When Philip Greaves received the note from Barry, to the deserter who
was secreted in the suburbs of the city, he proceeded, towards evening,
to the point where the soldier lay concealed, and to which he had been
directed with unerring accuracy. On reaching the house in which the
fugitive was said to be hidden, he found but an old woman, who seemed
neither alarmed nor surprised at his arrival. Upon whispering a word
in her ear, however, a look of intelligence stole into her eyes, and
putting on her bonnet and cloak, in the deep dusk, she motioned him to
follow her, having closed and locked to door behind her. After leading
him but a short distance, among a number of small though clean huts,
she gained one in which the family were seated at their plain evening
repast. As they entered the dwelling, he perceived that there was one
vacant seat at the table, from which some person had evidently arisen
hastily and disappeared from the apartment In the course of a few
moments, however, and on the head of the family having been called
aside by the old woman, Philip was greeted with a hearty welcome, and
instantly led into a little back room, where he found the person whom
he sought, gazing about him with a distrustful if not an alarmed air.
To this individual he showed Barry’s note, which he had previously
abstracted from the envelope, requesting him, as he perused it, to
return it to him again, as he wished to destroy it himself, lest, by
accident, it should fall into other hands, and as he desired to say to
Nicholas that he was personally cognizant of the fact of its being put
out of the way. To this request the deserter readily acceded, as he
would have to any other of a reasonable character, so delighted was he
to receive the assurance that the hour of his deliverance drew nigh.
Here, then, were the particulars of the plan of his escape settled upon.
He was to remain still concealed, until Greaves called for him with
a cab, but was to hold himself ready to quit his hiding place at a
moment’s notice.
These preliminaries being arranged, Philip left the house and speedily
proceeded to a neighboring hotel, where he procured a private room, and,
calling for pen, ink and paper, at once addressed himself to writing
a letter. Various were the rubbings of hands and sinister smiles which
punctuated this epistle, until at last, on its being finished, he
carefully folded it, and taking from his pocket-book a sealed envelope,
one end of which had been previously opened with great care, and the
superscription completely removed by a cunning process, he took from
another compartment of his book a small note and introduced it into the
envelope, adroitly closing the apperture with a little mucilage, so as
to completely conceal the incision that had been made, and obliterate
every evidence of the envelope’s having been tampered with. This done,
he slowly, and with apparent great caution as to the conformation of the
letters, directed it, and when he found the ink to be completely dried,
enclosed the whole in the letter that he had just written; placing it,
in turn, in a larger envelope which he hastily directed to some party,
from whom he apparently cared but little to conceal his hand-writing.
This accomplished, he called for some brandy, and after paying liberally
for it and the use of the room, directed his steps towards a stationer’s
shop where he purchased a postage stamp which he attached to his letter.
Here, also, he heard the subject of the threatened invasion of the
Province discussed in all its bearings and probable results; and here,
too, the bitter murmurs of discontent regarding the criminal conduct of
the individual to whom the whole interests of the country were entrusted
by the people and the Crown, and who was said to have been already for
weeks in a condition of mind and body absolutely loathsome. Not wishing,
however, to delay the mailing of his letter, he soon found himself
wending his way to the Post-office, where, with his own hand, he
consigned the missive to the care of her Majesty the Queen, by putting
it in the apperture that opened into the letter-box from the street--the
office being already closed. On this, he retraced his steps towards
The Harp, where he so managed to thrust himself in among the struggling
suspicions of O’Brien, as to almost gain the full confidence of that
generous patriot and banish the last doubt from his breast.
“Well,” said Tom, when he found a fitting opportunity, “how did you find
the poor fellow?”
“Willing enough to leave the Province,” whispered Philip, “if he could
only manage to get away; but I think that will be easily arranged now,
as the storm about his desertion has blown over.”.
“On the night after that of to-morrow, then,” returned Tom, “they will
make the attimpt; and as I can get a man to help them who knows every
turn and crank of the river, I have hopes of their success; besides it
will be Nick’s night for guard, and there’s somethin in that, you know;
as they can get out at the point where he stands, without much throuble
to themselves or anyone else. However,” he observed farther, “I hope no
one will let the cat out of the bag, as it would be a cryin sin to
have the poor fellows ‘nabbed’ at the very moment when they fancied
themselves about to brathe the purest air that ever floated benathe the
canopy of heaven.”
“There’s no fear of that,” replied Greaves, “for you and I only know of
their intentions; although I feel that you are not exactly at home with
me yet, for all your friendly conduct and information; but recollect,
that I’ll perform my part of the contract, and it is for you and them to
do the rest.”
This speech made Tom feel a little awkward; and he was about to make a
suitable reply, when he was happily relieved by some parties who dropped
in, to command the attention he so willingly accorded at the moment.
That Greaves puzzled and perplexed him there could be no doubt; but at
no period could that individual elicit from him any information, if
he possessed such, in relation to Fenianism. He, of course, knew that
Philip learned from Barry that there were many soldiers in the Fort who
sympathised warmly with Ireland; but this was as far as he was informed
in the matter. It was obvious, however, that for some reason or other,
he was anxious to fathom the depths of the actual Organization, if such
existed in or about the city; but in every attempt he was foiled; for,
notwithstanding his most subtle attacks, he was met at each turn by a
spirit of reticence which baffled all his ingenuity and led him to the
conclusion that, after all, there were perhaps but slight grounds for
believing that the Brotherhood had any very extensive footing in the
colony.
Tom sometimes reasoned, that his solicitude on this head was prompted by
patriotic motives; and then, again, the idea used to creep in upon him
that he sought this information for sinister purposes; and thus the
worthy host, trembling in the balance between the two impressions,
kicked the beam on the side of prudence, and if he knew anything of
the movements and intentions of the Organization, kept it to himself;
although the letter in the possession of Greaves might, were he less
cautious, have drawn from him some serious information; for Tom O’Brien
was, at that moment, the Centre of a Fenian Circle, with three hundred
armed men at his command, ready to join the invaders the instant they
entered the Province and planted their standard near him upon British
soil. This being the case, he was well aware of the intentions of the
Brotherhood in the United States; and thus it was, that when he found
Barry could not procure his discharge before the invaders were upon
them, he instantly endorsed the project of his desertion; well knowing
that, should he fail to escape before the hour of the movement arrived,
he should be called to take the field against his countrymen and against
Ireland; and, perhaps, under circumstances that might preclude the
possibility of his acting otherwise than as their enemy. Nor did he
relax in his watchfulness and caution when Greaves even brought the
deserter to The Harp in redemption of his word, or, more remarkable
still, when he learned, on the morning succeeding the night of their
escape from the Fort, that seven soldiers of the Regiment had bid
their commanding officer an unexpected and unceremonious adieu; and
notwithstanding that the garrison was all but alive with sentries and
guards patroling every avenue which led from it, made good their escape
to the American shore, where they were now beyond the reach of the
Canadian or Imperial authorities.
No sooner had Philip ascertained that the party had made good their
escape, than he himself prepared to bid good-bye to The Harp. O’Brien
was not at all surprised at this sudden resolution, as Greaves had
professed to be daily transacting business; which he asserted might
be brought to a close at any moment. And so he had been transacting
business; for he might have been seen occasionally entering, by stealth,
a certain dwelling in the outskirts of the city where Fenianism and all
Irish Nationalists had their deadliest enemy; but, as already intimated,
this enemy had been rendered powerless by the wine cup for some time
past, so that if there had been any matter of importance to transact
between them, it would have been useless to have even approached it.
Still Philip called and called, but to no purpose; so finding that
he had pressing matters in another direction to claim his immediate
attention, he left the mystified functionary in disgust, casting
a glance at the numerous unopened dispatches on his table, and
congratulating Canada on the possession of such a creditable and
efficient, leading officer.
Shaking hands with Tom, then, after having honestly liquidated his bill,
our mysterious friend soon found himself on board a train bound direct
for Toronto, where he arrived in due course, amid hosts of rumors, and
military movements which were being accomplished in that reckless and
inefficient haste, that went to prove a screw loose somewhere. Here he
found himself on the evening of the 29th, and being obliged to remain
in the city all the next day, he started the following morning for the
West, when he learned, while journeying onwards, that the Fenian forces
were massed at Buffalo and along the American frontier, and that a
descent upon Fort Erie was sure to take place within a very few hours.
Although he had intended to reach his destination before night, he
was delayed at the various stations, by rumors which tended to make it
important for the train not to proceed in haste, it having been alleged,
more than once, that the Fenian army was already in the Province, and
burning and destroying all before it, In turn, however, each of these
rumors was contradicted; and so the cars proceeded until another was
encountered. In this way the morning of the first of June overtook
him before he had yet reached the point for which he was bound. Now,
however, he ascertained that the Province was, without any manner of
doubt, invaded by the army of the Irish Republic, and that even then the
“Sunburst” was flying over the village of Fort Erie.
This intelligence seemed to confound him, and to have exceeded anything
that he could have anticipated. He hod fancied that, notwithstanding all
the rumors he had heard within the last few months, there was no real
intention on the part of the Irish Nationalists of the United States to
actually invade the Province; and believed the reports of their
having congregated upon the American frontier as either unfounded or
tremendously exaggerated. Now, nevertheless, they were within a very
few miles of him, and might be upon him and the neighborhood he was
approaching, at any moment.
There was something in this latter conviction that appeared to move him
greatly as he stepped off the train at Port Colborne, where he found the
inhabitants in a state of the direst alarm. Being a stranger, and unable
or unwilling to account very clearly for his sudden presence here, and
at a juncture when suspicion was so rife and every new comer subjected
to the closest scrutiny, he was put under surveillance and not permitted
to leave the village, as he was about to do, until he had explained his
business to the authorities. Chafing with disappointment and anger, he
was taken into custody and confined in one of the rooms of his
hotel, until a magistrate could be found to look into his case. Here,
notwithstanding his protestations and willingness to prove that he was a
loyal British subject and one of importance too, he was detained nearly
the whole day; tormented by the uncomfortable misgiving that perhaps,
after all his generalship, Nicholas Barry might again be in the Province
and at a point, too, where he should be able to frustrate all the plans
he had laid so deeply and executed for so far with the utmost secrecy
and success. At last, however, a magistrate was found and a private
investigation of his case granted. The examination was brief; for
scarcely had that functionary been closeted five minutes with him,
before he was set at liberty and again stepped forth a free man.
So utterly helpless were the people of the section of the country in
which he now was, that they must have fallen before any considerable
force of the invaders, had such entered the Province. The greatest
distrust obtained among themselves; there being a strong body of Irish
and Irish sympathisers in their midst, who scarcely cared to hide their
sentiments. And although there was an element in the little town that
was truly loyal to the Crown, yet it is still a matter of doubt as to
its having been in the ascendant, in so far as numbers were concerned.
True, that if the census of the place had been taken at the moment, and
the tendencies of every man registered according to a public statement,
extracted from his own lips, England should have carried the day by an
overwhelming majority, as, on the same basis, she should at this present
hour throughout the whole of the New Dominion. But had one glimpse of a
victorious Irish army been caught in the distance, the case would have
been widely different, indeed; and those who were constrained, through
the force of circumstances, to fall into line with the paid, official
squad who ruled the roast for the time being, would soon hoist their
true colors and step out beneath the folds of that glorious banner of
green and gold before which, with all her boasting armaments, the
tyrant power of England now trembles to its very base. And so it will be
throughout the Colony at large, whenever the Irish Nationalists, or any
other people inimical to England, enter it with a view to tearing down
the skull and cross-bones of St. George, and ultimately replacing it
with the proud and invincible banner of the United States of America.
Not a single doubt obtains in well informed quarters on this head; so
that the tyrant England cannot fail to be swept ultimately from this
continent, never to lift her dishonored head upon its free, historic
shores again.
And what wonder that the thinking portion of the people of Canada--men
who have its material prosperity and its happiness at heart--should
long for a union with this Republic, with which their interests are so
intimately identified, and upon which they are almost solely dependant
for a market and that good will that is not only necessary to their
peace, but to their very existence? Shut out from the ocean, that great
highway of nations, for six months of the year, they are, almost daily,
at the mercy of the United States for any description of commercial
intercourse, or exchange of thought, in relation to the material
condition of the continent or their own probable future. Lying a frozen
strip against the North pole, with all their available lands settled, if
we are to credit the assertions made by their own statesmen, were this
great Republic to close its doors against them, they should be obviously
cut off, in a measure, from all civilization, and dwarfed both mentally
and physically into the most contemptible dimensions. As it is, they are
depending upon America for every refining and practical influence that
warms their partial life, or gives any value whatever to their social
status. American literature, tastes, habits, inventions and even foibles
color all their internal intercourse; although the fact does not seem
apparent to those who are interested in perpetuating British rule
amongst them, and is denied by others from motives of envy or vanity.
Add to this the circumstance that their government is the most wretched
that could possibly be found among a people professing to be free.
Scarce a single department of it but is stained with fraud of the
vilest description to the very lips, and neither more nor less than an
instrument of public plunder in the hands of corrupt officials. Even
while we write, and for years back, a charge lies in the department of
the Minister of Finance, against the present Premier of the Dominion,
accusing that unscrupulous individual of conspiring with a whisky
dealer, _while he himself was First Minister of the Crown_, to defraud
the revenue--a charge made by the present Assistant Commissioner of
Customs and Excise, whom this same Premier has been obliged to retain
in office to the present hour, with a view to saving himself from
disclosures calculated to drive him from office in disgrace. So dreadful
have been the circumstances of this case, that when an offer was made
subsequently, through the public press, to produce bank, official and
mercantile evidence that the government functionary who preferred this
frightful accusation was dishonest and incompetent, and that he had
purloined public documents and destroyed them with a view to concealing
his crimes, still this Premier dared not summon him to trial, although,
times without number, he gave assurances, as did the then Inspector
General, that the culprit should be brought before the proper tribunal,
and justice done in the premises. But why need we complain, when Canada
takes the matter so coolly; for will it be believed, that these two
worthies--both the accused and the accuser--both disfigured by the most
damning accusations, are still in the pay of the Canadian people, and
have been so ever since the circumstances of their official character
were laid through the daily press before the world. Not a single move
has yet been made in the direction of justice, nor an inquiry instituted
as to the truth or falsehood of these frightful charges. The Premier
still carries the filthy load upon his shoulders, while his subordinate,
of the stolen bank receipts and false report, laughs in his sleeve at
the rod that he holds over his naked shoulders.
Nor is this more than an individual case amongst others of a similar
class. What of the tens of thousands of the people’s money given,
without the sanction of Parliament, to the Grand Trunk Railway in the
interest of English stockholders; and the postal subsidies handed over
to the same line, in excess of the tender made by the Managing Director
for the carrying of her Majesty’s mails? Was not the government liberal
with the hard earnings of their poor dupes throughout the land, when
they virtually informed the authorities of the Grand Trunk that they
were altogether too modest in their estimates, and that the country
ought not to take advantage of such nice young men, but give them more
than they asked for performing the service mentioned? Glorious! wasn’t
it? We might also allude to the manner in which Sir John A. taxed
the struggling industry of the Province, millions to build up his pet
Parliament Houses at the back of God speed--buildings that almost rival
those of England--and refer also to the delightful manner in which the
Crown Lands were dealt with by another member of this happy family:
citing the case of the Wallace Mine Claim, in which the Commissioner
managed to dispose, at a mere nominal figure, of a portion of the public
domain by private sale among a few of his friends, including a gentleman
presumed to be his own agent, and that, too, in the face of a law which
made it imperative upon the government to advertise all lands in the
_Canada Gazette_ before they were put upon the market. For appearance
sake, the lands were advertised in the _Gazette_; but when a purchaser
dropped in to make inquiries, it leaked out that they had been all
disposed of previously. In this way the business of the people has been
conducted for years; and what is the result? To-day they are without
immigration, trade or commerce--to-day there is no public confidence
existing in any portion of the Dominion; for the government seem to
grasp the purse-strings with one hand while they hold a drawn sword in
the other. There is no security to be found in any corner of the State;
and no projects, formed for the future of its people. To be sure,
certain parties prate and jabber about the Volunteer Service and
national defenses; but what have they to defend? If their frontier were
bristling to-morrow with forts and bayonets, all they could hope to
accomplish would be the shutting out of American liberty and national
prosperity from the people. This must be self-evident to any individual
who is at all conversant with the true nature of the case, or cognizant
of the fact, that there cannot possibly be any hope for Canada so long
as she holds herself aloof from the great social and political compact
of this Union, upon the pulses of which, in her present helpless and
isolated position, she will always have to dance attendance and pay the
piper besides. Either the sunlight or the shadow of the Republic must
fall on her without intermission. If she choose the former, well and
good; let her cut herself free of the despotic tyrant that now holds
her in cunning thrall, and step into the broad effulgence of American
freedom, or if she will it, until circumstances of themselves
precipitate her into the arms of the Commonwealth with less grace than
she might otherwise have fallen into them, let her feel the blighting
influence of the cold clouds that cannot fail to envelope her and
paralyze all her energies in the interim. There is no need of mincing
the matter--Canada beneath the skull and cross-bones of St. George, must
ever remain a poor, puny starveling; while under the proud and ample
folds of the glorious flag of this mighty Republic, she should at once
become great, powerful and prosperous, as yet another star added to the
refulgent galaxy that now rides high amid the noontide of nations.