over a united people; the other, also a soldier, who, leaving his wife and little ones in the care of the faithful black, followed the banner of his State. Now, no better or more loyal citizen of the United States than he; and yet—and yet—
The burial-ground of the past he'll tread,
And raise the lid of vanished years,
And gaze upon his dead."
Over the face of his dead lies an old silken rag, smoke-stained and bullet-torn; but it is with reverent and loving hands that he lifts it, for his dead is the "lost cause," and that rag was once the battle flag of Robert E. Lee.
But a few years passed away after these United Empire Loyalists made their new home, when trouble broke out with their separated brethren to the South. The Mother Country, sorely pressed on all sides, was verifying the proud boast of her ancient King—
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true."
She could not at once do all for the defence or the rescue of her imperilled child; and Canada had in great part to depend upon herself in her hour of need. How she bore herself may be read in history—and no Canadian—as no American—reads that history with shame—though, indeed, he must with sorrow, that the wholly unnecessary and inexcusable fratricidal strife was ever waged.
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