itia. At Montreal, even the militia turned out for garrison duty.
And on the 6th of August, the whole militia were commanded to hold
themselves in readiness for embodiment. A little of the zeal now began
to ooze out. There never yet was a rule without an exception. In the
Parish of Ste. Claire, some young men, who had been drafted into the
embodied militia, refused to join their battalion. Of these, four were
apprehended, but one was rescued, and it was determined by the
able-bodied men of Pointe Claire to liberate such others of their
friends as had already joined the depot of the embodied militia at
Laprairie. Accordingly, on the following day, some three or four
hundred persons assembled at Lachine. They had not assembled to pass a
series of resolutions censuring the government for illegally and
wantonly carrying off some of the best men of the Parish of Pointe
Claire, nor did they express any opinion favorable to Mr. Madison and
the Americans, but they had assembled to obtain, by force, the liberty
of their friends about to be subjected to military discipline. It
seemed to have been a misunderstanding, however. The infuriated
parishioners of Pointe Claire, who would not be comforted, on being
appealed to, to go to their homes, frequently raised the cry of "Vive
le Roi." It might be supposed that the Ste. Claire people meant to wish
a long and happy reign to His Imperial Majesty Napoleon, as Mr. Ryland
shrewdly suspected. But that supposition was not entertainable for any
considerable length of time, inasmuch as the people without any
prompting intimated that they had been informed that the militia law
had not been put into force, but that if the Governor should call for
their services they were ready to obey him. The magistrates assured the
people that the militia law was really to be enforced, and advised them
to disperse. They refused to budge. Two pieces of artillery and a
company of the 49th regiment, which had been sent for, to Montreal, now
appeared at Lachine. Still the mob would not disperse. Accordingly, the
Riot Act was read, and the artillery fired a ball high over the heads
of the stubborn crowd, which, of course, whizzing harmlessly along,
produced no effect upon the crowd, except that the eighty, who were
armed with fusils and fowling pieces, somewhat smartly returned the
compliment, proving to the satisfaction of the soldiers the possession
of highly military qualities, in a quarter where it was least e