay. I gave you to your country, and dare not
+hold you back."
+
+"Young maister," said McKay, with Scottish fidelity, "whaur ye
+gae, I'll gae. I'm an auld mon, noo, an' how better could I gi' ma
+life, gin sae it's written, than for my King? Forbye I ken weel the
+place, an' sae God wills, I can guide ye intill it by nicht as weel
+as ithers could by day."
+
+"I'm not the man to shirk the call to arms when the bugle sounds,"
+remarked Tom Loker, "but I must say I've no stomach for this going
+before I'm sent. It's a sheer temptin' o' Providence, seems to
+me."
+
+"Hoot, mon," said Sandy, "what is to be, is to be. Gin ye're to
+fa', ye'll fa' at the rear o' thae column as sune as at the heid
+o' it, an' I'm gey sure the first is the mair honourable place."
+"Had I two score gallant fellows like you and Zenas," broke in
+Captain Villiers, grasping the hilt of his sword, "with a couple
+of companies to support us, I'd guarantee the fort would he taken
+before a week. Something more will come of this, I warrant"
+
+Full of this daring scheme, the very next day he proposed to
+Colonel Murray the bold plan. That officer sent for McKay,
+questioned him thoroughly as to the fort and its defences, and had
+him draw a rude plan of its approaches, curtains, and bastions. He
+heartily fell in with the idea and made immediate preparation for
+its execution.
+
+The night of the eighteenth of December was moonless and dark. A
+column of five hundred men of the Forty-First and Hundredth
+regiments, a grenadier company of the First Royals, and fifty
+militia, filed out of the portals of Fort George, bearing scaling
+ladders and other implements of assault, as silent, as ghosts. At
+the head marched the forlorn hope of twenty men, among whom were
+Captain Villiers, Zenas, and McKay. But each man, though he bore
+his life in his hand, walked proudly erect, as if with the
+assurance of victory, or of a reward more glorious than even
+victory. They marched several miles up the river to a spot where a
+crossing could safely be effected without discovery or
+interruption.
+
+Now began the stealthy march on the devoted fort. Like an avenging
+Nemesis, shod with silence, the column approached the unconscious
+garrison. Every order was conveyed in a whisper. No clink of
+sabre, nor clatter of muskets was heard. The snow, which had begun
+to fall, muffled the tread and deadened each sound. The column
+wound on in the hush of midnight over the wintry waste, stealing
+like a tiger on its prey. The piquets, lulled into security by the
+storm, were avoided by a _detour_. Now amid the blackness of
+night, the deeper blackness of the fort loomed up. McKay and Zenas
+moved to the front beside Captain Villiers who whispered his
+commands. McKay silently led the way to the sally-port. A huge
+grenadier grasped the sentry by the throat to prevent his giving
+the alarm. The forlorn hope glided through the small opening of
+the sally-port, and, well instructed beforehand, rushed to the
+main gateway, overpowered the guard, and flung open the huge iron-
+studded gates. The British column now poured in, and before drum
+had rolled or bugle rung had reached the central quadrangle. The
+garrison awoke from slumber only to a futile struggle with an
+exasperated foe, and after a short resistance were compelled to
+surrender. In this assault the loss of the victors was only six
+men--a circumstance almost unparalleled in military annals--that
+of the vanquished unhappily was considerably greater.
+
+Three hundred prisoners, three thousand stand of arms, and an
+immense quantity of stores were captured--the latter a great boon
+to the well-nigh famished people of the devastated town of
+Niagara. [Footnote: The writer was intimately acquainted with an
+old resident on the Niagara River, who in his youth had been a
+prisoner in the American fort, and formed part of the forlorn hope
+which aided in its capture. From him many interesting incidents of
+the war were learned.]
+
+We would fain here close this record of retaliation. Enough had
+been done for British honour and for the punishment of the enemy.
+But when dread Bellona cries "Havoc," and slips the leashes of the
+hellish dogs of war, the instincts of humanity seem lost, and
+baptized men seem in danger of reverting to unredeemed savagery.
+Trueman expostulated, and pleaded, and prayed for a mitigation of
+the penalty inflicted on the vanquished, but in vain. In ruthless
+retaliation for the burning of Niagara, the British ravaged the
+American frontier, and gave to the flames the thriving towns of
+Lewiston, Manchester, Black Rock, and Buffalo. At the latter
+place, an American force, two thousand strong, made a stout
+resistance, but was defeated, with the loss of four hundred men,
+by the British, with only one-third the number of troops, December
+30.
+
+Thus the holy Christmas-tide, God's pledge of peace and good-will
+toward men, rose upon a fair and fertile frontier scathed and
+blackened by wasting and rapine, and the year went out in "tears
+and misery, in hatred and flames and blood."
+
+The marks of recent conflict were everywhere visible, and--saddest
+evidence of all--was the multitude of soldiers' graves whose
+silent sleepers no morning drum-beat should arouse forever. The
+peaceful parish church of Niagara had been turned into a hospital,
+where, instead of praise and prayer, were heard the groans of
+wounded and dying men. Everything in fact gave indications of
+military occupation and the prevalence of the awful reign of war.
+
+Seldom has the frightful destructiveness of war been more
+strikingly illustrated. The commerce of the United States was
+completely crippled by the blockade of her ports, her revenue
+falling from $24,000,000 to $8,000,000. Admiral Cockburn, of the
+British Navy, swept the Atlantic coast with his fleet, destroying
+arsenals and naval stores wherever his gun-boats could penetrate.
+Great Britain also recovered her old prestige in more than one
+stubborn sea-fight with a not unworthy foe. On a lovely morning in
+June, the United States frigate "Chesapeake," of forty-nine guns,
+stood out of Boston harbour amid the holiday cheers of a
+sympathizing multitude, to answer the challenge to a naval duel of
+H. M. S. "Shannon," of fifty-two guns. They were soon locked
+muzzle to muzzle in deadly embrace, belching shot and grape
+through each other's sides, while the streaming gore incarnadined
+the waves. The British boarders swarmed on the "Chesapeake's"
+deck, and soon, with nearly half his crew killed or wounded, she
+struck her colours to the red-cross flag. In five days the
+shattered and blood-stained vessels crept together into Halifax
+harbour, the American captain, the gallant Lawrence, lying in his
+cabin cold in death; the British commander, the chivalric Broke,
+raving in the delirium of a desperate wound. The slain captain was
+borne to his grave amid the highest honours paid to his valour by
+a generous foe. Amid the roar of Broadway's living tide, beneath
+the shadow of old Trinity Church, a costly monument commemorates
+his heroic and untimely death. A few days later, the British brig
+"Boxer," of fourteen guns, surrendered to the U. S. brig
+"Enterprise," of sixteen guns. In one quiet grave, overlooking
+Casco Bay, beside which the writer, one sunny summer day,
+meditated on the vanity of earthly strife, their rival captains
+lie buried side by side. Some kindly hand had decked their graves
+with tiny flags, which in sun and shower had become dimmed and
+faded; and planted fair and innocent flowers which breathed their
+beauty and fragrance amid the shadows of death. So fade and pass
+away the false and transient glory of arms. So bloom and flourish
+in immortal beauty the supernal loveliness of virtue and piety.
+
+It is a relief to turn away from these scenes of war and bloodshed
+to the record of human affection and heroic self-sacrifice and
+devotion.
+
+George Morton, the faithful Canadian patriot, crippled,
+impoverished, sick at heart, and despairing of ever claiming Mary
+Lawson as his bride, returned after the burning of his native town
+to the ashes of his ruined home to begin life over again. A
+partial indemnity from the Government enabled him to resume
+business on a modest scale, which, by thrift and industry, grew
+and increased with the gradual growth of the town. Ensign Roberts
+was among the slain at the taking of the Fort, and Mr. Lawson's
+property was destroyed by the conflagration that followed. The old
+man, broken by his losses and by exposure, gradually sunk, and
+died, Mary nursing him devotedly to the last. After years of delay
+the love of the no longer youthful pair found its consummation in
+a happy marriage, followed by a calmly tranquil wedded life.
+
+"Although this cruel war," whispered George to his bride upon
+their wedding-day, "has robbed us of all our own worldly wealth,
+has cost you your father, and has left me a cripple for life, yet
+it could not take from us the priceless wealth of our affection."
+
+"Nay, dear heart," she replied, "the long trial of our love has
+purified it from earthly dross, and proved it the type of love
+immortal in the skies."
+
+In after years, to children and to children's children on his
+knees, George Horton used often to recount the perils of those
+fearful scenes of war and wasting; but no theme was more pleasing
+to himself and to his youthful auditory, while the comely matron
+in her mature beauty blushed at the praise of her own heroism,
+than the episode of the fair Mary Lawson's midnight adventure in
+the ice on the Niagara, in the terrible winter of the war.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+TORONTO OF OLD.
+
+
+The state of religion in Canada could not be expected to be
+prosperous during the prevalence of the demoralizing influences of
+war. The Methodist circuit work, as well as the work of other
+denominations, was very much disorganized. It was, from the
+interruption of intercourse caused by the unnatural conflict,
+without any supervision of the American Conference by which the
+Canadian preachers had been stationed. They were consequently left
+to their own resources to carry on their work as best they could,
+and most of them struggled bravely, like Neville Trueman, the
+example we have selected for illustration, against the various
+obstacles in their way--the recklessness and spiritual
+indifference begotten by the war--and the unjust and cruel
+suspicions and aspersions to which they were themselves subject.
+
+The Rev. Henry Ryan, as Presiding Elder of the Upper Canada
+District--extending from the banks of the St. Lawrence to the
+banks of the St. Clair--endeavoured, by frequent journeyings
+throughout the vast field, to encourage both preachers and people
+in carrying on the work of God, amid the disheartenments and
+difficulties of the times. The Rev. Ezra Adams, in his
+recollections of the period, says, "He used to travel from
+Montreal to Sandwich, holding Quarterly Meetings: to accomplish
+which, he kept two horses at his home at the Twenty Mile Creek,
+and used one on his trip from the Niagara Circuit on his down
+country route; the other he used on his Sandwich route."
+
+Supplementing this statement with additional facts, the Rev. Dr.
+Carroll, in his invaluable "History of Canadian Methodism,"
+further remarks: "As his income was very small and precarious, he
+eked out the sum necessary to support his family by selling a
+manufacture of his own in his extensive journeys, and by hauling,
+with his double team in winter time, on his return route from
+Lower Canada, loads of Government stores or general merchandise."
+Such were the shifts to which Methodist preachers had to resort in
+order to sustain themselves in a work which they would not desert.
+Mr. Ryan, by his loyalty, gained the confidence and admiration of
+all friends of British supremacy, and, by his abundant and heroic
+labours, the affections of the God-fearing part of the community.
+During the progress of the war he held three Conferences, one as
+we have seen at St. David's; another, in 1813, at Matilda; and a
+third, the following year, at the old Methodist settlement of the
+Bay of Quinte.
+
+After the burning of Niagara, and the complete disorganization of
+his circuit by the border strife, Neville Trueman sought an
+interview with his Presiding Elder during one of his periodical
+visits to the town of York. In consequence of the military
+exigencies of the times, navigation was maintained across the lake
+by armed brigs and schooners during the greater part of the
+winter. Taking advantage of one of these trips, Neville obtained
+permission from the military authorities to take passage in the
+armed schooner _Princess Charlotte_ to York. The voyage was
+tedious and the weather bleak, so he suffered severely from the
+cold. As York harbour was frozen over, he landed on the ice and
+made his way to the twice-captured capital. It presented anything
+but a striking appearance, unless for dreariness and ruin. The
+half-burned timbers of the Parliament Building, Jail, and Court-
+House, showed in all their hideous blackness through the snow that
+failed to conceal beneath its mantle of white the desolation of
+the scene. In its most flourishing estate before the war, the town
+hardly numbered some nine hundred inhabitants, whose residences,
+for the most part humble wooden structures, were grouped along the
+loyally-named King Street, near the river Don. At the western
+extremity of the straggling town were the ruin-mounds of the fort,
+rent and torn by the terrific explosion of its magazine. On the
+banks of the Don, and commanding the bridge across that sluggish
+stream, as though the enemy thought it not worth the trouble of
+destroying, stood a rude log blockhouse, loop-holed for musketry,
+the upper story projecting over the lower, after the manner of
+such structures. [Footnote: A cut of this is given in "Lossing's
+Field Book of the War."]
+
+Neville proceeded to the hospitable house of Dr. Stoyles, on King
+Street, near the intersection of the little-used road leading to
+the country,--Yonge Street, now the great artery of the
+circulation of the city. Till the erection of the first humble
+meeting-house, the Methodist preaching was often held in Dr.
+Stoyles' house. That gentleman also gave a cordial welcome to the
+travelling preachers of the day, and here Trueman found, as he
+expected, Presiding Elder Henry Ryan.
+
+The following is the account given by Dr. Scadding, our Canadian
+historiographer and antiquarian, in his charming book "Toronto of
+Old," of the mother Church of Methodism in this goodly city, the
+parent of the fair sisterhood which now adorn its streets: "The
+first place of public worship of the Methodists was a long, low,
+wooden building, running north and south, and placed a little way
+back from the street. Its dimensions were forty by sixty feet. In
+the gable end towards the street were two doors, one for each sex.
+Within, the custom obtained of dividing the men from the women;
+the former sitting on the right hand on entering the building, the
+latter on the left."
+
+The learned Doctor then goes on to illustrate historically the
+separation of the sexes in places of public worship, from the time
+of the Jews and the primitive church down to the modern Greek
+Church, so that at least the early Methodists had good precedent
+for their usage.
+
+This old church was situated on the south side of King Street, on
+the corner of Jordan Street, so named from Mr. Jordan Post, the
+pioneer goldsmith of the capital, while the street in the rear
+commemorates the name of Melinda, his wife. When the Adelaide
+Street Church, which, for the time, was a very imposing brick
+structure, was built on what was then the public square, the old
+mother church was converted into a "Theatre Royal,"--to what base
+uses must we come!
+
+All this, however, at the time of which we write, was still in the
+future; and Elder Ryan preached and prayed and exhorted to a
+little company in the worthy Dr. Stoyles' great kitchen, which was
+employed for that purpose as being the most commodious room in the
+house. It was the day of small things for Methodism in the capital
+of Upper Canada. But of the religious zeal of the little company
+of believers, we may judge from the fact that several of the
+members of the society came from two to eight miles, through the
+proverbially wretched roads of "Muddy York," to the class meeting.
+[Footnote: Carroll's "Case and his Cotemporaries," Vol. II., p.
+167.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A QUARTERLY MEETING IN THE OLDEN TIME.
+
+
+Having enjoyed the counsels and encouragements of his Presiding
+Elder, Neville gladly embraced the invitation to ride with him in
+his substantial sleigh, well filled with wheat straw, on which
+they sat, to the village of Ancaster, where a grand Quarterly
+Meeting was to be held, to which the people came for many miles
+around. Religious privileges at that time were few, and these
+occasions were made the most of by the Methodists of the day.
+There was preaching on the Saturday; then a business meeting, when
+the contributions of the several classes were received. Of money
+there was very little; but promises of contributions of flour,
+pork, potatoes, hay and oats were gladly received instead.
+
+On Saturday night a rousing prayer-meeting was held in the log
+meeting-house. Fervent exhortations were given, for the preachers
+looked for immediate results of their labours, and they were not
+disappointed Several of the brethren and sisters "got happy," and
+expressed their religions enjoyment in hymns and spiritual songs
+often of rugged rhythm, but, sung with fervour as they were, they
+seemed to bear up the soul as on wings to the very gate of heaven.
+Most of these hymns had a refrain of simple yet striking melody,
+in which every one in the house took part. A great favourite was
+the following:
+
+ "O the house of the Lord shall be filled
+    With glory, hallelujah!
+    With glory, hallelujah!
+    With glory, hallelujah! Amen
+
+ "Let the preachers be filled with thy love.
+    Sing glory, hallelujah! etc.
+
+ "Let the members be filled with thy love,
+    Sing glory, hallelujah! etc.
+
+ "And the work of the Lord shall revive,
+    Sing glory, hallelujah! Amen!"
+
+The tide of religious feeling rose higher and higher. The standing
+invitation of Methodism to weary souls seeking the forgiveness of
+their sins, was given. Several persons presented themselves at the
+"penitent bench," most of whom were enabled to rejoice in a sense
+of conscious pardon.
+
+Sunday was indeed a "high day" at the old Ancaster log meeting-
+house. From near and far, in sleighs, on horseback, and on foot,
+came methodist worshippers, and found hospitable welcome with the
+families of the neighbourhood. First there was love-feast at nine
+o'clock. The cruel war had not left unscathed that rustic
+congregation. There were rusty weeds of woe,--a black ribbon, a
+bit of crape, or a widow's cap,--that bore witness to the loss of
+husband or son in the sad conflict. The empty sleeve, pinned
+across the breast of one stout young fellow, showed that the
+strong right arm with which he had hoped to fight his battle of
+life, and hew out a home in the wilderness, had been buried in a
+gory trench with the bodies of his slain friends and neighbours.
+
+But their temporal sufferings seemed to have driven these simple-
+minded people nearer to the source of all comfort and consolation.
+Many of the experiences and hymns had quite a martial ring. One of
+the latter was as follows:
+
+ "Ye soldiers of Jesus, pray stand to your arms.
+  Prepare for the battle, the Gospel alarms.
+  The signal of victory, hark! hark! from the sky;
+  Shout, shout, ye brave armies, the watchmen all cry,
+    Come with us, come with us,
+    Come with us in love,
+    Let us all march together to Heaven above.
+
+ "To battle, to battle, the trumpets do sound,
+  The watchmen are crying fair Zion around;
+  Some shouting, some singing, salvation they cry,
+  In the strength of King Jesus, all hell we defy.
+    Come with us," etc.
+
+As this was taken up by one after another and welled into a grand
+chorus, it was impossible not to share the enthusiasm that it
+created. Another prime favourite was the following:
+
+  "Jesus, my king, proclaims the war;
+     I want to die in the army;
+   Awake, the powers of hell are near,
+     I want to die in the army.
+
+ "'To arms! to arms!' I hear the cry,
+     'Tis yours to conquer or to die,'
+  O the army, the army, the army of the Lord!
+     I want to die in the army."
+
+The god-fearing Canadian yeomanry, as they sang these strains,
+nourished at once their religious feelings and their patriotic
+enthusiasm. They felt in their hearts that love of King and
+country, and their valiant defence and self-sacrifice on their
+behalf, were also an acceptable service to God.
+
+After the love-feast was a short intermission, during which a
+luncheon of seed-cakes, comfits and doughnuts were eaten as a
+preparation for the after service. Elder Ryan, whose warm,
+emotional Irish nature had been deeply affected by the experiences
+of the love-feast, preached one of his most spirit-stirring
+sermons. It was like the peal of a clarion calling to the battle
+of Armageddon the warriors of God against the powers of darkness.
+He was interrupted, but not the least disconcerted, by
+exclamations of "Amen!" "Hallelujah!" "Praise the Lord!" They
+seemed rather to give wings to his eloquence, for soaring in
+still loftier flights of eloquence.
+
+After the sermon the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was
+administered to those devout worshippers. By these sacred
+ordinances, amid the carking cares and tribulations of the present
+life, were kept in view the far more important realities of the
+life that is to come, and the souls of the people were enbraved
+and strengthened for the conflicts, both literal and figurative,
+to which they were called.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE PROTRACTED MEETING.
+
+
+The day after the Quarterly Meeting, Elder Ryan drove to his home
+if home it could be called, where he spent not one-tenth part of
+his time--at the Twenty Mile Creek. Neville who travelled thus
+far with him, thought nothing of the twenty miles walk to the
+Holms, where he had left his horse.
+
+One of his plans for the spiritual welfare of his scattered flock,
+was the holding of a series of protracted meetings at the various
+settlements. One of these was held at the wooden school-house of
+the little hamlet of Queenston. An old pensioner of the
+Revolutionary War had gathered a few children together and taught
+them their catechism, and as much of "the Three R's" as he knew.
+He was a staunch Churchman, but had a friendly feeling to the
+Methodists, because Mr. Wesley had been himself a clergyman of the
+Established Church.
+
+The meeting awakened a deep and wide-spread interest. The awful
+scenes of carnage and death, of which the little village and its
+immediate vicinity had been the theatre, seemed to have brought
+the realities of another world more vividly before the moral
+consciousness of the community. Moreover there were few families
+that had not lost some friend or acquaintance, or perchance--
+
+    A nearer
+  One atill, and a dearer
+  One yet than all other.
+
+Under these chastening influences many hearts were peculiarly open
+to the reception of divine truth. The gracious invitations of the
+Gospel, and the warnings and admonitions of the Law, were alike
+faithfully and affectionately urged by the young preacher. It was
+a characteristic of the preaching of the times that it had in it a
+strong back-bone of doctrine. It was very different from the
+boneless jelly-fish-like preaching we sometimes hear,--vague and
+indefinite, without a single clear conception from beginning to
+end.
+
+A very profound impression was made by one sermon especially, on a
+subject on which Neville seldom preached, but which on this
+occasion was strangely impressed upon his mind. The text was that
+sublime Scripture and its context: "And I saw a great white
+throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
+heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them."
+
+The solemn impression of the sermon was greatly deepened by the
+singing, to a weird wailing sort of tune, of the hymn which
+followed. The hymn, whose majesty of imagery--a majesty derived
+from the Scriptures themselves--and whose resonant cadence gave it
+much of the character, in English, of the sublime _Dies Irae_,
+in Latin, was as follows:--
+
+ "The chariot! the chariot!--its wheels roll in fire,
+  As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of His ire;
+  Lo! self-moving, it drives on its pathway of cloud,
+  And the heavens with the glory of God-head are bowed.
+
+ "The trumpet! the trumpet! the dead all have heard,
+  Lo! the depths of the stone-covered charnel are stirred!
+  From the sea, from the earth, from the south, from the north,
+  All the vast generations of men are come forth.
+
+ "The judgment! the judgment!--the thrones are all set,
+  Where the Lamb and the white-vested elders are met!
+  There all flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord,
+  And the doom of eternity hangs on His word."
+
+A picket of soldiers was billeted in the village, several of whom
+attended the meeting ostensibly for the purpose of making game of
+the "Yankee preacher." But such was the intense earnestness of the
+man and the spiritual power that attended his message, that all
+attempts to "make game" of the services were soon abandoned, and
+not a few who "came to mock remained to pray."
+
+A deep seriousness pervaded the entire neighbourhood. The usual
+winter amusements and dancing parties were, to a great extent,
+forgone--and even the utilitarian paring bees in the great farm
+kitchens were shorn of much of the fun and frolic and divinings of
+the future by means of apple-parings thrown over the left
+shoulders, or apple-seeds roasted on the hearth. The present was
+felt to be too sad, and the future too full of foreboding to
+encourage fore-readings of the book of fate. The great revival was
+the subject of fireside conversation at many hearths, and of deep
+questionings in many hearts. Some of the most notorious ill-livers
+of the neighbourhood had experienced the emancipating spell of the
+Truth that maketh free, and were no longer the slaves of vice and
+drunkenness.
+
+Katharine Drayton pondered these things in her heart. She was
+conscious of many good impulses, and her life had been marked by
+many generous and noble traits. But she felt in her inmost soul
+that these alone would not suffice. She could not from her heart
+repeat the words which she often sang in the congregation with her
+lips,--
+
+ "Jesus, thy Blood and Righteousness,
+  My beauty are, my glorious dress;
+  'Midst flaming worlds in these array'd.
+  With joy shall I lift up my head.
+
+
+ "Bold shall I stand in thy great day,
+  For who aught to my charge shall lay?
+  Fully absolved through these I am,
+  From sin and fear, from guilt and shame."
+
+She still felt an aching yearning of her soul for a perfect
+sympathy that she had never known since her mother died. Often as
+a little child, in some childish grief or trouble, she had flung
+herself on that loving mother's bosom and wept out her sorrow
+there. And now, with the burden of the dreadful war impending like
+a hideous night-mare on her soul; with her constant foreboding and
+solicitude for her brother, so thoughtless--nay reckless in his
+daring--a yearning for his soul's immortal welfare, if he should
+be stricken down untimely, even more than for his body, she felt a
+deep soul-longing for--she knew not what--but for some support and
+succour for her filtering spirit. She knew not that it was the
+wooing of the Celestial Bridegroom for the young love of her soul;
+that it was the voice of the Heavenly Father, saying, "Daughter,
+give me thy heart."
+
+One night, heavy with a weight of care, and full of vague yet
+terrible apprehensions of the future, she flung herself upon her
+pillow and bursting into tears, sobbed out the pitiful cry, "O
+mother, mother! see thy sorrowing child." As she lay sobbing on
+the pillow, she seemed to hear a voice of ineffable sweetness,
+whispering to her soul the words of a familiar Scripture: "As one
+whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort thee."
+
+The holy words inspired a sense of hope and confidence in her
+soul, and led her to lift up her heart in prayer to that loving
+Saviour who hath promised to send the Comforter to them that
+mourn. As she knelt in prayer in her little chamber, the moonlight
+flooding with radiance her white-robed form like the exquisite
+picture described in Keats' St. Agnes' Eve, and pound out her
+whole soul to God, she felt the sweet assurance of acceptance
+filling her heart as the Master said once more: "Daughter, be of
+good cheer, thy sins are all forgiven thee."
+
+She felt, however, that if she would experience the fulness of
+that Divine comfort she must not seek to hide it in her heart, but
+confess it before men. And from this she experienced an
+involuntary shrinking. Her nature was one susceptible of great
+depth and tenderness of feeling, but it was also one
+constitutionally reserved and sensitive. She knew, moreover, that
+such an act as joining the Methodists would be exceedingly
+distasteful to her father, whom she loved with a deep and
+impassioned affection. He had made the Methodist preachers welcome
+to his house with the characteristic hospitality of a Virginia
+gentleman, and because he respected their character and work; but
+he himself retained his allegiance to the Church of England, which
+he seemed to think identified with his fealty to the King.
+
+Almost unconsciously the thought of Captain Villiers obtruded
+itself into Katharine's mind, not without some misgivings as to
+his opinion of the course which she felt to be her duty. Not that
+for a moment she entertained the thought of any right on his part
+to influence her performance of duty, or of any purpose on hers to
+be influenced by him.
+
+Accompanied by her brother Zenas, Kate, on the next evening,
+attended the protracted meeting. The school-house was crowded.
+Towards the close of the service, those who had, since the last
+meeting, accepted the yoke of Christ, were asked to confess Him.
+"That," thought Kate, "means me; but how can I do it?" She had
+never even dreamt of speaking in public. It seemed impossible. But
+she heard the words sounding in her ears, "Whosoever will confess
+Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father which is
+heaven." Necessity seemed laid upon her; yet she shrank from the
+ordeal.
+
+At this moment a pure, sweet, contralto voice began to sing with
+great fervour of expression, which gave assurance of the deep
+feeling with which the words were uttered, a hymn of rather
+uncouth rhythm, with an oft-repeated refrain which, however,
+thrilled many a heart. It ran as follows:--
+
+ "Come, ye that love the Lord,
+    Unto me, unto me;
+  Come, ye that love the Lord,
+    Unto me;
+  I've something good to say
+  About the narrow way,
+  For Christ the other day
+    Saved my soul, saved my soul--
+ For Christ the other day saved my soul."
+
+ "He gave me first to see
+    What I was, what I was;
+  He gave me first to see
+    What I was.
+  He gave me first to see
+  My guilt and misery
+  And then He set me free.
+      Bless His name, bless His name,
+ And then He set me free, bless His name!"
+
+As if constrained by a spell-like influence, Kate rose to her
+feet, and in a modest but clear and concise manner made her
+confession of filial trust in the Saviour, and of conscious
+adoption as His child. When this young and timid girl had thus
+taken up the cross of confession, others were emboldened to follow
+her example. One after another paid their tribute of thanksgiving,
+while at intervals glad songs of praise welled forth from greatful
+hearts. Some of these, great favourites at the time, are now
+almost unknown. A general characteristic of these songs was a
+simple refrain, first sung as a solo, but gradually taken up by
+one after another, till a grand chorus rose and swelled like the
+organ chant of the winds among the neighbouring pines. One of
+these, sung to an exultant measure, ran thus:--
+
+ "O brothers, will you meet us
+    On Canaan's heavenly shore?
+  O brothers, will you meet us
+    Where parting is no more?"
+
+ CHORUS.--"Then we'll march around Jerusalem,
+            We'll march around Jerusalem,
+            We'll march around Jerusalem,
+              When we arrive at home."
+
+Another, of touching pathos--with tears, as it were, in every
+line, and often bringing tears of greatful emotion to many an eye,
+sung as it was to a sweet plaintive air--ran thus:--
+
+ "Saw ye my Saviour? Saw ye my Saviour?
+    Saw ye my Saviour and God?
+      Oh! He died on Calvary,
+        To atone for you and me,
+  And to purchase our pardon with blood.
+
+  "There interceding, there interceding?
+    Pleading that Burners might live--
+      Crying, 'Father! I have died!
+      Oh! behold My hands and side!
+  O forgive them, I pray Thee, forgive."
+
+Another, of similar strain, thus set forth in a sort of recitative
+the story of the resurrection of our Lord:--
+
+  "Oh, they crucified my Saviour,
+  They crucified my Saviour,
+  They crucified my Saviour,
+    And they nailed Him to the cross.
+
+ "Then Joseph begged His body, etc.,
+    And he laid it in the tomb.
+
+ "Oh, the grave it could not hold Him, etc.,
+    For He burst the bars of death.
+
+ "Then Mary came a-running, etc.,
+    A-looking for her Lord.
+
+ "Oh, where have you laid Him, etc.,
+    For He is not in the tomb.
+
+ "Oh, why stand ye gazing? etc.,
+    Oh, ye men of Galilee?
+
+ "Don't you see Him now ascending! etc.,
+    There to plead for you and me.
+
+ "By-and-by we'll go to meet Him, etc.,
+    Where pleasures never fade."
+
+While the incomparably superior lyrics of Wesley and Watts were
+generally sung in the public service of the Sabbath, when the
+preacher gave out the hymns from the book; yet these simpler and
+ruder strains were the greater favourites at the revival meeting.
+By these the godly forefather's of Methodism in Canada nourished
+their souls and enbraved their spirits for the heroic work in
+which they were engaged, of consecrating the virgin wilderness to
+God.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+HEART TRIALS.
+
+
+"Well, Kate," said Zenas, as he and his sister rode homeward
+through the solemn moonlight and starlight, "You have burned your
+boats and broken down the bridge. There is no going back."
+
+"I hope not, Zenas," she replied, "but I feel very much the need
+of going forward. I have only made the first step yet."
+
+"Well, you've started on the right line, anyhow. It was a plucky
+thing to do. I did not think it was in you. You are naturally so
+shy. I wish I could do the same myself, but I haven't the
+courage."
+
+"Don't think of yourself, Zenas, nor of your comrades; but of the
+loving Saviour who died for you and longs to save you."
+
+"Upon my word, Kate, it made me feel more what a coward I am to
+see you standing before the whole meeting than all the preaching I
+ever heard."
+
+"I felt that I ought, that I must," said Kate, "but after I rose I
+forgot every one there and spoke because my heart was full. O
+Zenas, just give up everything for Jesus; be willing to endure
+anything for Jesus; and you'll feel a joy and gladness you never
+felt before. Why, the very world seems changed, the stars and the
+trees, and the moonlight on the river were never so beautiful; and
+my heart is as light as a bird."
+
+"I wish I could, Kate. I remember I used to feel something like
+that about Brock. I could follow him anywhere. I could have died
+for him."
+
+"Well, that feeling is ennobling. But much nobler is it to enlist
+under the Great Captain, the grandest teacher and leader the world
+ever knew; and what is better far, the most loving Saviour and
+Friend."
+
+With such loving converse, the brother and sister beguiled the
+homeward way. As Kate retired to her room a sweet peace flooded
+her soul as the moonlight flooded with a heavenly radiance the
+snowy world without. Zenas, on the contrary, was ill at ease, and
+tossed restlessly, his soul disturbed with deep questionings of
+the hereafter, during much of the night.
+
+As Kate sat at the head of the table next morning, where her
+mother had been wont to sit, some of her dead mother's holy calm
+and peace seemed to rest upon her countenance. So thought her
+father as he looked upon her.
+
+"How like your mother you grow, child," ha said when all the rest
+had left the table.
+
+"Do I, father? I hope I shall grow like her in everything. I have
+learned the secret of her noble life. I have found her best
+friend," and she modestly recounted her recent experiences.
+
+Little more then passed, but a few days afterwards, the Squire
+took occasion, when he was alone with his daughter, to say, "I
+hope you are not going to join those Methodists, Kate. I respect
+religion as much as any one; but I think the Church of your father
+ought to be good enough for you. You've always been a good girl. I
+don't see the need of this fuss, as if you had been doing
+something awful. Besides," he went on, a little hesitatingly, as
+if he were not quite sure of his ground, "besides it will mar your
+prospects in life, if you only knew it."
+
+"I don't understand you, father," replied Kate, with an expression
+of perplexity. "You have always thought too well of me. I know my
+life has been very far from right in the eyes of God. I feel I
+need pardon as much as the worst of sinners."
+
+"Of course we're all sinners," went on the old man. "The Prayer
+Book says that. But then Christ died to save sinners, you know;
+and I'm sure you never did any thing very bad. But what I mean is
+this: You must be aware that you have made a deep impression upon
+Captain Villiers, and no blame to him either. He is an honourable
+gentleman, and he has asked my permission to pay his addresses. I
+asked him to wait till this cruel war is over, because while it
+lasts a soldier's life is very uncertain, and I did not wish to
+harrow up your feelings by cultivating affections which might be
+blighted in their bloom. Nay, hear me out, child," he continued,
+as Kate was about to reply," I did not intend to speak of this
+now, but the Captain is a strict Churchman, and so were his
+ancestors, he says, for three hundred years, and he would not, I
+am sure, like one for whom he entertains such sentiments as he
+does toward you, to cast in her lot with those ranting
+Methodists."
+
+Kate had at first blushed deeply, and then grew very pale. She
+however listened to her father patiently, and then said quietly,
+but with much firmness, "I respect Captain Villiers very highly,
+father; and am very grateful for his kindness to us all, and
+especially to Zenas when he was wounded. I feel, too, the honour
+he has done me in entertaining the sentiments of which you speak.
+But something more than respect is due to the man to whom I shall
+entrust my life's keeping. Where my heart goes, there will go my
+hand; there, and not elsewhere."
+
+"Pooh! pooh, child. Girls are always romantic, and never know
+their own mind. You will think better of it. I'm getting to be an
+old man, Kate, and would not like to leave you unsettled in life
+in these troublous times. You owe me your obedience as a daughter,
+remember?"
+
+"I owe you my love, my life, father, but I owe something to
+myself, and more to God. I feel that my taste and disposition end
+that of Captain Villiers are very different, and more different
+than ever since the recent change in my religious feelings. It
+would be at the peril of my soul, were I to encourage what you
+wish."
+
+"Nonsense, girl. You are growing fanatical. You never disobeyed me
+before. You must not disobey me now."
+
+Kate smiled a wan and flickering smile of dissent; but to say more
+she felt would be fruitless. A heavy burden was laid upon her
+young life. She knew the iron will that slumbered beneath her
+father's kind exterior; but she felt in her soul a will as
+resolute, and with a woman's queenly dignity she resolved to keep
+that soul-realm free. In her outward conduct she was more dutiful
+and attentive to her father's comfort than ever; but she felt
+poignantly that for the first time in her life an injunction was
+laid upon her by one who she so passionately loved which she could
+not obey. She found much comfort in softly singing to herself in
+that inviolate domain, the solitude of her own room, a recent
+poem which she had clipped from the _York Gazette,_ and
+which, in part, expressed her own emotions:--
+
+ "Jesus, I my cross have taken,
+    All to leave and follow Thee;
+  Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
+    Thou, from hence, my all shalt be;
+  Perish every fond ambition,
+    All I've sought and hoped and known,
+  Yet how rich is my condition!
+    God and heaven are still my own!
+
+ "And while Thou shalt smile upon me,
+    God of wisdom, love, and might,
+  Foes may hate, and friends may shun me
+    Show Thy face and all is bright.
+  Go, then, earthly fame and treasure!
+    Come disaster, acorn, and pain!
+  In Thy service, pain is pleasure;
+    With Thy favour, loss is gain.
+
+ "Man may trouble and distress me,
+    Twill but drive me to Thy breast;
+  Life with trials hard may press me,
+    Heaven will bring me sweeter rest.
+  O 'tis not in grief to harm me,
+    While Thy love is left to me;
+  O 'twere not in joy to charm me,
+    Were that joy unmixed with Thee."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+CHIPPEWA AND LUNDY'S LANE.
+
+
+During the remainder of the winter the domestic history of the
+household at The Holms was unmarked by any incidents. The
+discharge of her homely duties and kindly charities to the people
+of the devastated village of Niagara who still lingered in the
+neighbourhood engrossed all the time and energies of Katharine
+Drayton. These wholesome activities prevented any morbid breedings
+or introspections, and furnished the best possible tonic for the
+strengthening of her moral purposes. Captain Villiers found
+frequent opportunities of visiting The Holms. His manner to Kate
+was one of chivalric courtesy; but, with a self-imposed restraint,
+he studiously endeavoured to repress any manifestation of tender
+feelings. Kate was cordial and kind, but as studiously avoided
+giving an opportunity for the manipulation of such feelings had it
+been contemplated.
+
+Neville Trueman was engaged in special religious services night
+after night for nearly the whole winter at several appointments of
+his circuit. The revival influence seemed to widen and deepen as
+the weeks went by. He often called to invite Zenas to these
+meetings. At times the young man seemed strangely subdued and
+docile, and Neville rejoiced over what he considered the yielding
+of his will to the hallowed influences of the good Spirit of God.
+At other times he seemed wilful and wayward, or even petulant and
+testy, giving evidence of the resistance of his human will to the
+Divine drawings of which he was the subject. At such times the
+faith of Neville was sorely tried; but his patience and
+forbearance were never exhausted, and the sisterly affection and
+tenderness of Katharine were redoubled. Zenas would then break out
+into self-upbraidings and self-reproaches; and Kate, not knowing
+what to say, said little, but, in the solitude of her chamber,
+prayed for him all the more.
+
+"Kate, you're an angel and I'm a brute," he said one day after one
+of these exacerbations of temper; "I don't see how you can bear
+with me."
+
+"Bear with you, Zenas!" she replied, tears of sympathy rilling her
+eyes, "I could give my life for you. Alas! my brother, very far
+from an angel am I; I am a poor weak sinner, and I need the grace
+of God every day to cleanse my heart and keep it clean."
+
+"If you, who are a saint, need that, what do I need, who am viler,
+than a beast?" he exclaimed with an impassioned gesture.
+
+"You need the same, Zenas, dear; and it is for you if you only
+will seek it," she replied laying her hand gently on his arm.
+
+He snatched her hand, kissed it passionately, then dropped it and
+turned abruptly away. She looked after him wistfully; but felt a
+glad assurance spring up in her heart that the object of so many
+prayers could not be finally lost.
+
+Thus matters went on for several weeks. At last one day Kate was
+sewing alone in her little room, when through the window she saw
+Zenas approaching with long elastic strides from the barn.
+Bursting into her presence, he exclaimed, with joyous exaltation
+of manner, "I've done it, Kate! Thank God, at last I've done it!"
+
+She had no need to ask, as she looked into his transfigured
+countenance, an explanation of his words. She flung herself upon
+his breast, and throwing her arms about his neck said, "Dear
+Zenas, I knew you would;--I felt sure of it. Thank God I Thank
+God!"
+
+In loving communion the brother and sister sat, as Zenas told how
+he could not bear the struggle between his conscience and his
+stubborn will any longer. So, after doing his "chores" at the
+barn, he went on, he had climbed into the hay-loft, resolved not
+to leave it till the conflict was over and he had the
+consciousness of his acceptance with God and of the forgiveness of
+his sins. "I envied the very horses in the stalls," he said, in
+describing his emotions; "they were fulfilling their destiny; they
+had no burden of sin; while I was tortured with a damning sense of
+guilt. I flung myself on the straw," he went on; "and groaned in
+the bitterness of my spirit, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall
+deliver me from the body of this death.' At that moment," he
+exclaimed, "I seemed to hear spoken in my ears, the exultant
+answer from the apostle: 'I thank God, through Jesus Christ our
+Lord.' I sprang up, and before I knew began to sing--
+
+ "''Tis done, the great transaction's done!
+  I am my God's and He is mine.'"
+
+Kate took up the refrain, and brother and sister sang together the
+joyous song,--
+
+ "O happy day!  O happy day!
+  When Jesus washed my sins away!"
+
+We must turn now to the more stormy public events of the time.
+Preparations for the campaign of 1814 were made on both sides with
+unabated energy. The legislature of Lower Canada increased the
+issue of army bills to the amount of L1,500,000, and that of the
+upper province voted a liberal appropriation for military
+expenditure, and increased the efficiency of the militia system.
+Stores of every kind, and in vast quantities, were forwarded from
+Quebec and Montreal by brigades of sleighs to Kingston as a centre
+of distribution for western Canada. A deputation of Indian chiefs
+from the West was received at the castle of St. Louis, and sent
+home laden with presents and confirmed in their allegiance to the
+British.
+
+Early in the year, the Emperor of Russia offered to mediate
+between the belligerents in the interests of peace. Great Britain
+declined his interference, but proposed direct negotiations with
+the United States. The commissioners appointed, however, did not
+meet till August, and, meanwhile, the war became more deadly and
+mutually destructive than ever.
+
+The campaign opened in Lower Canada. General Wilkinson, who had
+removed his headquarters from Salmon River to Plattsburg, advanced
+with five thousand men from the latter place, crossed the Canadian
+frontier at Odelltown, and pushed on to Lacolle, about ten miles
+from the border. Here a large two-storey stone mill, with
+eighteen-inch walls, barricaded and loop-holed for musketry, was
+held by the British who numbered, in regulars and militia, about
+five hundred men, under the command of Major Handcock. Shortly
+after midday, on the 13th of March, General Wilkinson, with his
+entire force, surrounded the mill, being partially covered by
+neighbouring woods, with the design of taking it by assault. As
+they advanced with a cheer to the attack, they were met by such a
+hot and steady fire that they were obliged to fall back to the
+shelter of the woods. The guns were now brought up (an eighteen, a
+twelve, and a six-pounder), for the purpose of battering, at short
+range, a breach in the walls of the mill. Their fire, however, was
+singularly ineffective. The British sharpshooters picked off the
+gunners, so that it was exceedingly difficult to get the range or
+to fire the pieces. In a cannonade of two hours and a half, only
+four shots struck the mill. Major Handcock, however, determined to
+attempt the capture of the guns, and a detachment of regulars,
+supported by a company of voltigeurs and fencibles, was ordered to
+charge. In the face of desperate odds they twice advanced to the
+attack on the guns, but were repulsed by sheer weight of opposing
+numbers. The day wore on. The ammunition of the beleaguered
+garrison was almost exhausted. Yet no man spoke of surrender. For
+five hours this gallant band of five hundred men withstood an army
+of tenfold numbers. At length, incapable of forcing the British
+position, the enemy fell back, baffled and defeated, to
+Plattsburg, and for a time the tide of war ebbed away from the
+frontier of Lower Canada.
+
+With the opening of navigation hostilities were resumed on Lake
+Ontario. During the winter, two new vessels had been built at
+Kingston.
+
+Strengthened by the addition of these, the British fleet, under
+the command of Sir James Yeo, early in May, sailed for Oswego in
+order to destroy a large quantity of naval stores there collected.
+A military force of a thousand men, under General Drummond,
+accompanied the expedition. An assaulting party of three hundred
+and forty soldiers and sailors, in the face of a heavy fire of
+grape, stormed the strong and well-defended fort. In half an hour
+it was in their hands. The fort and barracks were destroyed, and
+some shipping, and an immense amount of stores were taken.
+
+Sir James Yeo, now blockaded Chauncey's fleet in Sackett's
+Harbour. On the morning of the last day of May a flotilla of
+sixteen barges, laden with naval stores, was discovered seeking
+refuge amid the windings of Sandy Creek. A boat-party from the
+fleet, attempting pursuit, became entangled in the narrow creek,
+and was attacked by a strong force of the enemy, including two
+hundred Indians. After a desperate resistance, in which eighteen
+were killed and fifty wounded, the British force was overpowered,
+and a hundred and forty made prisoners. These were with difficulty
+saved from massacre by the enraged Iroquois, by the vigorous
+interposition of their generous captors.
+
+The course of political events in Europe intimately affected the
+conflict in America. Napoleon was now a prisoner in Elba, and
+England was enabled to throw greater vigour into her transatlantic
+war. In the month of June, several regiments of the veteran troops
+of Wellington landed at Quebec, and strong re-enforcements were
+rapidly despatched westward.
+
+The most sanguinary events of the campaign occurred on the Niagara
+frontier. On the 3rd of July, Brigadier-Generals Scott and Ripley,
+with a force of four thousand men, crossed the Niagara River at
+Buffalo. Fort Erie was garrisoned by only a hundred and seventy
+men, and the commandant, considering that it would be a needless
+effusion of blood to oppose an army with his scanty forces,
+surrendered at discretion. The next day, General Brown, the
+American Commander-in-Chief, advanced down the river to Chippewa.
+Here he was met by Major-General Riall, whose scanty force was
+strengthened by the opportune arrival of six hundred of the 3rd
+Buffs from Toronto, making his entire strength fifteen hundred
+regulars, six hundred militia, and three hundred Indians. The
+engagement that ensued was one of extreme severity, a greater
+number of combatants being brought under fire than in any previous
+action of the war.
+
+Instead of prudently remaining on the defensive, Riall, about four
+o'clock on the afternoon of the fifth, boldly attacked the enemy,
+who had taken up a good position, partly covered by some buildings
+and orchards, and were well supported by artillery. The battle was
+fierce and bloody, but the Americans were well officered, and
+their steadiness in action gave evidence of improved drill. After
+an obstinate engagement and the exhibition of unavailing valour,
+the British were forced to retreat, with the heavy loss of a
+hundred and fifty killed and three hundred and twenty wounded,
+among whom was Lieutenant-Colonel the Marquis of Tweedall. The
+loss of the Americans was seventy killed and two hundred and fifty
+wounded. Riall retired in good order without losing a man or gun,
+though pursued by the cavalry of the enemy. Having thrown re-
+enforcements into the forts at Niagara, on both sides of the
+river, fearing lest his communication with the west should be cut
+off by the Americana, Riall retreated to Twenty Mile Creek.
+General Brown advanced to Queenston Heights, ravaged the country,
+burned the village of St. David's, and made a reconnoissance
+toward Niagara. Being disappointed in the promised co-operation of
+Chauncey's fleet in an attack on the forts at the mouth of the
+river, he returned to Chippewa, followed again by Riall as far as
+Lundy's Lane. In the meanwhile, General Drummond, hearing at
+Kingston of the invasion, hastened with what troops he could
+collect to strengthen the British force on the frontier. Reaching
+Niagara on the 25th of July, he advanced with eight hundred men
+to support Riall. At the same time, he pushed forward a column
+from Fort Niagara to Lewiston, to disperse a body of the enemy
+collected at that place. General Brown now advanced in force from
+Chippewa against the British position at Lundy's Lane. Riall was
+compelled to fall back before the immensely superior American
+force, and the head of his column was already on the way to
+Queenston. General Drummond coming up with his re-enforcements
+about five o'clock, countermanded the movement of retreat, and
+immediately formed the order of battle. He occupied the gently
+swelling acclivity of Lundy's Lane, placing his guns in the
+centre, on its crest. His entire force was sixteen hundred men,
+that of the enemy was five thousand. The attack began at six
+o'clock in the evening, Drummond's troops having that hot July day
+marched from Queenston landing. The American infantry made
+desperate efforts in successive charges to capture the British
+battery; but the gunners stuck to their pieces, and swept, with a
+deadly fire, the advancing lines of the enemy, till some of them
+were bayoneted at their post. The carnage on both sides was
+terrible.
+
+At length the long summer twilight closed, and the pitying night
+drew her veil over the horrors of the scene. Still, amid the
+darkness, the stubborn contest raged. The American and British
+guns were almost muzzle to muzzle. Some of each were captured and
+re-captured in fierce hand-to-hand fights, the gunners being
+bayoneted while serving their pieces. About nine o'clock, a lull
+occurred. The moon rose upon the tragic scene, lighting up the
+ghastly staring faces of the dead and the writhing forms of the
+dying; the groans of the wounded mingling awfully with the deep
+eternal roar of the neighbouring cataract.
+
+The retreating van of Riall's army now returned, with a body of
+militia--twelve hundred in all. The Americans also brought up
+fresh reserves, and the combat was renewed with increased fury.
+Thin lines of fire, marked the position of the infantry, while
+from the hot lips of the cannon flashed red volleys of flame,
+revealing in brief gleams the disordered ranks struggling in the
+gloom. By midnight, after six hours of mortal conflict, seventeen
+hundred men lay dead or wounded on the field, when the Americans
+abandoned the hopeless contest, their loss being nine hundred and
+thirty, besides three hundred taken prisoners. The British loss
+was seven hundred and seventy. To-day the peaceful wheat-fields
+wave upon the sunny slopes fertilized by the bodies of so many
+brave men, and the ploughshare upturns rusted bullets, regimental
+buttons, and other relics of this most sanguinary battle of the
+war. Throwing their heavy baggage and tents into the rushing
+rapids of the Niagara, and breaking down the bridges behind them,
+the fugitives retreated to Fort Erie, where they formed an
+entrenched camp. [Footnote: Withrow's "History of Canada," 8vo.
+Ed., pp. 323-333.]
+
+We must now return to trace the individual adventures in this
+bloody drama of the personages of our story. Every possible
+provision that wise foresight could suggest had been made for the
+defence of the Niagara Frontier. Fort George had been strengthened
+and revictualled. A new fort--Fort Mississauga--with star-shaped
+ramparts, moat and stockade, had been constructed at the mouth of
+the river. Its citadel is a very solid structure, with walls eight
+feet thick, built of the bricks of the devastated town of Niagara.
+A narrow portal with a double iron door admits one to the vaulted
+interior of the citadel, and a stairway, constructed in the
+thickness of the wall, conducts to the second storey or platform,
+which is open to the sky. Here were formerly mounted several heavy
+guns, and the fire-place for heating the cannon-balls may still be
+seen.
+
+On the morning of July fourth, a courier, on a foam-flecked steed,
+dashed into Fort George and announced to the officer of the day
+the startling intelligence of the invasion by the enemy in force
+and the surrender of Fort Erie. Soon all was activity, knapsacks
+were packed, extra rations cooked and served out, ammunition
+waggons loaded, cartridge-boxes filled, and the whole garrison,
+except a small guard, were under orders to march to meet the enemy
+at dawn the following morning.
+
+That evening--the eve of the fatal fight at Chippewa--Captain
+Villiers snatched an hour to pay a farewell visit to The Holms, as
+had become his habit when ordered on active service. He seemed
+strangely distraught in manner, at times relapsing for several
+minutes into absolute silence. Before taking his leave, he asked
+Kate to walk with him on the river bank in the late summer sunset.
+The lengthening shadows of the chestnuts stretched over the
+greensward slopes, and were flung far out on the river which swept
+by in its silent majesty, far-gleaming in the last rays of the
+sinking sun. The Captain spoke much and tenderly of his mother and
+sisters in their far-off Berkshire home.
+
+"I sometimes think," he said, as they stood looking at the shining
+reaches of the river, "that I shall never see them again; and to-
+night, I know not why, I seem to feel that presentiment more
+strongly than ever."
+
+"We are all in the care, Captain Villiers," said Kate, "of a
+loving Heavenly Father. Not even one of these twittering sparrows
+falls to the ground without His notice; and we, who are redeemed
+by the death of His Son, are of more value than they."
+
+"I wish I had your faith. Miss Drayton," said the Captain with a
+sigh.
+
+"I am sure I wish you had, Captain Villiers," replied Kate
+earnestly. "I would not be without it, weak as it often is, for
+worlds. But you _may_ have it. You have the strongest grounds
+for having it. But alas! I lived without it myself till very
+recently."
+
+"I have not been unobservant, Miss Drayton," continued the
+Captain, "of the--what shall I say?--the moral transfiguration of
+your character. It has been an argument as to the spiritual
+reality of religion that I could not gainsay. I have always
+observed its outward forms. I was duly baptized and confirmed, and
+have regularly taken the sacrament. But I feel the need of
+something more--something which I am sure my mother had, for if
+there ever was a saint on earth she is one."
+
+"I can only send you," said Kate, "to the Great Teacher, who says
+'Come unto Me and I will give you rest.' I am trying to sit at His
+feet and learn of Him. _He_ will guide you into all truth."
+
+"Amen!" solemnly answered the young man. After a pause he went
+on, "Miss Drayton, I make bold to ask a favour. Perhaps it may be
+a last one. Those hymns I have heard you sing come strangely home
+to my own heart. They awaken yearnings I never felt, and reveal
+truths I never saw before. May I take the liberty of asking the
+loan of your hymn-book? Even my mother, with her horror of
+dissent, would not object to the writings of so staunch a
+Churchman as the Rev. Charles Wesley."
+
+"If you will do me the favour to accept it, I shall be most happy
+to give it you," replied Kate. "May it be a great help to you as
+it has been to me."
+
+"You greatly honour me by your kindness," said the Captain.
+Drawing his small gold-clasped Prayer Book, on which was engraven
+his crest--a cross raguled with a wyvern volant--from the
+breast-pocket of his coat, he said, "Will you do me the further
+honour of accepting this book. The prayers I know by heart, and I
+think that, even though a dissenter," he added with a smile, "you
+will admire them."
+
+"Thanks. I do admire them, very much," said Kate, who was quite
+familiar with the beautiful service of her father's Church.
+
+The Captain stooped as they were walking through the little
+garden, which they had now reached, and plucking a few leaves and
+flowers, placed them in the book, saying in the words of the fair
+distraught Ophelia,--
+
+ "There is rosemary, that's for rememberance;
+  And there is pansies, that's for thoughts."
+
+Then placing the hook in her hand with a reverent respect, he
+raised her fingers to his lips. In a moment more he had vaulted on
+his steed, which stood champing its bit at the garden gate and was
+soon out of sight.
+
+As, in the deepening twilight, Kate watched his retreating form, a
+feeling of vague apprehension, of she knew not what, filled her
+gentle breast. Was it a premonition of his impending doom?--a
+prescience that she should never behold him again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF WAR.
+
+
+With the early dawn, Zenas rode off to join his militia company;
+which was summoned to repel the invasion. Loker and McKay were
+already in the field. They were all in the severe action at
+Chippewa. Captain Villiers distinguished himself by his heroic
+daring, and while heading a gallant charge, whereby he covered the
+retreat of the British, received a rather severe bayonet thrust in
+his leg. Binding his military scarf around the wound, he remained
+in his saddle till night, performing the arduous duties of
+commander of the rear-guard.
+
+The three weeks following were weeks of toilsome marching and
+counter-marching beneath the burning July sun. More than once
+Zenas was within an hour's ride of home; but the pressing
+exigencies of a soldier's life prevented his making even a passing
+call on those whom he so much loved. He was forced to content
+himself with messages sent through Neville Trueman, whose sacred
+calling made him free of the lines of both armies. These messages
+were full of praise and admiration of the gallant Captain
+Villiers; and, accompanied by no stinted praise of his own, they
+were faithfully delivered by the young preacher.
+
+"He will be Colonel before the war is over, I expect," said
+Neville, "and I am sure no man deserves it better. He is as gentle
+as he is brave. His treatment of the prisoners is kindness
+itself."
+
+The Captain, although once at Fort George, commanding a re-
+enforcement of the garrison, was prevented by his military duties
+from riding the short three miles that lay between it and The
+Holms.
+
+One day toward the latter part of July,--it was the twenty-fifth
+of the month, a day for ever memorable in the annals of Canada,--
+early in the morning a convoy of schooners and barges, filled with
+armed men, was seen by Katharine gliding up the Niagara River,
+their snowy sails gleaming beyond the fringe of chestnuts that
+bordered the stream. The Union Jack floating gaily at the peak,
+and the inspiring strains of "Britannia Rules the Waves" swelling
+on the breeze as the fleet approached, gave the assurance of
+welcome re-enforcements to the struggling army in the field.
+Running down to the bank, Katharine exultantly waved her
+handkerchief in welcome. The redcoats, who thronged the bulwarks,
+gave a rousing cheer in reply; and an officer in gold lace, with
+a white plume in his General's hat--who was no other than Sir
+George Gordon Drummond himself--gaily waved his handkerchief in
+return.
+
+And right welcome those re-enforcements were that day.
+Disembarking at Queenston landing, and climbing the steep hill,
+they marched through smiling orchards and green country roads to
+the bloody field of Lundy's Lane, where many of them ended life's
+march for ever.
+
+We shall depend for the further record of that eventful day on the
+narrative of Zenas, as subsequently reported, with all the vivid
+touches of personal experience and eye-witness. With bandaged head
+and one arm in a sling he sat at the kitchen table at The Holms,
+explaining to his father and some neighbours the fortunes of the
+fight. His story, disentangled from the interruptions of his
+auditors, was as follows: "You see," he said, making a rude
+diagram of the battle on the supper-table with the knives and
+forks, "General Riall took up a strong position on Lundy's Lane
+early in the day, with the regulars and the Glengary militia; and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Robinson [Footnote: Subsequently better known
+as Sir John Beverly Robinson, Chief Justice of Upper Canada.]
+commanded the sedentary militia. The enemy lay on the other side
+of Chippewa Creek, and didn't move till late in the afternoon. If
+they had come on in the morning, they could have crushed us like
+an egg-shell," and he suited the action to the word, by crushing
+into fragments one that lay upon the table.
+
+"But we got it hard enough as it was. General Winfield Scott,
+[Footnote: Afterwards Commander-in-chief of the United States
+armies.] began pounding away at us with his artillery just before
+sundown. We expected to be re-enforced before long, so we
+determined to hold the hill where our own battery was planted at
+any cost. The sun went down; it got darker and darker; still the
+cannon flashed their tongues of flame, and the deadly rattle of
+the musketry went on without a minute's pause for three mortal
+hours. The Yankee sharp-shooters crept up in the darkness behind a
+screen of barberry bushes growing in the panels of a rail fence,
+and at a volley picked off all the gunners of our battery but
+three. Then, with a cheer, they rushed forward with the bayonet,
+and wrestled in fierce hand-to-hand fight with our infantry for
+the guns, which were alternately taken and re-taken on either
+side, till the hill-slope was slippery with blood.
+
+"Our troop of dragoons was ordered to charge up the hill and re-
+capture the guns. I had only time to lift up my heart in prayer,
+and say 'Lord have mercy upon us,' when a roundshot struck my
+horse. He reared straight up and fell backward, partly falling
+upon me. All at once everything got black, and I heard not a sound
+of the din of battle that was raging around me. After a while, I
+don't know how long, it seemed like hours, I became aware of a
+deep thunderous sound that seemed to fill the air and cause the
+very earth to tremble, and I knew it was the roar of the Falls.
+Then I felt an intolerable aching, as if every bone in my body was
+broken. I opened my eyes and saw the moon shining through the
+drifting clouds. I was parched with thirst and raging with fever,
+and felt a sharp pain piercing my temple. Raising my arm to my
+head, I found my hair all clotted with blood from a scalp wound.
+
+"Just then I heard a rattle and a cheer, and galloping down hill
+full in the moonlight, right toward the spot where I lay, a brass
+field-gun fully horsed, the drivers lashing the horses with all
+their might. I was afraid they would gallop over me, and raised my
+arm to warn them aside. But they either didn't see or couldn't
+heed, and on came the heavy cannon, lurching from side to side,
+the polished brass gleaming in the moonlight like gold. I heard a
+deep shuddering groan as the heavy wheels rolled over a wounded
+man beside me, crushing the bones of his legs like pipe stems. As
+the plunging horses galloped past, one iron-shod hoof struck fire
+against a stone just beside my head. In the momentary flash I
+could see the hoof poised just above my face. I remember I noticed
+that it had been badly shod, and one of the nails was bent over
+the edge of the shoe. By a merciful Providence, instead of dashing
+my brains out he stepped on one side, and I received no further
+hurt. After the roar of the battle had ceased, while the solemn
+stars looked down like eyes of pitying angels on the field of
+slaughter, I managed to crawl to the road-side and wet my parched
+lips with some muddy water that lay in a cattle track. In the
+morning Trueman found me and brought me off the field, and here I
+am laid up for one while. I pray God I may never see another
+battle. It is a sight to make angels weep and devils rejoice, to
+see men thus mangling each other like beasts of prey."
+
+"Amen!" said his father. "Even when it is just, war is the
+greatest of calamities; and when unjust, it is the greatest of
+crimes."
+
+Sadder still was the story told by Neville Trueman to Katharine
+Drayton, as he conveyed to her the dying message of Captain
+Villiers. The Captain was gallantly cheering on his company, when
+a bullet pierced his lungs. He fell from his horse and was bore to
+the rear, and carried into the little Methodist Church, which had
+been turned into a temporary hospital. Here Neville Trueman was
+busily engaged in far different ministrations from those which
+were the wont of that consecrated spot. The seats had been
+removed, and beds of unthrashed wheat sheaves from the
+neighbouring harvest-fields were strewn upon the floor.
+
+As the bleeding form of Captain Villiers was brought in, Neville
+saw by his deathly pallor and his laboured breathing that he had
+not many hours to live. He sat down beside him on the floor and
+took the hand of the dying man, which he softly caressed as it lay
+passive in his grasp. Opening his eyes, a wan smile of recognition
+flickered over the pallid countenance. He tried to speak, but in
+vain. Then he pointed to his breast pocket, and made signs which
+Neville interpreted as a wish that he should take something out.
+He obeyed the suggestion, and found the copy of Wesley's Hymns
+given him by Katharine Drayton, but now, alas! dyed with the life-
+blood of a loyal heart.
+
+"Tell her," said the dying man, but he faltered in his speech.
+Then, with difficulty opening the book, he turned to a passage
+where the leaf was turned down and a hymn was marked with the
+letters "H.V.," the initials of Herbert Villiers. The hymn was
+that sublime one beginning--
+
+ "Now I have found the ground wherein
+  Sure my soul's anchor may remain:
+
+  The wounds of Jesus, for my sin
+    Before the world's foundation slain;
+  Whose mercy shall unshaken stay,
+  When heaven and earth are fled away."
+
+The dying eyes looked eagerly at Neville as the latter read the
+words; but when he replied, "Yes, I will tell her, and give her
+hack her book enriched with such a sacred recollection," a look of
+infinite content rested on the pallid face.
+
+"I bless God I ever met her," faltered the failing voice. "Tell
+her," it continued with a final effort, "Tell her--we shall meet
+again--where they neither marry--nor are given in marriage--but
+are as the angels of God in heaven!" And with a smile of ineffable
+peace the happy spirit departed from the carnage of earth's
+battles to the everlasting peace of the skies.
+
+Tears of pity fell fast from the eyes of the tender-hearted
+Katharine as she listened to the touching narration. As soon as
+she could sufficiently command her feelings she wrote a
+sympathetic letter to the now doubly-bereaved widow of the stately
+Melton Hall, amid the broad ancestral acres of Berkshire. She
+enclosed therewith the jewelled cross, which had been committed to
+her keeping; but the blood-stained hymn-book she placed in her
+little cabinet, beside the Prayer-Book with its leaves of rosemary
+for remembrance and pansies for thoughts.
+
+The fellow-officers of Captain Villiers erected over the grave in
+which their comrade was buried, beneath the walls of the humble
+Methodist Church, a marble slab commemorating his valour and his
+heroic death. With the lapse of five-and-sixty years, however, its
+brief inscription has become well nigh illegible through the
+weathering of the elements, and the grave has become
+indistinguishable from the mouldering mounds on every side around
+it. But beneath the funeral hatchment of his father, on the
+chancel walls of Melton-Mowbray Church, is a marble shield charged
+with a cross enguled and a wyvern volant; and a record of the
+untimely death of the hope and last scion of the house on the
+banks of the far-off Niagara.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR.
+
+
+We return now to retrace the fortunes of the war of which the
+culminating acts, at least in Upper Canada, had now taken place.
+After the fatal fight of Lundy's Lane, as we have seen, the
+American force retreated precipitately on Fort Erie, of which they
+retained possession, and, working night and day, formed an
+entrenched camp for their protection, strengthening a line of
+abattis along the front. The victorious British columns closely
+followed, and for three weeks the camp and fort occupied by the
+American army were closely besieged by a force only two-thirds as
+numerous. Two American armed vessels, which supported the fort on
+the lake side, were very cleverly captured in a night attack by
+Captain Dobbs, of the Royal Navy, by means of boats conveyed by
+sheer force of human muscles twenty miles across the country in
+the rear of the American lines, from the Niagara to Lake Erie.
+
+The British forces also threw up strong entrenchments and planted
+batteries; and the two armies lay watching each other like
+couchant lions, waiting the opportunity to make the fatal
+spring. The guns on the batteries were kept double shotted, and
+through the long nights dark lanterns were kept burning, and
+linstocks ready for firing lay beside every gun. Ever and anon a
+live shell screamed through the air, one of which penetrating an
+American magazine, caused it to explode with fearful violence.
+
+On the 14th of August, after a vigorous bombardment, a night
+attack, in three columns, was made upon the fort. At two o'clock
+in the morning, the columns moved out of the trenches, with the
+utmost silence, bearing scaling ladders, and crept stealthily over
+the plain toward the apparently slumbering fort. Dark clouds hung
+low, and the only sounds heard were the melancholy cry of the loon
+and the measured dash of the waves upon the shore. At length the
+American picket discovered the approach of the British columns and
+gave the alarm. The bugles rang shrill in the ear of night. Every
+embrasure of the seemingly sleeping fort flashed forth its tongue
+of flame, revealing the position of the assailants, and the gloom
+settled heavier than ever, deepened still further by the
+sulphureous clouds of smoke from the cannon. The British van
+hacked with their swords at the abattis, and tried, by wading
+through a marsh, to enter the curtain of the fore by a flank
+movement. Rent and torn by a fire of canister and grape, five
+times the assailing columns were hurled back, and five times,
+undaunted, they returned to the charge.
+
+At length the wall was reached, the ladders were planted, and
+Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, with a hundred men of the Royal
+Artillery, gained a footing in a bastion. The parole by which
+they recognized each other in the dark was "steel"--an omen of
+the desperate means used to insure their victory. With pike and
+bayonet they rushed upon the garrison. Their comrades swarmed up
+the scaling ladders and filled the bastion. Suddenly the ground
+heaved and trembled as with the throes of an earthquake. There
+came a burst of thunder sound; a volcano of fire and timber;
+stones and living men were hurled two hundred feet in the air;
+and the night settled down on the scene of chaos. The British
+columns, utterly demoralized by this appalling disaster, fell back
+precipitately on their entrenchments, leaving the mangled bodies
+of two hundred of their comrades, among them the gallant leader,
+Lieutenant-Colonel Drummond, in the fatal fosse and bastion.
+
+The Americans, being strongly re-enforced, a month later made a
+vigorous sally from the fort, but were driven back, with a loss
+on the part of both assailants and assailed of about four hundred
+men. Shortly after, General Izzard blew up the works and re-
+crossed the river to United States territory. The fortress,
+constructed at such a cost, and assailed and defended with such
+valour, soon fell to utter ruin. Where earth-shaking war achieved
+such vast exploits, to-day the peaceful waters of the placid lake
+kiss the deserted strand, and a few grass-grown and mouldering
+ram-mounds alone mark the grave of so much military pomp, power,
+and unavailing valour. [Footnote: Engravings of these are given
+in Lossing's "Field Book of the War."]
+
+Nor were the ravages of the war confined alone to the Niagara
+frontier. Far otherwise. They extended from the upper waters of
+the Mississippi to the Atlantic seaboard, and to the Gulf of
+Mexico. In the West, Michilimackinac was re-enforced, and Prairie
+du Chien, a fort on the Mississippi, was captured by a body of six
+hundred and fifty Canadians and Indians, without the loss of a
+single man. An American attempt to recapture Michilimackinac, by a
+force of a thousand men, was a total failure, the only exploit of
+the expedition being the inglorious pillage and destruction of the
+undefended trading-post of Ste. Marie.
+
+Meanwhile, Sir John Sherbrooke, the Governor of Nova Scotia,
+despatched several hostile expeditions from Halifax against the
+coast of Maine.
+
+Eastport, Castine, Bangor, Machias, and the whole region from the
+Penobscot to the St. Croix, surrendered to the British, and were
+held by them to the close of the war.
+
+The arrival, in August, of sixteen thousand of Wellington's
+Peninsular troops, the heroes of so many Spanish victories, placed
+at the command of Sir George Prevost the means of vigorously
+undertaking offensive operations. A well-appointed force of eleven
+thousand men advanced from Canada to Lake Champlain. Captain
+Downie, with a fleet on which the ship carpenters were still at
+work as he went into action, was to co-operate with the army in an
+attack on Plattsburg, which was defended by five well-armed
+vessels and by fifteen hundred regulars and as many militia, under
+General Macomb. The British fleet gallantly attacked the enemy,
+but after a desperate battle, in which Captain Downie was slain,
+and nine of the ill-manned gunboats fled, it was compelled to
+surrender to a superior force. Prevost, notwithstanding that his
+strength was ten times greater than that of the enemy, had awaited
+the assistance of the fleet. As he tardily advanced his storming
+columns, the cheers from the fort announced its capture. Although
+on the verge of an easy victory, Prevost, fearing the fate of
+Burgoyne, and humanely averse to the shedding of blood, to the
+intense chagrin of his soldiers gave the signal to retreat. Many
+of his officers for very shame broke their swords, and vowed that
+they would never serve again. While an able civil governor,
+Prevost was an incompetent military commander. He was summoned
+home by the Horse Guards to stand a court-martial, but he died the
+following year, before the court sat.
+
+The launch at Kingston of the "St. Lawrence," an "oak leviathan"
+of a hundred guns, gave the British complete naval supremacy of
+Lake Ontario, and enabled them strongly to re-enforce General
+Drummond with troops and stores.
+
+We will now trace very briefly the further events of the war,
+which lay altogether outside of Canada. Along the Atlantic
+seaboard the British maintained a harassing blockade. The close of
+the Continental war enabled Great Britain to throw more vigour
+into the conflict with the United States. Her giant navy was,
+therefore, free from service in European waters, and Admiral
+Cockburn, with a fleet of fifty vessels, about the middle of
+August, arrived in Chesapeake Bay with troops destined for the
+attack on the American capital. Tangier Island was seized and
+fortified, and fifteen hundred negroes of the neighbouring
+plantations were armed and drilled for military service. They
+proved useful but very costly allies, as, at the conclusion of the
+war, the Emperor of Russia, who was the referee in the matter,
+awarded their owners an indemnity of a million and a quarter of
+dollars, or over eight hundred dollars each for raw recruits for
+a six weeks' campaign.
+
+There are two rivers by which Washington may be approached--the
+Potomac, on which it is situated, and the Patuxent, which flows in
+its rear. The British commander chose the latter, both on account
+of the facility of access, and for the purpose of destroying the
+powerful fleet of gunboats which had taken refuge in its creeks.
+This object was successfully accomplished on the 20th of August--
+thirteen of the gunboats being destroyed and one captured,
+together with fourteen merchant vessels. The army, under the
+command of General Ross, on the following day disembarked. It
+numbered, including some marines, three thousand five hundred men,
+with two hundred sailors to drag the guns--two small three-
+pounders.
+
+For the defence of Washington, General Winder had been assigned a
+force of sixteen thousand six hundred regulars, and a levy of
+ninety-three thousand militia had been ordered. Of the latter, not
+one appeared; of the former, only about one-half mustered. The
+Americans had, however, twenty-six guns against two small pieces
+possessed by the British. General Winder took post at Bladensburg,
+a few miles from Washington. His batteries commanded the only
+bridge across the East Potomac. Ross determined to storm the
+bridge in two columns. Not for a moment did the war-bronzed
+veterans of the Peninsular war hesitate. Amid a storm of shot and
+shell, they dashed across the bridge, carried a fortified house,
+and charged on the batteries before the second column could come
+to their aid. Ten guns were captured. The American army was
+utterly routed, and fled through and beyond the city it was to
+defend. The lack of cavalry and the intense heat of the day
+prevented the pursuit by the British. The brilliant action was
+saddened to the victors by the loss of sixty-one gallant men slain
+and one hundred and eighty-five wounded.
+
+Towards evening the victorious army occupied the city. The
+destruction of the public buildings had been decreed, in
+retaliation for the pillage of Toronto and the wanton burning of
+Niagara. An offer was made to the American authorities to accept a
+money payment by way of ransom, but it was refused. The next day,
+the torch was ruthlessly applied to the Capitol, with its valuable
+library, the President's house, treasury, war office, arsenal,
+dockyard, and the long bridge across the Potomac. The enemy had
+already destroyed a fine frigate, a twenty-gun sloop, twenty
+thousand stand of arms, and immense magazines of powder. Even if
+justifiable as a military retaliation, this act was unworthy of a
+great and generous nation.
+
+The town of Alexandria was saved from destruction only by the
+surrender of twenty-one vessels, sixteen hundred barrels of flour,
+and a thousand hogsheads of tobacco.
+
+The city of Baltimore redeemed itself more bravely. Against that
+place General Ross now proceeded with his army and the fleet. In
+attacking the enemy's outposts, General Ross was slain, and the
+command devolved on Colonel Brooke. Six thousand infantry, four
+hundred horse, and four guns, protected by a wooden palisade,
+disputed the passage of the British. With a shout and a cheer
+Wellington's veterans attacked the obstructions, and, in fifteen
+minutes, were masters of the field. The American army fled,
+leaving behind them six hundred killed or wounded, and three
+hundred prisoners, September 13. The next morning, the British
+were within a mile and a half of Baltimore, but they found fifteen
+thousand men, with a large train of artillery, in possession of
+the heights commanding the city. Colonel Brooke, not willing to
+incur the risk of attacking in daylight, with three thousand men,
+a fivefold number, resolved on attempting a surprise by night. He
+learned, however, that the enemy, by sinking twenty vessels in the
+river, had prevented all naval co-operation. The inevitable loss
+of life in an assault far counter-balancing any prospective
+advantage, Brooke wisely abandoned the design, and withdrew
+unmolested to his ships.
+
+The fleet and army which had been baffled at Baltimore sailed for
+New Orleans, with the object of capturing the chief cotton port of
+the United States, then a city of seventeen thousand inhabitants.
+The fleet arrived off the mouth of the Mississippi on the 8th of
+December. It was opposed by a flotilla of gunboats, but they were
+all soon captured and destroyed. Amid very great difficulties and
+hardships, resulting from the severity of the weather and the
+wretched condition of the roads, the army under General Packenham
+advanced to within six miles of New Orleans. Here General Jackson,
+the American commander, had constructed a deep ditch and an
+entrenchment of earthworks, strengthened by sand-bags and cotton-
+bales, a thousand yards long, stretching from the Mississippi to
+an impassable swamp in the rear. Flanking batteries enfiladed the
+front. Behind these formidable works was posted an army of twelve
+thousand men.
+
+Packenham resolved to send Colonel Thornton, with fourteen hundred
+men, across the river by night, to storm a battery which swept the
+front of the earthworks, and to menace the city of New Orleans. At
+the same time, the main attack was to be made on Jackson's lines,
+in two columns, under Generals Gibbs and Keane. Packenham had
+only six thousand men, including seamen and marines, "to attack
+twice the number, entrenched to the teeth in works bristling with
+bayonets and loaded with heavy artillery." [Footnote: Allison's
+"History of Europe," Chap. lxxvi., American ed., vol. iv., p.
+480.] The rapid fall of the river retarded the crossing of the
+troops, and prevented a simultaneous attack on the right and left
+banks.
+
+Impatient at the delay, Packenham ordered the assault on Jackson's
+lines, January 6, 1815; the columns moved steadily forward, but
+the dawn of day revealed their approach, and they were met by a
+concentrated and murderous fire from the batteries. Without
+flinching, they advanced to the ditch, when it was found that the
+fascines and scaling-ladders had been forgotten. The head of the
+column, thus brought to a halt under the enemy's guns, was crushed
+by the tremendous fire. Packenham now fell mortally wounded, and
+Generals Gibbs and Keane were shortly after struck down.
+
+The gallant Ninety-third Highlanders, however, undaunted by the
+carnage, rushed forward, and many of them fairly climbed their way
+into the works, mounting on each other's shoulders. But their rash
+valour brought upon them the concentrated fire of grape, by which
+the successful assailants were cut down to a man. General
+Lambert, on whom the command now devolved, finding it impossible
+to carry the works, and the slaughter being appalling, drew off
+his troops. In this sanguinary repulse, the British lost two
+thousand men killed, wounded, and prisoners. The Americans claim
+that their loss was only eight killed and thirteen wounded.
+
+Meanwhile, Colonel Thornton, on the left bank of the river, had
+achieved a brilliant success. With only one-third of his command,
+or less than five hundred men, he had stormed a redoubt of twenty
+guns, defended by seventeen hundred men. The defeat of the main
+body, however, rendered the position untenable. Lambert
+successfully retreated to his ships, bringing off all his stores,
+ammunition, and field artillery. On the 27th the army re-embarked,
+and found a partial consolation for its defeat in the capture of
+Fort Boyer, a strong fortification at the mouth of the river.
+
+Peace had already been concluded at Ghent on the 24th of December,
+and was hailed with delight by the kindred peoples, wearied with
+mutual and unavailing slaughter. The calm verdict of history finds
+much ground of extenuation for the revolt of 1776; but for the
+American declaration of war in 1812, little or none. A reckless
+Democratic majority wantonly invaded the country of an
+unoffending neighbouring people, to seduce them from their lawful
+allegiance and annex their territory. The long and costly conflict
+was alike bloody and barren. The Americans annexed not a single
+foot of territory. They gained not a single permanent advantage.
+Their seaboard was insulted, their capital destroyed. Their annual
+exports were reduced from L22,000,000 to L1,500,000. Three
+thousand of their vessels were captured. Two-thirds of their
+commercial class became insolvent A vast war-tax was incurred, and
+the very existence of the Union imperilled by the menaced
+secession of the New England States. The "right of search" and the
+rights of neutrals--the ostensible but not the real causes of the
+war--were not even mentioned in the treaty of peace. The
+adjustment of unsettled boundaries was referred to a commission,
+and an agreement was made for a combined effort for the
+suppression of the slave-trade. The United States, however,
+continued its internal slave-traffic, of a character even more
+obnoxious than that which it engaged to suppress.
+
+On Canada, too, the burden of the war fell heavily. Great Britain,
+exhausted by nearly twenty years of conflict, and still engaged in
+a strenuous struggle against the European despot, Napoleon, could
+only, till near the close of the war, furnish scanty military aid.
+It was Canadian militia, with little help from British regulars,
+who won the brilliant victories of Chrysler's Farm and
+Chateauguay; and throughout the entire conflict they were the
+principal defence of their country. In many a Canadian home,
+bitter tears were shed for son or sire left cold and stark upon
+the bloody plain at Queenston Heights, or Chippewa, or Lundy's
+Lane, or other hard-fought field of battle.
+
+The lavish expenditure of the Imperial authorities, for ship-
+building, transport service, and army supplies, and the free
+circulation of the paper money issued by the Canadian Government,
+greatly stimulated the material prosperity of the
+country. [Footnote: The paper money of the United States was not
+redeemed till it had greatly depreciated in value, to the often
+ruinous loss of the holders.] Its peaceful industries,
+agriculture, and the legitimate development of its natural
+resources, however, were very much interrupted, and vast amounts
+of public and private property were relentlessly confiscated or
+destroyed by the enemy. [Footnote: See Withrow's "History of
+Canada;" 8vo. ed., pp., 234-340.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+CLOSING SCENES.
+
+
+After the stubborn and sanguinary battles of Chippewa, Lundy's
+Lane, and Fort Erie, the Niagara frontier had exemption from
+invasion, and a sort of armed truce prevailed to the end of the
+war. It was long, however, before the exasperation of feeling
+excited on either side by the unhappy conflict had died away. Now,
+thank God, the ameliorating influence of time, of commercial
+intercourse, and, let us hope, of Christian amity, has almost
+entirely obliterated the bitter memories of that unnatural strife.
+A continual exchange of international courtesies and friendly
+amenities, marks the intercourse of the kindred peoples who dwell
+upon opposite sides of the Niagara River. At the narrowest part of
+that river, two miles below the Falls, it is now spanned by the
+fairy-like railway Suspension Bridge--a life-artery along which
+throbs a ceaseless pulse of commerce between the Dominion of
+Canada and the United States of America, the two fairest and
+noblest daughters of brave Old England, the great mother of
+nations. As the deep and gloomy gorge beneath that bridge, with
+its wrathful and tumultuous torrent, seemed to forbid all
+intercourse between its opposite banks, so, unhappily, a deep and
+gloomy chasm has too long yawned between these neighbouring
+peoples, through which has raged a brawling torrent of
+estrangement, bitterness, and even of fratricidal strife. But as
+wire by wire that wondrous bridge was woven between the two
+countries, so social, religious, and commercial intercourse has
+been weaving subtile cords of fellowship between the adjacent
+communities; and now, let us hope, by the late Treaty of
+Washington, a golden bridge of amity and peace has spanned the
+gulf, and made them one in brotherhood for ever. As treason
+against humanity is that spirit to be deprecated that would sever
+one strand of those ties of friendship, or stir up strife between
+two great nations of one blood, one faith, one tongue. May this
+peaceful arbitration be the inauguration of the happy era told by
+the poet and seer,
+
+ "When the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags
+    are furled
+
+  In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world!"
+
+While musing on this theme, the following fancies wove themselves
+into verse, in whose aspiration all true patriots of either land
+will devoutly join:
+
+  As the great bridge which spans Niagara'a flood
+    Was deftly woven, subtile strand by strand
+    Into a strong and stable iron band,
+  Which heaviest stress and strain has long withstood;
+  So the bright golden strands of friendship strong,
+    Knitting the Mother and the Daughter land
+    In bonds of love--as grasp of kindly hand
+  May bind together hearts estranged long--
+  Is deftly woven now, in that firm gage
+    Of mutual plight and troth, which, let us pray,
+  May still endure unshamed from age to age--
+    The pledge of peace and concord true alway:
+  Perish the hand and palsied be the arm
+  That would one fibre of that fabric harm!
+
+Neville Trueman held on the even tenor of his way, through the
+period during which the tide of war was ebbing away on the
+Atlantic coast and on the lower Mississippi. Notwithstanding the
+tried and true character of his loyalty, he was not free from
+ungenerous and unjust aspersions by those prejudiced and bigoted
+against his American birth. He had, however, one friend who never
+swerved from her generous admiration of his character and respect
+for his conduct. Katharine Drayton never failed to defend both the
+one and the other when unkindly criticised in her presence. Yet to
+himself she was, while uniformly kind and courteous, yet unusually
+reserved in the expression of her personal feelings. The words of
+high appreciation which were spoken, in his defence to others, and
+which would to him have been a guerdon compensating a hundredfold
+all his trials and troubles, were to him unuttered. A sense of
+maiden modesty, if not a deeper and tenderer feeling, sealed her
+lips and made her, on this subject, dumb in his presence.
+
+If the enthusiastic friendship of her brother could have made
+amends for this reserve Neville had, indeed, ample compensation.
+Nevertheless a sense of loneliness and isolation were at times
+oppressively felt by the young man. Almost unconsciously to
+himself the character and person of Katharine Drayton had become
+to him very dear. They occupied much of his thought, and mingled
+even with his morning and evening orisons. Yet he sedulously
+avoided giving expression, even to himself, to his desires and
+aspirations. The sad uncertainties of the times forbade the
+thought of marrying or giving in marriage. His own anomalous
+position as having, apparently, an allegiance divided between the
+two countries unhappily at war, was also felt to be a great
+embarrassment in all his personal relations. Above all he was not
+without the apprehension that the heart of Katharine Drayton might
+have been won by the brave soldier whose untimely death she
+deplored with a sorrow deep and unfeigned. Her lacerated
+affections he felt to be too tender and too sacred a subject to be
+lightly approached. Moreover, what had he, a poor Methodist
+itinerant, without a home, without a country, dependent for his
+daily food and nightly shelter upon the Providence of God and the
+generosity of an alien people, themselves impoverished by a long
+and cruel conflict with his own countrymen, to offer in exchange
+for her love! For himself he had no fears, no forebodings for the
+future, no feeling of humiliation in accepting the generous
+hospitality of his kind congregations. But, he questioned, how
+could he ask the delicately-nurtured Katharine Drayton, the
+heiress of many acres, whose lightest wish had been gladly
+gratified by loving hands,--how could he ask her to leave the
+sheltering roof and cheerful hearth, where she reigned a queen, to
+share the privations, discomforts, and it might be poverty, of his
+migratory existence? The question smote with appalling emphasis
+upon his heart. So he continued to nourish in his soul a vague
+hope, menaced by a vague fear that sorely tried his courage and
+his faith.
+
+Meanwhile the fratricidal strife between the kindred nations came
+to an end--never, let us hope, while the world stands, to be
+renewed. The Treaty of Paris brought repose to the two war-wearied
+people. The Angel of Peace waved her branch of olive over the
+ravaged fields and desolated homes, and the kindly hand of Nature
+veiled with her gentle ministries the devastations of war. One
+evening, in the leafy month of June, shortly after the tidings of
+the peace had arrived, Neville Trueman was walking with Miss
+Drayton on the banks of the noble river where, three years before,
+he had gazed upon the summer sunset and sung the song of Jerusalem
+the Golden. They had been on a visit of charity to a sick member
+of Neville's flock, and were now returning through the after-glow
+of a golden sunset. The breath of the peach and apple blossoms
+filled the air with fragrance, and their pink and white bloom
+clothed the orchard trees with beauty. Swift swallows clove with
+their scythe-like wings the sky, and skimmed the surface of the
+dimpling wave, and the whip-poor-will's plaint of tender
+melancholy was borne faintly on the breeze. At a point of vantage
+commanding a broad view of the river, which, wimpling and
+dimpling in its beauty, flowed, a sapphire set in emerald,
+between its verdurous banks, Kate stood to gaze upon the lovely
+scene--fair as the storied Bay of Naples or the far-famed Riviera
+of Genoa.
+
+"It was here," she said, as she gazed wistfully at the setting
+sun, "that I had my last conversation with Captain Villiers, and
+an eventful conversation it was," and a tear glistened in her eyes
+as she remembered his parting words.
+
+Neville listened in an embarrassed manner.
+
+He thought that she referred to a declaration of his passion, so
+knowing not what reply to make he kept silent.
+
+"I believe," continued Kate, "that that conversation had a very
+important influence, under God, on his destiny."
+
+"His life," said Neville, "was unfortunately too short for him to
+enjoy his happiness."
+
+"True," replied Kate; "but all the sooner he reached its
+consummation."
+
+"How do you mean? I do not understand," said Neville, in a
+bewildered manner. "You would have been married had he lived."
+
+"Married! Who spoke of marriage?" exclaimed Kate, flushing rosy
+red over brow and cheek, as she turned with an air and tone of
+surprise to her companion.
+
+"Pardon me, I thought you were engaged," said Neville. "I have
+grounds to know that he cherished a deep devotion for you."
+
+"He never declared it, then," replied Kate; "and I am glad he did
+not. I had a great esteem and respect for Captain Villiers, but I
+could not have given him my hand."
+
+"Could not!" exclaimed Neville, in a dazed sort of manner. "Then
+I have been under a great mistake," and he walked on for a few
+minutes in silence.
+
+"Miss Drayton," he said, after a pause, impelled
+by a sudden impulse and determined to know his fate, "I have long
+honoured and revered your character and person. This feeling has
+grown into a deep and ardent affection. Dare I hope that it is
+reciprocated? May I ask you to share the trials and, thank God,
+the triumphs of a Methodist preacher's life?" and he clasped her
+hand earnestly.
+
+"Mr. Trueman," she faltered--but she withdrew not her hand--then,
+in a tenderer tone, "Neville, let me say, my heart has long been
+yours. Did you not know it? I fear not the trials if I may share
+the joys of service for the Master by your side," and she frankly
+placed her other hand in his.
+
+Soft as fall the dews at even fell the holy kiss that sealed the
+plighted vows of these two young and loving hearts. Long they sat
+there on a mossy trunk beside the river's brink, in the golden
+twilight, beguiling the flying moments with sacred lovers' talk--
+to which it were sacrilege to listen and a crime to coldly report.
+At length, in the soft light of the crescent moon, they sauntered,
+she leaning confidingly upon his arm, slowly up the garden alley
+between the sweet June roses, breathing forth their souls in
+fragrance on the summer air.
+
+Plucking a rich red rose, Neville placed it in her hair, saying,
+"So may the immortal roses that the angel brought to St.
+Cecilia--the virtues and the graces of the bride of Christ--bloom
+forever in your garland of beauty and crown of rejoicing."
+
+Then she, glowing with fairer loveliness beneath his fond caress,
+plucked a white rose from its stem and fastened it upon his breast
+with the words, "So, O beloved, wear thou the white flower of
+blameless life, breathing the fragrance of purity and holiness
+throughout the world."
+
+Arm in arm the lovers passed on to the house and into the presence
+of the squire, who sat beneath the grape vine of the broad piazza
+enjoying his evening pipe.
+
+"Squire Drayton," said Neville, in a tone of manly confidence, "I
+have come to ask your daughter's hand in marriage," and he put his
+arm protectingly around her, as she stood blushing at his side.
+
+"Well, young man," said the old gentleman, taking his long
+"churchwarden" pipe from his mouth, "you ask that as coolly as
+though girls like Kate grew as plentifully as the grape clusters
+on this vine. There's not a man living good enough for my Kate--
+I'd have you know."
+
+"I quite agree with you in that, squire," said the young man. "So
+much the greater my prize in winning her affection."
+
+"I believe you have, my lad," said the old man, relenting, and
+then went on with a good deal of natural pathos, "An old thorn
+like me can't expect to keep such a sweet rose ungathered on its
+stem. Take her, Neville. Love and cherish her as you would have
+God be good to you. Kiss me, Kate. You must still keep room in
+your heart for your poor old father. Ton have been my greatest
+solace since your mother died. Be as good a wife as you have been
+a daughter, and God's blessing on you both."
+
+Kate flung her arms around her father's neck and covered his brow
+and cheek with kisses. And Neville, taking his hand, said
+solemnly, "God do so to me and more also, if I cherish not your
+daughter as my life; if I cherish her not as Christ loved His
+Bride the Church, and gave Himself for it."
+
+"I have one regret," said Neville, sometime afterward, when Kate
+had gone out of the room, "and that is, that I have not brighter
+worldly prospects and more assured support to offer Kate."
+
+"The time has been, my son," said the squire, adopting him at once
+into the family, "when I would have thought so too; when I would
+have sought, as conditions for her future,--position, wealth, and
+ease. But I have lived to see that these are not the great
+essentials of life, that these alone cannot give happiness. With
+true love and God's blessing you can never be poor. Without these,
+though you roll in riches, you are poor indeed. Not but that it
+would grieve me to see Kate want, as many a preacher's wife whom I
+have known has wanted. But by God's goodness I am able to secure
+her against that, and to do so shall be the greatest pleasure of
+my life."
+
+"I accept on her behalf your generous offer," replied Neville,
+"but with this condition, that your bounty shall be settled
+exclusively on her. No man shall say that I married your daughter
+for anything but herself."
+
+"I dare say you are right," said the squire. "Better get a fortune
+in a wife than with a wife. Often when a wife brings a fortune she
+spends a fortune."
+
+"I would never submit," remarked Neville, "to the humiliation of
+being a pensioner upon a wife's bounty. My self-respect demands
+that, as the head of the house, I be able to depend on myself
+alone."
+
+"You must not push your principles too far," interrupted the
+squire, "A husband and wife should have one purse, one purpose,
+common interests, perfect mutual confidence, and, above all, no
+secrets from each other."
+
+In such sage counsels and confidences the evening, fraught with
+such eventful consequences to the household of The Holms and to
+the hero of our little story, passed away.
+
+A few weeks later, shortly after the Conference by which Neville
+was appointed to the superintendence of a circuit in the western
+part of Canada, his marriage took place. The Holms for days before
+was a ferment of excitement with the baking of cakes and pastry
+and confections of every kind and degree, including the
+construction of a three-story iced wedding-cake, on which the
+skill of Kate herself, as mistress of ceremonies, was exhausted.
+The best parlour too was a scene of unwonted anarchy under the
+distracting reign of the village dressmaker constructing the
+bridal trousseau. Billows of tulle, illusion, lace, and other
+feminine finery, which the male mind cannot be expected to
+understand, far less to describe foamed over tables, chairs, and
+floor. The result of all this confusion was apparent on the
+morning of the happy day, in the sumptuous wedding-breakfast that
+covered the ample board, set out with the best plate and china,
+and, above all, in as fair a vision of bridal beauty as ever
+gladdened the heart of youthful bridegroom.
+
+Good Elder Ryan travelled many miles to perform the wedding
+service. Merry were his laugh and jest and wit and playful
+badinage, for the early Methodist preachers were no stern ascetics
+or grim anchorites. Like their Master, who graced the marriage
+feast of Cana of Galilee with His presence, they could rejoice
+with those that did rejoice, as well as weep with those that wept.
+Long was the prayer he uttered, but to the youthful happy pair it
+seemed not so, for in their hearts they prayed with him,
+[Footnote: See Longfellow's "River Charles".] and solemnly
+dedicated themselves to the new life of consecrated usefulness
+that invited them forward to sweet ministries of mercy and of
+grace in the service of the Master.
+
+The squire looked rubicund and patriarchal, with his broad
+physique and snow-white hair. He wore, in honour of the occasion,
+his coat of brightest blue, with large gilt buttons, a buff
+waistcoat and an ample ruffled shirt-bosom and frilled sleeves.
+His manner was a singular blending of paternal joy and pride in
+the beauty and happiness of the fair Katharine, and of wistful
+tenderness and regret at the loss of her gladsome presence from
+his home.
+
+Zenas was jubilant and boisterous, full of quips and pranks,
+overflowing with fun, like a boy let loose from school. He
+evidently felt, not that he was losing a sister, but that he was
+gaining a brother who was already knit to his soul by bonds of
+friendship strong as those between Jonathan and David--between
+Damon and Pythias.
+
+Our old friends, Tom Loker and Sandy McKay, also, in accordance
+with early colonial etiquette, graced the occasion with their
+presence, and added their honest and heartfelt congratulations to
+those which greeted the happy pair. And never was there happier
+pair than that which rode away in the wedding-coach to their new
+home on the forest mission of the western wilds of Canada. Not
+much of this world's goods had they, but they were rich in love,
+and hope, and faith, compared with which all earthly riches are
+but dross.
+
+The old house at The Holms seemed very lone and desolate, now that
+its fair mistress had departed. The squire missed her much, and,
+in his loneliness and isolation, turned more and more toward those
+religious consolations which had been the inspiration of the life
+of his wife and daughter, and, there is ground to hope, found that
+solace which can be found nowhere else.
+
+He sought a diversion from his solitude in frequent visits to the
+village parsonage, where Katharine reigned in her small home-
+kingdom with blooming matron dignity. Nor were these visits
+unprofitable to the larder, if we might judge from the stout
+hampers which went full and returned empty. But a still greater
+joy was the visit of Katharine to the old homestead at Christmas-
+time; and at midsummer, when Neville was absent at Conference.
+The old man never enjoyed his pipe so much as when it was filled
+and lighted by the deft fingers of his fair matron daughter. In
+after years these visits were made not unattended. Children's
+happy laughter filled the old house with glee, and strange riot
+ruled in the long-quiet parlour and great wide hall and echoing
+stairs. Another sturdy Neville, and little Kate, and baby Zenas
+began to play their parts in the momentous and often tragic drama
+of life. The old man seemed to renew his youth in sharing the
+gleeful gambols of his grandchildren, and in telling to little
+Neville, on his knee, the story of the terrible years of the war,
+and of the heroism of his father and his uncle Zenas, and the
+brave Captain Villiers, whose memorial tablet they had seen in the
+village church at Niagara, with the strange quartering--on a field
+azure a cross enguled and a wyvern volant.
+
+Our brief story now is done. The bitter memories of the war have
+passed away. The long reign of peace has effaced its scars alike
+from the face of nature and from the hearts of the kindred peoples
+who dwell side by side in kindly intercourse and friendship. The
+broad Niagara sweeps on as ever in its might and majesty to mingle
+its flood with the blue waters of Ontario. The banks, in steep
+escarpments, crowned with oak and elm and giant walnuts, or in
+gentle turfclad slopes, sweep in graceful curves around the
+windings of the stream. The weeping birch trails its tresses in
+the waters like a wood nymph admiring her own loveliness. The
+comfortable farmsteads nestle amid their embowering peach and
+apple orchards, the very types of peace and plenty. The mighty
+river, after its dizzy plunge at the great cataract, and mad
+tumultuous rush and eddy at the rapids and whirlpool, smoothes its
+rugged front and restrains its impetuous stream to the semblance
+of a placid old age after a wild and stormy life.
+
+The slumberous old town of Niagara has also an air of calm repose.
+No vulgar din of trade disturbs its quiet grass-grown streets. The
+dismantled fort, the broken stockade, the empty fosse, and the
+crumbling ramparts, where wandering sheep crop the herbage and the
+swallows build their nests in the months of the overturned and
+rusty cannon, are all the evidence of the long reign of an
+unbroken peace. _Esto perpetua_--so may it ever be.
+
+A few words in conclusion as to the construction of this story of
+the War. The historical statements here given have been carefully
+verified by the consultation of the best published authorities,
+and by personal researches on the scene of the conflict, and
+frequent conversations with surviving actors in the stirring
+events which then took place. In portraying the minor characters,
+filling up details and reported conversations, some licence had to
+be given the imagination. In this connection I may adopt the
+language of the distinguished philosopher, Isaac Taylor, author of
+"Aids to Faith," with reference to a somewhat similar work of
+imagination of his own: "Let me say, and I say it in candour--that
+if, in a dramatic sense, I report conversations uttered longer ago
+than the Battle of Waterloo, it is the dramatic import only of
+such conversations I vouch for, not the _ipsissima verba_;
+and likewise as to the descriptions I give, I must be understood
+to describe things in an artistic sense, not as if I were giving
+evidence in a court of justice."
+
+And now my task is ended. Much of this simple story has been
+written hastily, amid the pressing occupations of a busy life, and
+a considerable portion of it was written at sea, when the
+steamship was reeling and rolling with the motion of the waves, so
+that I had to hold on by the table at which I sat. These
+circumstances must be pleaded in extenuation of its shortcomings
+and demerits. If this retrospect of one of the most stirring
+episodes in our country's history shall kindle warmer fires of
+patriotism in the hearts of any of its readers; if the records of
+the trials and triumphs, the moral heroism and brave achievements
+of our Canadian forefathers shall inspire a stronger sympathy
+with their sufferings, and admiration of their character; and,
+above all, if the religious teachings of this story shall lead any
+to seek the same solace and succour which sustained our fathers in
+tribulation, and enbraved their souls for conflict with the evils
+of the time--it shall not have been written in vain.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher
+by William Henry Withrow
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEVILLE TRUEMAN ***
+
+This file should be named 6826.txt or 6826.zip
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