Part 40 (2/2)

O that here they hauled the guns That s Philip's fleet

See you our little round her corn and paid her tax Ever since Domesday Book

See you our stilly woods of oak, And the dread ditch beside?

O that here the Saxons broke, On the day that Harold died

See you the windy levels spread About the gates of Rye?

O that here the Northmen fled, When Alfred's shi+ps came by

See you our pastures wide and lone, Where the red oxen browse?

O there was a City thronged and known, Ere London boasted a house

And see you, after rain, the trace Of -place, When Caesar sailed from Gaul

And see you marks that show and fade, Like shadows on the Downs?

O they are the lines the Flint Men uard their wondrous towns

Trackway and Camp and City lost, Salt Marsh where now is corn; Old Wars, old Peace, old Arts that cease, And so was England born!

She is not any common Earth, Water or wood or air, But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye, Where you and I will fare

KIPLING: ”Puck of Pook's Hill”

THE BATTLE OF QUEENSTON HEIGHTS

The thirteenth of October, 1812, is a day ever to be rereatest excitement had prevailed: many of the inhabitants had removed with their portable property into the back country; sulars and volunteers, were posted in the towns and villages; Indians were roving in the adjacent woods; and sentinels, posted along the banks of the river, were looking eagerly for the enemy that was to coation of a free, a happy, and a loyal people

In the village of Queenston, that nestles at the foot of an eara, two coers,” as the Americans afterwards termed them, with one hundred Canadian militia, were posted under the coht of the twelfth, the little garrison retired to rest All was silent but the ele was to be heard but the howling of the wind and the sound of falling rainwith rain and shi+vering with cold, the sentries paced their weary rounds, frolance over the swollen tide of the river towards the A appeared, a wary sentinel descried a nu off froe of Lewiston Iiven The soldiers were roused fro-place Meanwhile, a battery of one gun, posted on the heights, and another about aso it i in the face of such opposition, the A a few of their number to occupy the attention of the troops on the bank, dise the suht by a difficult and unprotected pathway With loud cheers they captured the one-gun battery, and rushed down upon Captain Dennis and his co themselves far outnumbered by the enee Here they were met by General Brock, who had set out in advance of reinforceara, acco hieneral cried: ”Follow ulars and ht from which they had been forced to retire At the foot of the hill the general dismounted, under the sharp fire of the ene the trees on its su his sword, charged up the hill at the head of his soldiers This intrepid conduct at once attracted the notice of the enemy One of their sharp-shooters advanced a few paces, took deliberate aieneral in the breast It was a mortal wound Thus fell Sir Isaac Brock, the hero of Upper Canada, whose narateful country has erected to his memory

The fall of their beloved coe the general!” they pressed forward up the hill, and drove the enemy fro in frole, in which Colonel Macdonell, Captain Dennis, and ain couns of the lower battery, there awaiting the arrival of reinforceara Aboutof a band of fifty Mohawks, under their chiefs, Norton and Brant These Indian allies boldly engaged the enemy, and maintained for a short time a sharp skirmish, but finally retired on the main reinforcement This arrived in the course of the afternoon, under the co the eneround, the officer now in coht of the enemy's position, and sent forward his left flank to attack the Aht This left flank was of a very varied character, consisting of one coiment of the line, a company of coloured men, and a body of volunteer militia and Indians, united, in spite of their difference of colour and race, by loyalty to the British crown and heart-hatred of foreign aggression

This division advanced in gallant style After delivering a volley, the whole line of white, red, and black charged the ene at the point of the bayonet

General Sheaffe now led on the main body, and forced the lately victorious Ale on their part was of short duration In front was a foe thirsting for revenge; behind, the steep banks and swiftly-floaters of Niagara

The ”Green Tigers,” the Indians, their allant Canadian militia, were objects of terror to them Some few in despair threw themselves over the precipices into the river; but the majority of the survivors surrendered themselves prisoners of war, to the nu as their commander, General Wadsworth The leader of the expedition, General Van Rensselaer, had retired to Lewiston--as he said, for reinforcements--in the early part of the day The loss of the Americans in this memorable action was about five hundred killed and wounded; while that of the Canadian forces amounted to one hundred and fifty