nswer, only a clattering spatter of
shots came from the rebel side. The patriots were in headlong flight
with the mounted men of Toronto in pursuit.

It was over with MacKenzie, but, as the sequence of events will show,
it was not all over with the cause. A book of soldiers' yarns might be
told of hairbreadth escapes, the aftermath of the rebellion. Knowing
his side was doomed to defeat, Dr. Rolph tried to escape from Toronto.
He was stopped by a loyalist sentry, but explained he was leaving the
city to visit a patient. Farther on he had been arrested by a loyalist
picket, when luckily a young doctor who had attended Rolph's medical
lectures, all unconscious of MacKenzie's plot, vouched for his {424}
loyalty. Riding like a madman all that night, Rolph reached Niagara
and escaped to the American frontier. A reward of 1000 pounds had been
offered for MacKenzie dead or alive. He had waited only till his
followers fled, when he mounted his big bay horse and galloped for the
woods, pursued by Fitzgibbons' men. The big bay carried him safely to
the country, where he wandered openly for four days. It speaks volumes
for the stanch fidelity of the country people to the cause which
MacKenzie represented, that during these wanderings he was unbetrayed,
spite of the 1000 pounds reward. Finally he too succeeded in crossing
Niagara. Van Egmond was captured north of Yonge Street, but died from
disease contracted in his prison cell before he could be tried. Lount,
another of the leaders, had succeeded in reaching Long Point, Lake
Erie. With a fellow patriot, a French voyageur, and a boy, he started
to cross Lake Erie in an open boat. It was wintry, stormy weather.
For two days and two nights the boat tossed, a plaything of the waves,
the drenching spray freezing as it fell, till the craft was almost
ice-logged. For food they had brought only a small piece of meat, and
this had frozen so hard that their numbed hands could not break it.
Weakening at each oar stroke, they at last saw the south shore of Lake
Erie rise on the sky line; but before the close-muffled refugees had
dared to hope for safety on the American side, a strong south wind had
sprung up that drove the boat back across the lake towards Grand River.
To remain exposed longer meant certain death. They landed, were
mistaken for smugglers, and thrown into jail, where Lount was at once
recognized.

In West Ontario one Dr. Duncombe had acted as MacKenzie's lieut