He then
returned to the shore to meet the vast concourse of people awaiting his
arrival. The dead and the disabled men, the dismounted guns and the
broken and tattered ships, told the story of the battle and the price
of the victory with more eloquence than the most brilliant imagination
could compass. These visible evidences of the strife for the mastery
indicated the valor and the woe, incident to the ordeal which had been
passed, with an energy and pathos which overpowered the most obdurate
will; and the multitude greeted Harrison and Perry with tears and
smiles,--rain in sunshine with a heartiness that language is too poor
and barren to describe. The living had earned their title to everlasting
gratitude, and the dead had fallen as the brave desire to fall, at the
post of duty and on the field of victory.
Perry now procured the parole and release of Barclay, and after
arranging for his absence started eastward on his journey home; but his
progress was everywhere obstructed by evidences of the gratitude of
his countymen for his great action.
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