"Cockneys of London, Muscadines of Paris,
I pray you ponder, what a pastime war is."
--_Byron._
I joined my regiment at Fort Wellington, and a fine jovial
unsophisticated set of "wild tremendous Irishmen" I found my brother
officers to be. To do them justice (and I was upwards of four years with
them) a more honest-hearted set of fellows never met round a mess table.
No private family ever lived in more concord or unanimity than did "Our
Mess."
Irishmen though they mostly were, they never quarrelled among
themselves. They sometimes fought, to be sure, with strangers, but never
in the Regiment, though we rarely went to bed without a respectable
quorum of them getting a _leetle_ to the lee side of sobriety.
"Tempora mutantur," says Horace, but I very much doubt if "nos" (that is
such as are alive of 'nos') "mutamur in illis." The Army is very
different from what it was in my day--sadly changed indeed! It will
hardly be believed, but I have dined with officers who, after drinking a
few glasses of wine, called for their coffee. If Waterloo was to fight
over again, no rational man can suppose that we would gain it after such
symptoms of degeneracy. Such lady-like gentlemen would certainly take
out vinaigrettes and scream at a charge of the Old Guard, and be
horrified at the sight of a set of grim-looking Frenchmen, all grin and
gash, whisker and moustache.
I was not, however, allowed to enjoy the festivities of Fort Wellington,
such as they were. The enemy being extended along the line of the right
bank of the St. Lawrence, and the Lake of the Thousand Islands, it was
necessary that we also should extend and occupy points that might enable
us to keep up a communication, and maintain a correspondence with our
rear. Besides it was considered highly expedient and necessary, that
small bodies of the line should be stationed in defensible positions, to
form a nucleus, in case of invasion, for the Indians and Militia to
rally round and form upon. Accordingly, a garrison had to be maintained
in a block-house in the woods of Gananoque, between Brockville and
Kingston, and our Grenadier Company being ordered for that service, I
was detached to accompany them. A block-house is a most convenient and
easily constructed fort in a new country. The lower story is strongly
built of stone, and the upper, which overhangs it about eighteen inches,
(so that you can fire from above along the wall without being exposed,)
is built of logs about a foot square. Both stories are pierced with
loop-holes for musquetry, and in the upper are four portholes, to which
are fitted four 24-pounder carronades, mounted naval fashion, the whole
being surrounded with a strong loop-holed and flanked stoccade, and this
makes a very fair protection for an inferior force, against a superior
who are unprovided with a battering train, which of course in a few
rounds would knock it to splinters.
Except in the expectation of a sudden attack, the officers were
permitted to sleep out of the block-house, and a small unfinished house
was taken for their residence. The captain and senior lieutenant being,
as Bardolph hath it, better _accommodated_ than with wives, we, that is
the junior lieutenant and myself, gave up our share of the quarters to
them, and established ourselves in what had been a blacksmith's shop,
for our winter quarters. In the ante-room to this enviable abode, a
jobbing tailor had formed his shop-board, and his rags and shapings
proved highly useful in caulking its seams against the wind. By means of
a roaring fire kept up on the forge, and a stove in the outer room, we
managed to keep ourselves tolerably comfortable during an unusually
rigorous winter; and it being on the road side, and a halting station in
the woods, we were often visited by friends coming or going, who partook
with great goût of our frozen beef--which had to be cut into steaks with
a hand-saw. Being on the banks of a fine stream, we never were at loss
for ducks, and in the surrounding pine woods the partridges were
abundant, and the Indians brought us venison in exchange for rum, so
that we had at least a plentiful, if not an elegant table, and we were
enabled to pass the winter nights as pleasantly over our ration rum as
ever I did in a place with much more splendid "appliances and means to
boot."
We passed the remainder of the winter as officers are obliged to do in
country quarters. We shot, we lounged, we walked and did all the
flirtation that the neighborhood of a mill, a shop, a tavern, with two
farm houses within a reasonable forenoon's walk, could afford. We were
deprived, however, of the luxury of spitting over a bridge, which Dr.
Johnston says is the principal amusement of officers in country
quarters, for though we had a bridge close at hand, the stream beneath
it was frozen. Early in spring we were relieved by two companies of
another Regiment, and having received orders to join, we joined
accordingly.
I had the good fortune to be quartered with two companies of my Regiment
at the then insignificant village of Cornwall. It is now a flourishing
town, and sends a Member to the Provincial Parliament, though it then
did not contain more than twenty houses. Here we found ourselves in very
agreeable society, composed principally of old officers of the
revolutionary war, who had obtained grants of land in this
neighbourhood, and had _settled down_, as we say in this part of the
country and its neighbourhood, with their families. An affectation of
style, and set entertainments that follow so rapidly the footsteps of
wealth, were then and there unknown, and we immediately became on the
best possible terms with the _highest circles_ (for these exist in all
societies, and the smaller the society, the more distinctly is the
circle defined). We walked into their houses as if they had been our
own, and no apology was offered, though these were found in such a
litter as washing or scrubbing day necessarily implied. The old
gentlemen when in town came to Our Mess, and when they had imbibed a
sufficient quantity of port, they regaled us with toughish yarns of
their military doings during the revolutionary war. And when a
tea-drinking party called a sufficient number of the aristocracy
together, an extemporaneous dance was got up, a muffled drum and fife
furnishing the orchestra.
Towards the end of June our two companies got the route to join
headquarters, the Regiment being ordered to the Niagara frontier. But
though the troops were relieved, I was not, but ordered to remain till
some one should arrive to fill my place, and in the interval between
that and my departure a Field Officer, who was sent to command the
Militia of the district, arrived.
He was an old acquaintance of mine, and a real good fellow. He had
highly distinguished himself during the war, particularly at the
storming of Ogdensburg, where he commanded. He was of Highland
extraction, and though he had not the misfortune to be born in that
country, he had, by means of the instructions of a Celtic moonshee, (as
they say in Bengal,) acquired enough of their language to hammer out a
translation of a verse or two of the Gaelic Bible, with nearly as much
facility as a boy in the first year of the Grammar School would an equal
quantity of his Cordery. To all these good gifts he added the advantage
of being of the Catholic persuasion, which rendered him the most proper
person that could have been selected to take charge of a district the
chief part of whose Militia were Highlanders, Catholics, and soldiers,
or the sons of soldiers.
I have never met with him since the end of the war, though I might have
seen him in Edinburgh at the King's visit; but who could be expected to
recognize a respectable Field Officer of Light Infantry, masquerading,
disguised for the first time in his life in a kilt, and forming a joint
in the tail of the chief of his barbarous clan?
It struck this gentleman that supplies of fresh provisions might be got
from the American side, and accordingly he sent emissaries over the
river, and the result justified the correctness of his views.
While sitting after dinner one day _tete-à-tete_ with the Colonel, his
servant announced that a gentleman wanted to see him. As the word
_gentleman_ on this side of the Atlantic conveys no idea of either high
birth or high breeding, nor even of a clean shirt, or a whole coat, my
friend demanded what kind of a gentleman,--as, like a sensible man as he
was, he did not wish to be interrupted in the pleasant occupation of
discussing his wine and listening to my agreeable conversation, by a
gentleman who possibly might ask him if he wished to buy any eggs, as
many species of the _genus_ gentleman on this side of the herring pond
might possibly deem a good and sufficient reason for intruding on his
privacy. His servant said he believed he must be a kind of Yankee
gentleman, for he wore his hat in the parlor, and spit on the carpet.
The _causa scientiae_, as the lawyers say, seemed conclusive to my
Commandant, for he was ordered to be admitted, and the Colonel, telling
me that he suspected this must be one of his beef customers, requested I
would not leave the room, as he wished a witness to the bargain he was
about to make.
Accordingly, there entered a tall, good-looking, middle-aged man,
dressed in a blue something, that might have been a cross between a
surtout and a great coat. He was invited to sit down, and fill his
glass, when the following dialogue took place:
Yankee.--I'm Major ---- of Vermont State, and I would like to speak to
the Colonel in private, I guess, on particular business.
Colonel.--Anything you may have to say to me, Sir, may be said with
perfect safety in presence of this gentleman.
Major.--I'm a little in the smuggling line, I reckon.
Colonel.--Aye, and pray what have you smuggled?
Major.--Kettle, (cattle,) I reckon. I heerd that the Colonel wanted some
very bad, so I just brought a hundred on 'em across at St. Regis, as
fine critters, Colonel, as ever had hair on 'em. So I drove them right
up; the Colonel can look at 'em hisself--they are right at the door
here.
Colonel.--Well, what price do you ask for them?
Major.--Well, Colonel I expect about the same as other folks gets, I
conclude.
Colonel.--That is but reasonable, and you shall have it.
The Commissary of the Post was sent for, and having been previously
warned not to be very scrupulous in inspecting the drove, as it was of
infinitely more importance to get the army supplied than to obtain them
at the very lowest rate per head, he soon returned with a bag of half
eagles, and paid the Major the sum demanded. The latter, after carefully
counting the coin, returned it into the canvas bag, and opening his coat
displayed inside the breast of it, a pocket about the size of a
haversack, into which he dropped his treasure, and then deliberately
buttoning it up from the bottom to the throat, he filled and drank a
glass of wine, to our good healths; adding, "Well, Colonel, I must say
you are a leetle the genteelest man to deal with ever I met with, and
I'll tell all my friends how handsome you behaved to me; and I'm glad of
it for their sakes as well as my own, for jist as I was fixing to start
from St. Regis, my friend Colonel ---- arrived with three hundred head
more. The kettle arnt his'n; they belong to his father, who is our
Senator. They do say that it is wrong to supply an innimy, and I think
so too; but I don't call that man my innimy who buys what I have to
sell, and gives a genteel price for it. We have worse innimies than you
Britishers. So I hope the Colonel will behave all the same as well to
them as he has done to me; but there was no harm in having the first of
the market, you know, Colonel." So with a duck that was intended for a
bow, and a knowing grin that seemed to say, "It was just as safe to
secure my money before giving you this piece of information," he took
his leave and departed, evidently much pleased with the success of his
negotiation.
At this time the expense of carrying on the war was enormous. Canada, so
far from being able to supply an army and navy with the provisions
required, was (as a great many of her effective population were employed
in the transport of military and naval stores,) not fit to supply her
own wants, and it was essential to secure supplies from wherever they
could be got soonest and cheapest. Troops acting on the Niagara
frontier, 1,000 miles from the ocean, were fed with flour the produce of
England, and pork and beef from Cork, which, with the waste inseparable
from a state of war, the expense and accidents to which a long voyage
expose them, and the enormous cost of internal conveyance, at least
doubled the quantity required, and rendered the price of them at least
ten times their original cost. Not only provisions, but every kind of
Military and Naval Stores, every bolt of canvas, every rope yarn, as
well as the heavier articles of guns, shot, cables, anchors, and all the
numerous etceteras for furnishing a large squadron, arming forts,
supplying arms for the militia and the line, had to be brought from
Montreal to Kingston, a distance of nearly 200 miles, by land in winter,
and in summer by flat-bottomed boats, which had to tow up the rapids,
and sail up the still parts of the river, (in many places not a mile in
breadth, between the British and American shores,) exposed to the shot
of the enemy without any protection; for with the small body of troops
we had in the country, it was utterly impossible that we could detach a
force sufficient to protect the numerous _brigades_ of boats that were
daily proceeding up the river, and we must have been utterly undone, had
not the ignorance and inertness of the enemy saved us. Had they
stationed four field guns, covered by a corps of riflemen, on the banks
of the St. Lawrence, they could have cut off our supplies without
risking one man. As it was we had only to station a small party at every
fifty miles, to be ready to act in case of alarm; but fortunately for
us, they rarely or never troubled us. If they had done so with any kind
of spirit, we must have abandoned Upper Canada, Kingston and the fleet
on Ontario included, and leaving it to its fate, confined ourselves to
the defence of such part of the Lower Province as came within the range
of our own empire, the sea.
I would do gross injustice to my reader, no less than to myself, were I
to quit Cornwall without mentioning a most worthy personage, who, though
in a humble station, was one of the best and most original characters I
ever met with in my progress through life. This was no other than my
worthy hostess, of the principal log hotel, Peggy Bruce. If you could
conceive Meg Dodds an Irish instead of a Scotch woman, you would have a
lively conception of Peggy. She possessed all the virtues of her
prototype, all her culinary talents, all her caprice with guests she did
not take a fancy for, and all powers, offensive or defensive, by tongue
or broom, as the case in hand rendered the one or the other more
expedient.
Peggy was the daughter of a respectable Irish farmer, and had made a
runaway match with a handsome young Scotch sergeant. She had accompanied
her husband through the various campaigns of the revolutionary war, and
at the peace, his regiment being disbanded, they set up a small public
house, which, when I knew her as a widow, she still kept. The sign was a
long board, decorated by a very formidable likeness of St. Andrew at the
one end, and St. Patrick at the other, being the patron saints of the
high contracting parties over whose domicile they presided, and the
whole surrounded by a splendid wreath of thistles and shamrocks.
Bred in the army, she still retained her old military predeliction, and
a scarlet coat was the best recommendation to her good offices.
Civilians of whatever rank she deemed an inferior class of the human
race, and it would have been a hard task to have convinced her that the
Lord Chancellor was equal in dignity or station to a Captain of
Dragoons.
It was my luck, (good or bad as the reader may be inclined to
determine,) to be a prodigious favourite with the old lady; but even
favour with the ladies has its drawbacks and inconveniences, and one of
these with me was being dragged to the bedside of every man, woman and
child who was taken ill in or about the village. At first I remonstrated
against my being appointed physician-extraordinary to the whole parish,
with which I was in no way connected; but Peggy found an argument which,
as it seemed perfectly satisfactory to herself, had to content me. "What
the d--l does the king pay you for, if you are not to attend to his
subjects when they require your assistance?"
I once, and only once, outwitted her. She woke me out of a sound sleep a
little after midnight, to go and see one of her patients. Having
undergone great fatigue the day before, I felt very unwilling to get up.
At first I meditated a flat refusal, but I could see with half a glance,
that she anticipated my objections, for I saw her eye fix itself on a
large ewer of water in the basin stand, and I knew her too well for a
moment to suppose that she would hesitate to call in the aid of the pure
element to enforce her arguments. So I feigned compliance, but pleaded
the impossibility of my getting up, while there was a lady in the room.
This appeared only reasonable, so she lit my candle and withdrew to the
kitchen fire, while I was at my toilet. Her back was no sooner turned,
than I rose, double-locked and bolted the door, and retired again to
rest, leaving her to storm in the passage, and ultimately to knock up
one of the village doctors, whose skill she was well persuaded was
immeasurably inferior to any _Army_ medical man who wore His Majesty's
uniform. But though I chuckled at my success at the time, I had to be
most wary how I approached her, and many days elapsed before I ventured
to come within broom's length of her. At last I appeased her wrath by
promising never "in like case to offend," and so obtained her
forgiveness, and was once more taken into favour; but Peggy was too old
a soldier to be taken in twice, or to trust to the promise of a sleepy
man that he would get up. After this, when she required my services, she
would listen to no apology on the score of modesty, but placing her
lantern on the table, waited patiently till I was dressed, when tucking
up her gown through her pocketholes and taking my arm, away we paddled
through the mud in company.
After reaching the house of the patient, and after the wife and
daughters had been duly scolded for their neglect in not calling her in
sooner, we entered into consultation, which like many other medical
consultations, generally ended in a difference of opinion. To a
_military_ surgeon, much sooner than to any other surgeon, there were
certain great leading principles in the healing art, to all impugning of
which Peggy was flint and adamant and when these were mooted I much
question if she would have succumbed to even the Director General of the
Army Medical Board himself.
At the head of her medical dicta was that it was essential to "support
the strength." That was to cram the patient with every kind of food that
by entreaty or importunity he could be prevailed upon to swallow, (a
practice by the way of more learned practitioners than Peggy.) A hot
bath with herbs infused in it was another favourite remedy, and on this
we were more at one, for the bath would most likely do good, and the
herbs no harm. Her concluding act at the breaking up of the consultation
was generally to dive into the recesses of a pair of pockets of the size
and shape of saddle bags, from which, among other miscellaneous
contents, would she fish up a couple of bottles of wine which she deemed
might be useful to the patient. After we had finished business I
escorted the old lady home, where there was always something comfortable
kept warm for supper, which when we had discussed together, with
something of a stiffish horn of hot brandy and water, we departed to our
respective dormitories.
Peggy, like many of her country, possessed a keen vein of sarcastic
humor, which often made her both feared and respected. A Colonel, as
good a man, and as brave a soldier as ever drew a sword, but too much of
a martinet to be a favourite with the militia of whom he was Inspecting
Field Officer, received a command in a division that was then going on
actual service. Peggy, who respected his military talents at least as
much as she disliked his hauteur, meeting him the day before his
departure, addressed him with--"Och! Colonel dear, and are ye going to
lave us--sure there will be many a dry eye in the town the day you quit
it." When the American Army, under Wilkinson, were coming down the St.
Lawrence, a company of Glengarry Militia were placed at Cornwall to
watch their movements, and act as might be most expedient. The Captain
of the band was named John McDonald, a very good and highly respectable
name, but of no earthly use to distinguish a Glengarry man, as there
were some hundreds in that part of the world--nor would the prefix of
his military rank much mend the matter, as there are probably some score
Captain John McDonalds. In this emergency therefore, a soubriquet
becomes indispensable. This Captain John had in his youth served in the
revolutionary war as a corporal, in the same brigade as Peggy's husband,
therefore they were very old friends, and to distinguish him from the
clan she named him _Captain Corporal John_. When it was known that the
invading army had abandoned the attempt, and had crossed the river, the
men, wisely considering that their services were no longer required in
Cornwall, and would be highly useful on their farms, disbanded
themselves during the night without the formality of asking leave, so
that at morning parade only six appeared on the ground. Such an
unheard-of breach of military discipline could not fail to excite the
fierce indignation of the worthy veteran; accordingly he vented his
wrath in every oath, Gaelic or English, within the range of his
vocabulary. Peggy, who witnessed the scene from her window, consoled the
incensed commander with "Och! John, dear, don't let the devil get so
great a hould of ye as to be blaspheming like a heathen in that fearful
way; things are not so bad with you yet, sure you have twice as many men
under your command as you had when I knew you first."
Having at last been relieved, I proceeded to join on the Niagara
frontier, and therefore marched with a detachment of the Canadian
Fencibles to Kingston, where I was joined by a friend of mine, an
officer of the 100th, who was bound for the same destination. We
accordingly waited on the Deputy Quarter Master General, and stated the
necessity of being furnished with land conveyance, as the battle which
must decide the campaign, was hourly expected; but that gentleman having
newly acquired his dignity, it did not sit easy upon him, and with great
hauteur he flatly refused us, and unless we chose to march it, (about
200 miles,) we had no shift but to embark in a batteau loaded with
gunpowder, and rowed by a party of De Watteville's regiment. This
gentleman, by the bye, afterwards distinguished himself as a naturalist
in Sir John Ross' first Polar expedition, and as a most appropriate
reward had the honor to stand god-father to a nondescript gull, which
bears his name unto this day.
In the batteau, therefore, we deposited ourselves, and with six more in
company proceeded on our way, with such speed as a set of rowers, who
probably had never had an oar before in their hands, could urge us. The
wind though light was ahead; but when we got about six hours distance
from Kingston, which perhaps might amount to eighteen or twenty miles,
all we could do was to make head-way against it, and as it looked as if
there would be more of it, sooner than less, I (who, from my superior
nautical experience, having been born and bred in a sea-port town and
acquired considerable dexterity both in stealing boats and managing them
when stolen, was voted Commodore,) ordered them under the lee of a
little rocky island, and carried their dangerous cargo about a hundred
yards from where we encamped, that is to say, put the gunpowder at one
end of the island and ourselves at the other, hauled up the batteau,
lighted fires, and forming a camp of sails and tarpaulins, waited the
event. A squall did come down the lake in very handsome style,
embellished with a sufficiency of spindrift to make us thankful that we
were under the lee of a rock and covered overhead. The squall subsided
into a good steady gale, accompanied by a sea that made it utterly
impossible that we could have proceeded even if the wind had been as
favourable as it was the contrary; we thus had the advantage of enjoying
two days of philosophical reflection on a rock in Lake Ontario. On the
third it began to moderate, and my comrade and I took one of the empty
batteaus with a strong party, and made us directly in shore as we could,
and had the good fortune to land about twelve miles above Kingston,
determined to make our way on horseback, _coute qu'il coute_.
Any one who has only seen the roads of Canada in the present day, can
form but a very inadequate idea of what they were then between Kingston
and Toronto; for a considerable part of the way we were literally up to
our saddle-flaps. In those days all the horses along the roads were
taken up for Government, and an officer receiving the _route_ gave the
proprietor an order for so many horses so many miles, and the nearest
Commissary paid it; or he paid it, taking a receipt which, when he
showed it to the Commissary at the end of his journey, was refunded. We
necessarily took the latter mode, seeing we had no route to show, and
therefore paid our way ourselves. The officer who accompanied me being
like myself a subaltern, we found we uniformly got the worst horses, as
Major A. or Colonel B. or some other "person of worship" was expected,
and the best must necessarily be kept for him. It struck me therefore
that if "Captain" was a good travelling name, "General" must be a much
better; I proposed to my companion that he should have the rank of Major
General "for the road only," and I volunteered to act as Aide-de-camp.
He liked the plan, but objected that he was too young to look the
character, but that as I had a more commanding and dignified presence, I
should do General and he Aide-de-camp, and as we were dressed in our
surtouts and forage caps, we were well aware that we might easily pass
with the uninitiated for any rank we might think proper to assume.
Accordingly, when we approached a halt where we were to change horses,
he rode briskly forward and began to call lustily about him, as "one
having authority," for horses, and pointing to a very active, stout
looking pair, peremptorily ordered them to be brought out and saddled;
but the man of the house excused himself by saying that he "kept them
horses for the sole use of Major B. the Deputy Quarter Master General,
and as he had the conducting of the troops on the line of march through
which the road lay, and had it in his power to put good jobs in his way,
he was not a man whom he could offend on slight grounds."
"D----n Major B!" exclaimed the irreverent and indignant A.D.C. "Would
you set his will, or that of fifty like him, against the positive orders
of the great General D. who has been sent out by the Duke of Wellington
to instruct Sir Gordon Drummond how he is to conduct the campaign? Sir,
if by your neglect he is too late for the battle that must soon be
fought, you will be answerable for it, and then hanging on your own
sign-post is the very mildest punishment you can expect; it is the way
we always settled such matters in Spain." To this argument there could
be no answer, so the horses were led out just as I came up--my A.D.C.
with his hat in his hand holding my stirrup as I mounted. This to those
who knew anything about the service would have appeared a little _de
trop_; but to the uninitiated, of whom mine host was one, it only served
to inspire him with the higher respect for the great man his horse was
about to have the honour to carry.
So far things went on as well as could have been wished; but in turning
a corner in a young pine wood about a mile from where we had started,
who should we meet full in the face but Major B., (commonly called Beau
B.) who was also a captain in my own regiment. After the first
salutation he expressed his surprise that the man should have given me
his horses. I assured him that I should not have got them, but that he
had a much better pair for him. This pacified him, so after a few
minutes' conversation, (the A.D.C. and guide keeping a respectful
distance,) I told him I had been made a general since I last saw him. He
did not see the point of the joke at the time, but on taking leave he
took off his hat and bowing till his well brushed and perfumed locks
mixed with the hair of his horse's mane, said, loud enough for the guide
to hear him, "General D., I have the honor to wish you a very good
morning." If there had been any misgivings in the mind of the guide,
this could not fail to remove them. Immediately after he rode up to me,
and said that if I had no objections he would ride forward, and make
such arrangements that there should be no delay in mounting me at the
next stage. To this I acceded with the most gracious affability, so he
rode on accordingly. His zeal for the service might account for his
eagerness, yet I hope I will not be accounted uncharitable when I
suspected that the importance, which attaches to the person who is first
to communicate an extraordinary piece of news, may have had something to
do with all this alacrity. However this may be, it served my purpose,
for at every stage not a moment was lost, the news flying like wild
fire. I found horses ready at every house, and never was for one moment
delayed.
With my friend Beau B. the result was somewhat different, for on
arriving at the stage there was nothing for him but our exhausted
dog-tired horses to mount, which in the state of the roads would have
been utter madness; so he had to wait in a roadside inn, consoling
himself with what philosophy he could muster till they were sufficiently
recruited with food and rest to continue their journey.
On this journey there occurred a circumstance which, as it is intimately
connected with the secret history of the Province, deserves to be
related. It will be news to most of my neighbors that the Province of
Canada has a _secret history_ of its own, or they may suppose that it
may contain some such tit-bits as the secret history of the Court of St.
Petersburg in the days of Catharine; but I am sorry to say that our
secret history affords nothing so _piquante_; it only relates to the
diplomacy of the Court of St. James, with its effects on the Court of
the Chateau St. Louis.
In those days Sir George Prevost filled the vice-regal chair of Her
Majesty's dominions in British North America, and a more incompetent
Viceroy could hardly have been selected for such trying times. Timid at
all times, despairing of his resources, he was afraid to venture
anything; and when he did venture, like an unskilful hunter, he spurred
his horse spiritedly at the fence, and while the animal rose he suddenly
checked him--baulked him in the leap he could have easily cleared, and
landed himself in the ditch. Thus he acted at Sackett's Harbour and thus
at Plattsburg, where he was in possession of the forts when he ordered
the retreat to be sounded, and ran away out of one side of the town
while the enemy were equally busy in evacuating it at the other. But to
my story. Late on the evening of our first day's journey, and therefore
somewhere midway between Kingston and Toronto, we overtook an officer of
Sir George Prevost's Staff. He asked us why we were riding so fast? We
told him, to be present at the coming battle. He told us we might save
ourselves the trouble, as there would be no battle till he was there,
and hinted perhaps not then; and strongly recommended that, instead of
pushing on through such roads during the night, we should stop at a
house he pointed out to us, and where he was going. Thinking, however,
that a battle was not always at the option of one party, we determined
to push on, while he turned up to a good looking two story white framed
house on the lake side of the road. Many years after, the late Mr. Galt
was employed to advocate the War Losses in Canada with His Majesty's
Government. In one of his conferences with the Colonial Secretary, the
latter stated that everything that could be done had been done for the
defence of the Province, and that it never had been the intention either
of the Imperial or Colonial Government to abandon it. Mr. Galt then
placed in his hands a paper purporting to be a copy of a despatch from
Sir George Prevost to Sir Gordon Drummond, ordering him to withdraw his
forces from the upper part of the Province, and to concentrate them to
cover Kingston. The Secretary then, turning to Galt, said rather
sternly:
"Sir, you could not have come fairly by this copy of a private
despatch?"
Galt calmly replied, "My Lord, however this paper was come by at first,
I came honestly enough by it, for it was sent to me with other papers to
assist me in advocating the claims of those who have suffered in the
war; but I thank your Lordship for admitting that it is a copy of a
despatch whether private or public."
His Lordship felt that, in his haste to criminate, he had allowed his
diplomacy to be taken by surprise.
Galt told me this story, and I then told him my meeting the officer, who
undoubtedly was the bearer of the despatch; he confessed to me that it
was at that house and on that night that the despatches were abstracted
from that Staff Officer's sabre-tasche, copied, resealed and returned.
Of course he never would tell me who were the perpetrators; but if a
certain Colonel of Militia (who was not then present, but attending his
duty on the frontier) were now alive,--poor fellow! he came by an
untimely end--I have no doubt but he could throw some light on the
subject.
We continued to be furnished with good horses till we arrived at
Toronto, (then York,) for there being then moonlight we rode twenty
hours out of the twenty-four, and it appeared that we had advanced for
the two last days (for the first day we only made one stage) at the rate
of seventy-five miles per day, which, considering the state of the
roads, was far from being amiss.
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