George, as related in the second chapter, he
ordered the detachment to the parade, where he proceeded to address them
on the enormity of their offence; but when he began to express his
grief and shame at their conduct, he was so affected as to be utterly
unable to continue. The men were equally moved, and are said to have
exclaimed: "Had you commanded us, Sir, this never would have occurred."
Indeed, there was a correspondence of regard between him and his
officers, and even the non-commissioned officers and privates, that,
with this solitary exception, produced the picture of a happy family.
Those extremities of punishment, which the exactions of discipline will
sometimes occasion, rarely reached his men. And yet shortly before he
succeeded to the command of the regiment, it was in a sad state of
disorganization, from the causes already explained. (Page 7.) During the
mutiny on board the fleet at the Nore, in May, 1797, the 49th was
quartered on the borders of the river Thames; and as the privates
evidently sympathized with the seamen, Major Brock not only seldom went
to bed till nearly daylight, but slept with loaded pistols, while during
the day he frequently visited the mess-rooms, to tear down or erase such
inscriptions as "The Navy for Ever." But soon after he became the
lieutenant-colonel, by happily blending conciliation with firmness, and
bringing to a court martial two or three officers, whose misconduct
could not be overlooked, he quickly restored the discipline of the
corps. Having effected this, he afterwards governed it by that sentiment
of esteem which he himself had created, and the consolation was given
him to terminate a brief but brilliant course in the midst of his
professional family.[108]

It deserves to be recorded as an instance of good fortune, unprecedented
perhaps in military annals, and especially in a country where the
advantage and facility of escape were so great, that from the 6th of
August, the day on which Major-General Brock left York for Detroit, to
the period immediately preceding the battle of Queenstown, the force
under his personal command suffered no diminution in its numbers either
by desertion, natural death, or the sword. This comprehended a period of
nearly ten weeks, during which an army was captured, and a journey of
several hundred miles, by land and water, accomplished with extreme
rapidity.

In compiling this memoir, we have been much struck with the rapidity of
Major