The Canadian Brothers, or the Prophecy Fulfilled a Tale of the Late American War — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 533 pages of information about The Canadian Brothers, or the Prophecy Fulfilled a Tale of the Late American War — Complete.

The Canadian Brothers, or the Prophecy Fulfilled a Tale of the Late American War — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 533 pages of information about The Canadian Brothers, or the Prophecy Fulfilled a Tale of the Late American War — Complete.
boats and batteaux that could be collected, added to those of the fleet, lay covering the sands, ready to receive their destined burdens.  At length the embarkation was completed, and the signal having been given, the several divisions of boats moved off in the order prescribed to them.  Never did a more picturesque scene present itself to the human eye, than during the half hour occupied in the transit of this little army.  The sun was just rising gloriously and unclouded, as the first division of boats pushed from the shore, and every object within the British and American line of operation, tended to the production of an effect, that was little in unison with the anticipated issue of the whole.  Not a breeze ruffled the fair face of the placid Detroit, through which the heavily laden boats now made their slow, but certain way, and a spectator who, in utter ignorance of events, might hare been suddenly placed on the Canadian hank, would have been led to imagine, that a fete, not a battle, was intended.  Immediately above the village of Sandwich, and in full view of the American Fort, lay the English flotilla at anchor, their white sails half clewed up, their masts decked with gay pendants, and their taffrails with, ensigns that lay drooping over their sterns into the water, as if too indolent to bear up against the coming sultriness of the day.  Below these, glittering in bright scarlet, that glowed not unpleasingly on the silvery stream, the sun’s rays dancing on their polished muskets and accoutrements, glided like gay actors in an approaching pageant, the columns destined for the assault, while further down, and distributed far and wide over the expanse of water, were to be seen a multitude of canoes, filled with Indian warriors, whose war costume could not, in the distance, be distinguished from that of the dance; the whole contributing, with the air of quietude on both shores, and absence of all opposition on the American especially, to inspire feelings of joyousness and pleasure, rather than the melancholy consequent on a knowledge of the final destination of the whole.  Nor would the incessant thunder of the cannon in the distance, have in any way diminished this impression; for as the volumes of smoke, vomited from the opposing batteries, met and wreathed themselves together in the centre of the stream, leaving at intervals the gay colours of England and America, brightly displayed to the view, the impression, to a spectator, would have been that of one who witnesses the exchange of military honors between two brave and friendly powers, preparing the one to confer, the other to receive all the becoming courtesies of a chivalrous hospitality.  If any thing were wanting to complete the illusion, the sound of the early mass bell, summoning to the worship of that God whom no pageantry of man may dispossess of homage, would amply crown and heighten the effect of the whole, while the chaunting of the hymn of adoration, would appear a part of the worship of the Deity, and of the pageantry itself.

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The Canadian Brothers, or the Prophecy Fulfilled a Tale of the Late American War — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.