Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/242

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230
HISTORY OF CANADA.

loss. Among those who fell in this second attempt was Brock’s aide-de-camp, Colonel MacDonnell of Glengarry, a noble young man only twenty-five years of age, whose life was full of promise. Soon after General Sheaffe arrived from Fort George with three hundred men and some artillery. All the men that could be mustered were now marched through the fields back of Queenston, and unperceived they ascended the Heights, and concealed themselves among the trees. The Americans in the meantime were landing fresh troops, and carrying off their dead and wounded. About three o’clock in the afternoon, the British moved rapidly through the woods against the unsuspecting Americans. A number of Indians who were in the Canadian army, as soon as they saw the enemy raised the terrible war-whoop, and rushed on their prey. The rest of the troops joined in the shout and the onslaught. The Americans gave one volley and then fled. But there was no escape, save by the brow of the mountain overhanging the river. In their terror many of the enemy threw themselves over the precipice, only to be dashed on the rocks, or drowned in the river. The American shore was lined with their fellow-countrymen, but no help was given. Soon two American officers ascended the mountain side bearing a white flag, and with difficulty the slaughter was brought to an end. One thousand Americans were made prisoners and a hundred slain. Thus dearly was the death of Brock avenged. In one of the batteries of Fort George, amid the booming of minute guns from friend and foe, Brock and MacDonnell side by side found a resting place. A'month’s armistice was unwisely agreed to by General Sheaffe, which enabled the Americans to gather troops for another attack on the Niagara frontier. Towards the end of November, General Smythe, who succeeded Van Rensselaer, attempted a landing near Fort Erie, but his men were driven back by a small force of Canadians. This ended the attempts, in 1813, of the army of the Centre to gain a footing on Canadian soil.

Nor was the army of the North under General Dearborn more successful. In November, Dearborn advanced with an army of ten thousand men by way of Lake Champlain to take Montreal. The French Canadian militia under Major-de Salaberry, felled trees, guarded the passes, and used every possible means to check his advance. At Lacolle, near Rouse’s Point, a British outpost was attacked by Dearborn’s troops, but in the darkness of the early