without the possibility of annoying the enemy, they were mowed down! The loss of the Danes, including prisoners, amounted to about 6,000."

John Savery Brock, of whose gallantry mention is made in the preceding pages, was the next younger brother of Lieut.-Colonel Brock, and had been in the navy; but it being supposed that he was influential, in the year 1790, in inducing his brother midshipmen, of the fleet at Spithead, to sign a round robin against their being subjected to the practice of mastheading-one having been hoisted up to the gaff end in an ignominious manner, because he refused to go to the mast head as a punishment-he was recommended privately to retire from the service.* Being at this time a tall and high spirited young man of eighteen, it is not surprising that he deemed such a punishment unnecessarily degrading to the feelings of an officer, and which has since been very properly abolished. Had it not been for this circumstance, it is the opinion of a naval officer of high rank, that Savery Brock would have distinguished himself and risen to eminence in the navy during the late revolutionary wars.-Some little time after this affair, being in Guernsey, he wished to go to England, and was offered a passage in the Amazon, frigate, Captain Reynolds, afterwards Rear-Admiral Reynolds, who perished in the St. George, of 98 guns, on her return from the Baltic, in 1811. The Amazon, bound to Portsmouth, left the roadstead late in the afternoon, and before she was clear of the small Russel a dangerous passage-night overtook her. By some accident the pilot mistook the bearings, owing to the darkness and thick weather. Savery Brock, being acquainted with the intricate course,

* While the above was in type, the Duke of Rutland visited Guernsey in his yacht, and wrote the following note at Detroit, the residence of the once outcast middy, on whom, while we write this, the hand of death is but too apparent : "The Duke of Rutland called to pay his respects to Mr. Savery Brock, and sincerely regrets to find that he is so unwell. Saturday, July 13, 1844."

was on the fore yard looking out, when he suddenly espied a small cluster of rocks towards which the frigate was steering. There was no time for communication, and, without hesitating an instant, he cried out in true nautical style: "H-a-r-d up, h-a-r-d up.' "H-a-r-d up it is," replied the helsman. "H-a-r-d up," repeated Savery in a louder key. "Gently, young man," said the captain, who was standing forward. The ship fortunately bore away just in time to clear the rocks, and was thus saved by the prompt interference of her passenger. We have often heard him in his latter days tell the story with excusable pride, and he especially remembered how the crew pointed him out the next morning to each other, as the young man who had got the ship out of her danger. As he was without employment, his brother Isaac subsequently procured him the paymastership of the 49th, which he retained only three or four years, the office being one quite unfitted to his previons education and active mind. In 1808, his military zeal induced him to serve for a short time as an amateur aide-de-camp to Sir John Moore, in the Peninsula. He married and settled in Guernsey; and whether as a militia colonel, or in the exercise of a generous hospitality, or, above all, as a projector and zealous promoter of many public improvements in his native island, his memory will long live in the recollection of its inhabitants.

When Kean performed in Guernsey, two or three years before his appearance on the London boards, Savery Brock was enthusiastic in his admiration, and predicted the future eminence of that celebrated tragedian, in whose memoirs his name is gratefully mentioned.

CHAPTER II.

On its return from Copenhagen to England, the 49th was collected at Colchester, and in the spring following, (1802,) the regiment sailed for Canada, which country was destined to bestow on it many additional laurels, as well as to be the scene of the fame and death of its commanding officer. At this period, desertion among the troops in both provinces was, as it has been of late years, very prevalent; and, attached as his men were to him, Lieut.-Colonel Brock could scarcely hope that they would escape the general contagion. He, however, lost only one man from the several posts under his personal command during the three years of his regimental service, in Montreal, York, Fort George, and, lastly, Quebec; and that man deserted from Montreal soon after his arrival there, in September, 1802. In the fall of that year, an educated soldier, named Carr, was observed by Colonel Brock to salute him with less apparent confidence and manliness than usual, and hence he inferred that Carr would desert as soon as the river St. Lawrence became frozen over. He ordered the sergeant-major-the same gallant Irishman whom we have mentioned in the last chapter-to bring the man before him, and he was produced forthwith. The colonel directly charged Carr with intending to desert, and told him that he would probably seduce other men to desert with him: he added, even if they should escape into the United States, that they would be there treated like wretched perjurors, which

in fact they would then be, and would curse the day on which they committed such a crime. "Manfully tell me the truth!" Carr hesitated, and stammered out a denial. The colonel quickly stepped up to him with his fist clenched, and said: "Don't prevaricate -tell me the truth, like a man-you know I have always treated you kindly!" The man confessed that he and certain others had agreed to desert. "Go, then," rejoined the colonel, "go and tell those deluded men all that has passed here that notwithstanding what you have told me, I will still treat every one of you with kindness, and you may then all desert from me if you please."

In the summer following, Lieut.-Colonel Brock was stationed at York, from whence six of his men deserted, having been seduced by a corporal of the 41st regiment, who had been left there as an artificer. At midnight, the sergeant of the guard informed the sergeant-major that three of his men were missing, and that a boat was taken from a shed in charge of one of his sentries, who had also disappeared. The sergeant-major instantly reported the circumstance to the colonel, who ordered him to man a bateau immediately, with a sergeant and twelve privates of the light company, which was done; and at the same time the roll was called in the barrack rooms, when it was ascertained that three other men were also missing, as well as the corporal of the 41st. At half-past twelve, the colonel himself embarked in the bateau, taking his trusty sergeant-major with him. They pulled directly for Niagara, at this point thirty miles across. Fortunately, the weather continued calm, and they reached Niagara the following morning, whence Colonel Brock at once directed a lieutenant (Chesshire) and a party of the detachment stationed there, to proceed in a bateau along the American shore of Lake Ontario, while with his own boat he returned towards York, by coasting along the west end of the lake, so as to intercept the deserters,

C

should they have taken that course. They, however, had crossed the lake direct to the American shore, and were overtaken by the party from Niagara, every man being brought back. The manner in which the fugitives were captured deserves mention. The detachment sent in pursuit from Fort George was accompanied by an Indian, who, after some time, asked permission to land, that he might shoot on shore, keeping within a short distance of the boat as it coasted the lake. He unexpectedly met the deserters in their red jackets in the woods, and at once running to the lake, he hailed the officer, and informed him of what he had seen. The officer and his party immediately landed, and set out in pursuit ; they walked a few miles on a very hot day, but were unable to discover the fugitives, and some of the party asked leave to go to the lake side to quench their thirst. While drinking, they saw two or three of the deserters approaching for the same purpose, and having secured them, they quickly overtook the remainder. Had the American government been aware of the circumstance, they probably would have considered it as a violation of their territory. No other desertions occurred from any post personally commanded by Colonel Brock in Canada. It was said that Lieut.-General Hunter, who commanded the troops in both provinces, and was then in York, expressed his displeasure to the colonel for his so rashly venturing in an open boat, which was never known to have crossed the lake before.

In the same summer of 1803, soon after the capture of these deserters, a very serious conspiracy was on the point of being carried into execution by the detachment of the 49th in garrison at Fort George, under the command of the junior lieutenant-colonel. The intention of the mutineers was to confine the officers in the cells, in which several deserters were then imprisoned, while they marched to Queenston, seven miles distant, and there crossed