Tecumseh : a Drama Part 15

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. Yes, affairs make me so. Such stirring times Since Brock returned and opened Parliament! Read you his speech?

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. That from the Throne?

2ND U.E. LOYALIST. Ay, that!

1ST U.E. LOYALIST. You need not ask, since 'tis on every tongue, Unstaled by repet.i.tion. I affirm Words never showered upon more fruitful soil To nourish valour's growth.

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. That final phrase-- Oh it struck home: a sentence to be framed And hung in every honourable heart For daily meditation.

"_We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest. By unanimity and dispatch in our councils, and by vigour in our operations, we may teach the enemy this lesson, that a country defended by free men, enthusiastically devoted to the cause of their king and const.i.tution, can never be conquered._"

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. That reaches far; a text to fortify Imperial doctrine and Canadian rights.

Sedition skulks, and feels its blood a-cold, Since first it fell upon the public ear.

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. There is a magic in this soldier's tongue.

O language is a common instrument; But when a master touches it--what sounds!

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. What sounds indeed!

But Brock can use his sword Still better than his tongue. Our state affairs, Conned and digested by his eager mind Draw into form, and even now his voice Cries, Forward! To the Front!

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. Look--here he comes!

1ST U.E. LOYALIST. There's matter in the wind; let's draw a-near.

[_Enter_ GENERAL BROCK, _accompanied by_ MACDONELL, NICHOL, ROBINSON _and other Canadian Officers and friends conversing_.]

BROCK. 'Tis true our Province faces heavy odds: Of regulars but fifteen hundred men To guard a frontier of a thousand miles; Of volunteers what aidance we can draw From seventy thousand widely scattered souls.

A meagre showing 'gainst the enemy's If numbers be the test. But odds lie not In numbers only, but in spirit too-- Witness the might of England's little isle!

And what made England great will keep her so-- The free soul and the valour of her sons; And what exalts her will sustain you now If you contain her courage and her faith.

So not the odds so much are to be feared As private disaffection, treachery-- Those openers of the door to enemies-- And the poor crouching spirit that gives way Ere it is forced to yield.

ROBINSON. No fear of that!

BROCK. I trust there is not; yet I speak of it As what is to be feared more than the odds.

For like to forests are communities-- Fair at a distance, entering you find The rubbish and the underbrush of states, 'Tis ever the mean soul that counts the odds, And, where you find this spirit, pluck it up-- 'Tis full of mischief.

MACDONELL. It is almost dead.

England's vast war, our weakness, and the eagle Whetting his beak at Sandwich, with one claw Already in our side, put thought to steep In cold conjecture for a time, and gave A text to alien tongues. But, since you came, Depression turns to smiling, and men see That dangers well-opposed may be subdued Which shunned would overwhelm us.

BROCK. Hold to this!

For since the storm has struck us we must face it.

What is our present count of volunteers?

NICHOL. More than you called for have a.s.sembled, Sir-- The flower of York and Lincoln.

BROCK. Some will go To guard our frontier at Niagara.

Which must be strengthened even at the cost Of York itself. The rest to the Detroit, Where, with Tec.u.mseh's force, our regulars, And Kent and Ess.e.x loyal volunteers, We'll give this Hull a taste of steel so cold His teeth will chatter at it, and his scheme Of easy conquest vanish into air.

[_Enter a_ COMPANY _of_ MILITIA _with their_ OFFICERS, _unarmed. They salute, march across the stage, and make their exit_.]

What men are those? Their faces are familiar.

ROBINSON. Some farmers whom you furloughed at Fort George, To tend their fields, which still they leave half- reaped To meet invasion.

BROCK. I remember it!

The jarring needs of harvest-time and war, Twixt whose necessities grave hazards lay.

ROBINSON. They only thought to save their children's bread, And then return to battle with light hearts.

For, though their hard necessities o'erpoised Their duty for the moment, these are men.

Who draw their pith from loyal roots, their sires, Dug up by revolution, and cast out To hovel in the bitter wilderness, And wring, with many a tussle, from the wolf Those very fields which cry for harvesters.

BROCK. O I observed them closely at Fort George-- Red-hot for action in their summer-sleeves, And others drilling in their naked feet-- Our poor equipment (which disgraced us there) Too scanty to go round. See they get arms, An ample outfit and good quarters too.

NICHOL. They shall be well provided for in all.

[_Enter_ COLONELS BABY [Footnote: p.r.o.nounced Baw- bee.] _and_ ELLIOTT.]

BROCK. Good morning both; what news from home, Baby?

BABY. None, none your Excellency--whereat we fear This Hull is in our rear at Amherstburg.

BROCK. Not yet; what I unsealed last night reports Tec.u.mseh to have foiled the enemy In two encounters at the Canard bridge.

A n.o.ble fellow; as I hear, humane, Lofty and bold and rooted in our cause.

BABY. I know him well; a chief of matchless force.

If Mackinaw should fall--that triple key To inland seas and teeming wilderness-- The bravest in the west will flock to him.

BROCK. 'Twere well he had an inkling of affairs.

My letters say he chafes at my delay, Not mine, but thine, thou dull and fatuous House-- Which, in a period that whips delay, When men should spur themselves and flash in action, Let'st idly leak the unpurchasable hours From our scant measure of most precious time!

BABY. 'Tis true, Your Exc'llency, some cankered minds Have been a daily hind'rance in our House.

No measure so essential, bill so fair, But they would foul it by some cunning clause, Wrenching the needed statute from its aim By sly injection of their false opinion.

But this you cannot charge to us whose hearts Are faithful to our trust; nor yet delay; For, Exc'llency, you hurry on so fast That other men wheeze after, out of breath, And haste itself, disparaged, lags behind.

BROCK. Friends, pardon me, you stand not in reproof.

But haste, the evil of the age in peace, Is war's auxiliary, confederate With time himself in urgent great affairs.

So must we match it with the flying hours!

I shall prorogue this tardy Parliament, And promptly head our forces for Detroit Meanwhile, I wish you, in advance of us, To speed unto your homes. Spread everywhere Throughout the West, broad tidings of our coming, Which, by the counter currents of reaction, Will tell against our foes and for our friends.

As for the rest, such loyal men as you Need not our counsel; so, good journey both!

BABY. We shall not spare our transport or ourselves.

[_Enter a travel-stained_ MESSENGER.]

ELLIOTT. Good-bye.

BABY. Tarry a moment, Elliott! Here comes a messenger-- let's have his news.

MESSENGER. It is his Excellency whom I seek. I come, sir, with despatches from the west.