estrict their military operations to the known rules of war, as far
as was possible under the singular conditions in which they fought, and
exacted a promise from the lofty-minded Tecumseh that his warriors
"should not taste pernicious liquor until they had humbled the
Big-knives." "If this resolution," remarked Brock, "is persevered in,
you must surely conquer."

Brock's rapid ascendency over the Indians was astonishing; they already
revered him as a common father.

That same afternoon our hero, moving up with his entire command to
Sandwich, occupied the mansion of Colonel Baby, the great fur-trader,
just evacuated by Hull. In the spacious hall hooks were nailed to the
rafters, from which were suspended great steel-yards, by which the
beaver packs were weighed. Scattered on the hewn floor in much profusion
were soldiers' accoutrements, service and pack-saddles, iron-bound
chests mixed up with bear-traps and paddles, rolls of birch-bark,
leather hunting shirts, and the greasy blankets of voyageur and redskin.
The room on the right became Brock's headquarters, and in this room he
penned his first demand upon General Hull.

"My force," so he wrote, "warrants my demanding the immediate surrender
of Fort Detroit." Anxious to prevent bloodshed, and knowing Hull's dread
of the Indians, he also played upon his fears. "The Indians," he added,
"might get beyond my control." This summons was carried by Colonel
Macdonell and Major Glegg, under a flag of truce, across the river.

The batteries at Sandwich consisted of one eighteen-pounder, two
twelve-pounders, and two 51/2-inch howitzers. Back of these artificial
breastworks extended both a wilderness and the garden of Canada. Beyond
the meadows, aflame with autumn wild-flowers, beyond the cultivated
clearings, rose a forest of walnut, oak, basswood, birch and poplar
trees, seared with age, of immense height and girth, festooned with wild
honeysuckle and other creepers. In the open were broad orchards bending
under their harvest of red and yellow fruit--apples and plums, peaches,
nectarines and cherries--and extensive vineyards. Huge sugar maples
challenged giant pear trees, whose gnarled trunks had resisted the
storms of a century. To the north the floor of the forest was interlaced
with trails, which, with the intention of deceiving Hull's spies as to
the strength of Brock's forces, had been crossed and recrossed, and
countermarched and doubled over, by the soldiers and Tecums