from Christmas until the following May and also took
the schooner _Ann_ with three hundred arms and two cannons, musketry
and provisions for the rebel troops. They held the fort until they
were relieved by the colonel of the 44th regiment from England. Then
came the Civil War. Henson was too old to go, but his relatives
enlisted. He was charged with having violated the foreign enlistment
act and was arrested and acquitted after some harrowing experiences.

Henson made a third trip to England near the close of his career. Many
of his friends had passed away, but he met his old supporter, Samuel
Morley. He made the acquaintance also of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
Hart, R. C. L. Bevan, and Professor Fowler. But he was then the hero
of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The English people had read of him. They then
wanted to see him. He spoke at the Victoria Park Tabernacle and held
in London a farewell meeting in Spurgeon's Tabernacle. The buildings
were thronged to their utmost capacity and eager crowds on the outside
made desperate efforts to see him. He was then called to Scotland that
the people farther north might also see this hero. Just as Henson
reached Edinburgh the crowning honor of his life was to come. He
received a telegram from Queen Victoria inviting him to visit her the
following day. After addressing an unusually large audience, Henson
proceeded immediately to London. The next day he and his wife were
dined by a group of distinguished gentlemen and were then taken to
Windsor Castle, where they were presented to Queen Victoria. Her
majesty informed him that he had known of him ever since she was a
little girl. She expressed her surprise at seeing him look so
different from what she had imagined he would. She briefly discussed
with him the state of affairs in Canada, and in bidding him and his
wife farewell expressed her wish for his continued prosperity, gave
him a token of her respect and esteem, consisting of a full length
cabinet photograph of herself in an elegant easel frame of gold.

On his return to the United States Henson visited the old plantation
in Montgomery County near Rockville, Maryland, finding his old
master's wife still living. He then proceeded to Washington to see
again the old haunts which he frequented when serving as the market
man of his plantation. While in the National Capital he went to the
White House to call on his Excellency President Hayes, who chatted
with him about his trip across the sea