rew faint, and in the flash of a flintlock in its pan, honour was
sacrificed and fame cast to the winds. A brave army of martyrs, over
2,000 strong, was rightabout faced, and drinking the cup of humiliation,
that only men of courage can drain to the bitter dregs, this army, eager
to lock bayonets with the British, was actually ordered to retreat into
the shelter of Fort Detroit!

[Illustration: LIEUT.-COLONEL JOHN MACDONELL]

CHAPTER XX.

BROCK'S VICTORY.

Reaching a ravine, Brock ordered up his artillery and prepared to
assault. A shell from the British battery at Sandwich roared over the
river and crashed through an embrasure of Fort Shelby, killing four
American officers. The Savoyard river was reached and the outlying
tan-yard crossed. Brock's troops, keyed up, with nerves tense under the
strain of suspense, and every moment expecting a raking discharge of
shot and shell from the enemy's big guns, heard with grim satisfaction
the General's orders to "prepare for assault."

The field-pieces were trained upon the fort, to cover the rush of the
besiegers. The gunners, with bated breath and burning fuses, awaited the
final command, when lo! an officer bearing a white flag emerged from the
fort, while a boat with another flag of truce was seen crossing the
river to the Sandwich battery. Macdonell and Glegg galloped out to meet
the messenger. They returned with a despatch from the American general,
Hull, to the British general, Brock. This was the message:

"The object of the flag which crossed the river was to propose a
cessation of hostilities for an hour, for the purpose of entering into
negotiations for the surrender of Detroit."

* * * * *

An hour later the British troops, with General Isaac Brock at their
head, marched through the smiling fields and orchards, passed over the
fort draw-bridge, and, surrounded by a host of fierce-looking and
indignant militia of Ohio and "the heroes of Tippecanoe," hauled down
the Stars and Stripes--which had waved undisturbed over Fort Lernoult
since its voluntary evacuation by the British in 1796--and, in default
of a British ensign, hoisted a Union Jack--which a sailor had worn as a
body-belt--over the surrendered fortress. British sentinels now guarded
the ramparts. The bells of old St. Anne's saluted the colors. The "Grand
Army of the West," by which pretentious title Hull had seen fit to
describe his invading force, melted like mi