At the termination of the memorable war of the Revolution--that war,
which, on the one hand, severed the ties that bound the Colonies in
interest and affection with the parent land, and on the other, seemed,
as by way of indemnification, to have riveted the Canadas in closer love
to their adopted mother--hundreds of families who had remained staunch
in their allegiance quitted the American soil, to which they had been
unwillingly transferred, and hastened to close, on one side of the vast
chain of waters that separated the descendants of France from the
descendants of England, the evening of an existence, whose morning and
noon had been passed on the other. Among the number of these was Major
Grantham, who, at the close of the Revolution, had espoused a daughter
(the only remaining child) of Frederick and Madeline De Haldimar, whose
many vicissitudes of suffering prior to their marriage, have been fully
detailed in Wacousta. When, at that period, the different garrisons on
the frontier were given up to the American troops, the several British
regiments crossed over into Canada, and, after a short term of service
in that country, were successively relieved by fresh corps from England.
One of the earliest recalled of these was the regiment of Colonel
Frederick De Haldimar. Local interests, however, attaching his
son-in-law to Upper Canada, the latter had, on the reduction of his
corps, a provincial regiment, well known throughout the war of the
Revolution, for its strength, activity, and good service finally fixed
himself at Amherstburg.
In the domestic relations of life Major Grantham was exemplary, although
perhaps his rigid notions of right had obtained for him more of the
respect than of the love of those who came within their influence, and
yet no mean portion of both. Tenderly attached to his wife, whom he had
lost when Gerald was yet in his twelfth year, he had not ceased to
deplore her loss; and this perhaps had contributed to nourish a
reservedness of disposition, which, without at all aiming at, or
purposing, such effect, insensibly tended to the production of a
corresponding reserve on the part of his children, that increased with
their years. Indeed, on their mother all the tenderness of their young
hearts had been lavished, and, when they suddenly saw themselves
deprived of her who loved and had been loved by them, with doting
fondness, they felt as if a void had been left in their affections which
the less tender evidences of paternal love were but insufficient wholly
to supply. Still--although not to the same extent--did they love their
father also; and what was wanted in intensity of feeling was more than
made up by the deep, the exalted respect, they entertained for his
principles and conduct. It was with pride they beheld him, not merely
the deservedly idolized of the low, but the respected of the high--the
example of one class, and the revered of another; one whose high
position in the social circle had been attained, less by his striking
exterior advantages than the inward worth that governed every action of
his life, and whose moral character, as completely _sans tâche_ as his
fulfilment of the social duties was proverbially _sans reproche_, could
not fail, in a certain degree, to reflect the respect it commanded upon
themselves.
As we have before observed, however, all the fervor of their affection
had been centered in their mother, and that was indeed a melancholy
night in which the youths had been summoned to watch the passing away of
her gentle spirit for ever from their love. Isabella De Haldimar had,
from her earliest infancy, been remarkable for her quiet and
contemplative character; and bred amid scenes that brought at every
retrospect recollections of some acted horror, it is not surprising that
the bias given by nature should have been developed and strengthened by
the events that had surrounded her. Not dissimilar in disposition, as
she was not unlike in form, to her mother, she was by that mother
carefully endowed with those gentler attributes of goodness, which,
taking root within a soil so eminently disposed to their reception,
could not fail to render her in after life a model of excellence, both
as a mother and a wife. Notwithstanding, however, this moulding of her
pliant and well-directed mind, there was about her a melancholy, which,
while it gave promise of the devoted affection of the mother, offered
but little prospect of cheerfulness, in an union with one, who, reserved
himself, could not be expected to temper that melancholy by the
introduction of a gaiety that was not natural to him. And yet it was for
this very melancholy, tender and fascinating in her, that Major Grantham
had sought the hand of Isabella De Haldimar; and it was for the very
austerity and reserve of his general manner, more than from the manly
beauty of his tall dark person, that he too had become the object of her
secret choice long before he had proposed for her.
The austerity which Major Grantham carried with him into public life
was, if not wholly laid aside, at least considerably softened, in the
presence of his wife, and when, later, the birth of two sons crowned
their union, there was nothing left her to desire which it was in the
power of circumstances to bestow. Mrs. De Haldimar had not taken into
account the effect likely to be produced by a separation from
herself--the final severing, as it were, of every tie of blood. Of the
four children who had composed the family of Colonel Frederick De
Haldimar, the two oldest (officers in his own corps) had perished in the
war: the fourth, a daughter, had died young, of a decline: and the loss
of the former especially, who had grown up with her from childhood to
youth, was deeply felt by the sensitive Isabella. With the dreadful
scenes perpetrated at Detroit--scenes in which their family had been the
principal sufferers--the boys had been familiarized by the soldiers of
their father's regiment, who often took them to the several points most
worthy of remark from the incidents connected with them; and, pointing
out the spots on which their uncle Charles and their aunt Clara had
fallen victims to the terrible hatred of Wacousta for their grandfather,
detailed the horrors of those days with a rude fidelity of coloring that
brought dismay and indignation to the hearts of their wondering and
youthful auditors. On these occasions Isabella became the depository of
all they had gleaned. To her they confided, under the same pledge of
secrecy that had been exacted from themselves, every circumstance of
horror connected with those days; nor were they satisfied, until they
had shown her those scenes with which so many dreadful recollections
were associated.
Thus was the melancholy of Isabella fed by the very silence in which she
was compelled to indulge. Often was her pillow wetted with tears, as she
passed in review the several fearful incidents connected with the tale
in which her brothers had so deeply interested her, and she would have
given worlds at those moments, had they been hers to bestow, to recal to
life and animation the beloved but unfortunate uncle and aunt, to whose
fate, her brothers assured her, even their veteran friends never alluded
without sorrow. Often, too, did she dwell on the share her own fond
mother had borne in those transactions, and the anguish which must have
pierced her heart when first apprized of the loss of her, whom she had
even _then_ loved with all a mother's love. Nay, more than once, while
gazing on the face of the former, her inmost soul given up to the
recollection of all she had endured, first at Michillimackinac, and
afterwards at Detroit, had she unconsciously suffered the tears to
course down her cheeks without an effort to restrain them. Ignorant of
the cause, Mrs. De Haldimar only ascribed this emotion to the natural
melancholy of her daughter's character, and then she would gently chide
her, and seek, by a variety of means, to divert her thoughts into some
lively channel; but she had little success in the attempt to eradicate
reflections already rooted in so congenial a soil.
Her sister died very young, and she scarcely felt her loss; but when,
subsequently, the vicissitudes of a military life had deprived her for
ever of her beloved brothers, her melancholy increased. It was however
the silent, tearless melancholy, that knows not the paroxysm of
outrageous grief. The quiet resignation of her character formed an
obstacle to the inroads of all vivacious sorrow; yet was her health not
the less effectually undermined by the slow action of her innate
feeling, unfortunately too much fostered by outward influences. By her
marriage and the birth of her sons, whom she loved with all a mother's
fondness, her mental malady had been materially diminished, and indeed
in a great degree superseded, but unhappily, previous to these events,
it had seriously effected her constitution, and produced a morbid
susceptibility of mind and person, that exposed her to be overwhelmed by
the occurrence of any of those afflictions which otherwise she might,
with ordinary fortitude, have endured. When therefore intelligence from
England announced that her parents had both perished in a hurricane on
their route to the West Indies, whither the regiment of Colonel De
Haldimar had been ordered, the shock was too great for her, mentally and
physically enfeebled as she had been, to sustain, and she sank gradually
under this final infliction of Providence.
Major Grantham beheld with dismay the effect of this blow upon his
beloved wife. Fell consumption had now marked her for her own, and so
rapid was the progress of the disease acting on a temperament already
too much predisposed to its influence, that, in despite of all human
preventives, the sensitive Isabella, before six months had elapsed, was
summoned to a better world.
We will pass over the deep grief which preyed upon the hearts of the
unfortunate brothers for weeks after they had been compelled to
acknowledge the stern truth that they were indeed motherless.
It was soon after this event, that the first seeds of disunion began to
spring up between England and the United States, the inevitable results
of which it was anticipated, would be the involving of Canada in the
struggle; and, notwithstanding the explosion did not take place for
several years afterwards, preparations were made on either shore, to an
extent that kept the spirit of enterprise on the alert.
Inheriting the martial spirit of their family, the inclinations of the
young Granthams led them to the service; and, as their father could have
no reasonable objection to oppose to a choice which promised not merely
to secure his sons in an eligible profession, but to render them in some
degree of benefit to their country, he consented to their views.
Gerald's preference leading him to the navy, he was placed on that
establishment as a midshipman; while Henry, several years later,
obtained, through the influence of their father's old friend General
Brock, an ensigncy in the King's Regiment.
Meanwhile, Major Grantham, whose reserve appeared to have increased
since the death of his wife, seemed to seek, in the active discharge of
his magisterial duties, a relief from the recollection of the loss he
had sustained; and it was about this period that, in consequence of many
of the American settlers in Canada, having, in anticipation of a rupture
between the two countries, secretly withdrawn themselves to the opposite
shore, his exaction of the duties of British subjects from those who
remained, became more vigorous than ever.
We have already shown Desborough to have been the most unruly and
disorderly of the worthless set; and as no opportunity was omitted of
compelling him to renew his oath of allegiance, (while his general
conduct was strictly watched), the hatred of the man for the stern
magistrate was daily matured, until at length it grew into an
inextinguishable desire for revenge.
The chief, and almost only recreation, in which Major Grantham indulged,
was that of fowling. An excellent shot himself, he had been in some
degree the instructor of his sons; and, although, owing to the wooded
nature of the country, the facilities afforded to the enjoyment of his
favorite pursuit in the orthodox manner of a true English sportsman,
were few, still, as game was everywhere abundant, he had continued to
turn to account the advantages that were actually offered. Both Gerald
and Henry had been his earlier companions in the sport, but, of late
years and especially since the death of their mother, he had been in the
habit of going out alone.
It was one morning in that season of the year when the migratory pigeons
pursue their course towards what are termed the "burnt woods," on which
they feed, and in such numbers as to cover the surface of the heavens,
as with a dense and darkening cloud, that Major Grantham sallied forth
at early dawn, with his favorite dog and gun, and, as was his custom,
towards Hartley's point. Disdaining, as unworthy of his skill, the
myriads of pigeons that everywhere presented themselves, he passed from
the skirt of the forest towards an extensive swamp, in the rear of
Hartley's, which, abounding in golden plover and snipe, usually afforded
him a plentiful supply. On this occasion he was singularly successful,
and, having bagged as many birds as he could conveniently carry, was in
the act of ramming down his last charge, when the report of a shot came
unexpectedly from the forest. In the next instant he was sensible he was
wounded, and, placing his hand to his back, felt it wet with blood. As
there was at the moment several large wild ducks within a few yards of
the spot where he stood, and between himself and the person who had
fired, he at once concluded that he had been the victim of an accident,
and, feeling the necessity of assistance, he called loudly on the unseen
sportsman to come forward to his aid; but, although his demand was
several times repeated, no answer was returned, and no one appeared.
With some difficulty he contrived, after disembarrassing himself of his
game-bag, to reach the farm at Hartley's, where every assistance was
afforded him, and, a waggon having been procured, he was conducted to
his home, when, on examination the wound was pronounced to be mortal.
On the third day from this event Major Grantham breathed his last,
bequeathing the guardianship of his sons to Colonel D'Egville, who had
married his sister. At this epoch, Gerald was absent with his vessel on
a cruise, but Henry received his parting blessing upon both, accompanied
by a solemn injunction, that they should never be guilty of any act
which could sully the memory, either of their mother or himself. This
Henry promised, in the name of both, most religiously to observe; and,
when Gerald returned, and to his utter dismay beheld the lifeless form
of the parent, whom he had quitted only a few days before in all the
vigor of health, he not only renewed the pledge given by his brother,
but with the vivacity of character habitual to him, called down the
vengeance of Heaven upon his head, should he ever be found to swerve
from those principles of honor, which had been so sedulously inculcated
in him.
Meanwhile, there was nothing to throw even the faintest light on the
actual cause of Major Grantham's death. On the first probing and
dressing of the wound, the murderous lead had been extracted, and, as it
was discovered to be a rifle ball it was taken for granted that some
Indian, engaged in the chase, had, in the eagerness of pursuit, missed
an intermediate object at which he had taken aim and lodged the ball
accidentally in the body of the old gentleman; and that, terrified at
discovery of the mischief he had done, and perhaps apprehending
punishment, he had hastily fled from the spot, to avoid detection. This
opinion, unanimously entertained by the townspeople, was shared by the
brothers, who knowing the unbounded love and respect of all for their
parent, dreamt not for one moment that his death could have been the
result of premeditation. It was left for Desborough to avow, at a later
period, that he had been the murderer; and with what startling effect on
him, to whom the admission was exultingly made, we have already seen.