The Captain now retired for reflection,
for his mind and heart were too full for rest. He then thought of his
young devoted wife whose prayers he believed had been his shield in
battle; that his work was yet incomplete while the British had an army
on the borders of the Lake, or in Upper Canada,--how he could best aid
General Harrison's army; and then resolved on the work of the morrow;
when, soothed by reflection, his tired nature gave out, and he, too,
sank into a fitful slumber.
The mind of Barclay, relieved of present responsibility, evolved other
less pressing but more pensive thoughts. He thought not of himself or
his bleeding wound, for he had bled before for his country, when he
earned his stars and made his fame secure at Trafalgar; but as the sun
went down that night he thought that no more in the evening twilight
would the mariners of England standing under the cross of St. George, on
that great inland water, sing their national song, "Brittania rules the
waves;" no more the echoes of that stirring air rolling over the silver
surface of the Lake to its islands and shores would arouse the sturdy
dwellers there to join in glad unison in those lofty strains which
everywhere, the world over, melt into one every true and loyal British
heart.
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