PREVOST'S ARMISTICE.
The armistice paralyzed Brock's movements. All the moral influence and
material advantage gained by the captures of Mackinaw and Detroit were
nullified by this incredible blunder, for which no reason, military or
civil, has ever been assigned. The loyal volunteers were released from
duty. Brock's Indian allies returned to their villages. Prevost's policy
of peace had become a mental malady. In spite of our hero's pleadings,
and though Prevost actually knew, before the fall of Detroit, that
President Madison would not extend the two weeks' armistice, the
Governor-General forbade Brock attacking either Sackett's Harbour, the
key to American supremacy on the lakes, or Fort Niagara.
"War," wrote Prevost, "has never yet been declared by England. Peace is
possible."
Brock, smarting under restraint and handcuffed by red tape, was
compelled to look on while the enemy brought up reinforcements, powder,
shot, provisions and other munitions of war, by water to Lewiston.
General Van Rensselaer, in command of the American forces at Lewiston,
wrote to the President stating that by "keeping up a bold front he had
succeeded in getting from General Sheaffe at Fort George the
uninterrupted use of the lakes and rivers." The strategic advantage to
the enemy of this cessation of hostilities and the privileges conceded
was enormous. Prevost realized his error too late. The following year,
conceiving it then to be his special mission to borrow our dead hero's
policy, he attacked Sackett's Harbour, but his "cautious calculation"
was, of course, rewarded by ignoble defeat, and ultimately, after the
Plattsburg fiasco, by a court-martial. In his civil administration of
Canada Sir George Prevost may have been a success; as a soldier he was a
sad failure.
Isaac was daily proving the truth of the precept, recognized by all men
sooner or later, that life's values lie not so much in its victories as
in its strife.
Though Brock awoke after Detroit to find himself famous, and a hero
whose prowess far exceeded that of his ancestor, the Jurat of the Royal
Court of Guernsey, over whose exploits he used to ponder seated on the
Lion's Rock at Cobo, he was still the same "Master Isaac," still the
"beloved brother." Separation from his kinsmen only served to draw him
closer.
Crossing Lake Ontario gave him the opportunity he longed for. He wrote
to his brothers collectively, telling them the sundry details of his
success, "which was beyond his expectation." He hoped the affair would
meet with recognition at the War Office. Though admitting it was a
desperate measure, he told them "it proceeded from a cool calculation of
the _pros_ and _cons_," and as Colonel Procter had opposed it, he was
not surprised that envy now induced that officer "to attribute to good
fortune what in reality was the result of my own knowledge and
discernment." But praise and honours, though sweet to our hero, who
after all was only mortal, were secondary to the fact that he would be
in a position to contribute something to the comfort and happiness of
his brothers. The value of the "treasure" captured at Detroit was placed
at £40,000. Brock's share of this was a substantial sum.
"When I returned heaven thanks," he wrote, "for my amazing success, I
thought of you all, your late sorrows forgotten, and I felt that the
many benefits which for a series of years I received from you were not
unworthily bestowed." But the hope that they were reunited was always
the dominant note. "Let me know, my dearest brothers," he pleaded, "that
you are all again united." Then, out of his own knowledge, wrought of
deep experience in the world's wide field, he proceeded: "The want of
union was nearly losing this province, without even a struggle; rest
assured, it operates in the same degree in regard to families."
Brock's despatches, with the story of the capture of Detroit and the
colours of the 4th Regiment, United States Army, the oriflamme of the
"heroes of Tippecanoe," reached London the morning of October 6th, the
anniversary of his birth. His brother William resided close to the city.
A tumultuous clangour of bells and booming of guns from St. James' Park
and the Tower of London rent the air. When asked by his wife the reason
for the jubilation he jokingly replied, "Why, for Isaac, of course. You
surely have not forgotten this is his birthday." But William, on
reaching the city, learned to his amazement that his jesting words were
true. The salvoes of artillery and peals of bells were indeed in honour
of General Brock's victory in far-off Michigan.
Neither King nor Imperial Government was slow to recognize our hero's
achievements. The Prince Regent, who expressed his appreciation of
Brock's "able, judicious and decisive conduct," bestowed upon him an
_extra_ knighthood of the Order of the Bath, in consideration, so ran
the document, "of all the difficulties with which he was surrounded
during the invasion of the Province, and the singular judgment,
firmness, skill and courage with which he surmounted them so
effectually."
When the glittering insignia of his new rank reached Canada, Sir Isaac
Brock's eyes were closed in death. His inanimate body, from which one of
the noblest souls of the century had fled, lay rigid in its
winding-sheet at Fort George.
To Major Glegg, who bore the General's despatches from Canada, the
Prince Regent remarked that "General Brock had done more in an hour than
could have been done in six months by negotiation." The fulfilment of
Isaac's favourite maxim, "Say and do," was being demonstrated in a most
remarkable manner.
[Illustration: "PORTRAIT OF MAJOR-GENERAL BROCK, 18 X 6"]