it was to lower the flag of America,
and substitute that of England in its place. On the approach, however,
of an overwhelming army of the enemy in the autumn of the ensuing year
it was abandoned by our troops, after having been dismantled and
reduced, in its more combustible parts, to ashes. The Americans, who
have erected new fortifications on the site of the old, still retain
possession of a post to which they attach considerable importance, from
the circumstance of its being a key to the more western portions of the
Union.

CHAPTER II.

It was during the midnight watch, late in September, 1763, that the
English garrison of Detroit, in North America, was thrown into the
utmost consternation by the sudden and mysterious introduction of a
stranger within its walls. The circumstance at this moment was
particularly remarkable; for the period was so fearful and pregnant
with events of danger, the fort being assailed on every side by a
powerful and vindictive foe, that a caution and vigilance of no common
kind were unceasingly exercised by the prudent governor for the safety
of those committed to his charge. A long series of hostilities had been
pursued by the North-American Indians against the subjects of England,
within the few years that had succeeded to the final subjection of the
Canadas to her victorious arms; and many and sanguinary were the
conflicts in which the devoted soldiery were made to succumb to the
cunning and numbers of their savage enemies. In those lone regions,
both officers and men, in their respective ranks, were, by a
communionship of suffering, isolation, and peculiarity of duty, drawn
towards each other with feelings of almost fraternal affection; and the
fates of those who fell were lamented with sincerity of soul, and
avenged, when opportunity offered, with a determination prompted
equally by indignation and despair. This sentiment of union, existing
even between men and officers of different corps, was, with occasional
exceptions, of course doubly strengthened among those who fought under
the same colours, and acknowledged the same head; and, as it often
happened in Canada, during this interesting period, that a single
regiment was distributed into two or three fortresses, each so far
removed from the other that communication could with the utmost
facility be cut off, the anxiety and uncertainty of these detachments
became proportioned to the danger with which they knew themselves to be