until you point out to me where I have been
so, I shall till then, plead not guilty in my own mind.

War was now brooding over Canada--the fratricidal War of 1812. But for
the time Quebec was gay. There was hardly a week without a private ball,
Tom wrote in February, 1812; and the assemblies, dinners and suppers
were innumerable. He chaffs his sister Christine, whose rheumatic pains
had apparently become a kind of family joke, and says that, since they
are the enemies of high kicking, her inability longer for this pastime
"is partly the cause of her sounding a retreat to the peaceful shades
and grottoes of Murray Bay." Polly, the other unmarried sister, was more
content to be at Murray Bay, with results that led to a family tragedy
as we shall see later. Her brother pictures her driving his nag with her
carriole through the country; so reckless is she that she is sure to run
down some one. "Does she, proud and high, still continue hopping away to
the country weddings?" His request that Pope's Works and _The Spectator_
be sent to him seems to indicate a serious turn of mind. He is sending
to Murray Bay _The Lady of the Lake_ and _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_
whose middle-aged author was just turning from poetry to win
unprecedented success as a writer of fiction. In the spring he goes out
shooting for snipe nearly every day; and he sends to Murray Bay for his
fishing tackle. When a fellow officer falls ill he sends him down to
Murray Bay for a month.

Soon came a more active life. War with the United States was near and
Canada was getting ready. In May, 1812, Malcolm Fraser, led to Quebec
from Murray Bay and the intervening parishes what militia he could
muster. At the same time, he was made a commissioner to administer the
oaths of allegiance: in extreme old age the veteran was ready again to
do what he could. The Newfoundland regiment, to which Tom belonged, was
ordered to the interior. The storm cloud drew near and burst on June
19th, 1812, in the form of a declaration of war by the United States on
Great Britain. The Americans intended to pour troops into Upper Canada,
but sparsely settled at that time, and quickly to occupy it. The
frontier on the Niagara River was the chief danger point and the
Newfoundland Regiment was sent up to Lake Ontario to aid in the defence.
On July 3rd, 1812, Tom writes from Kingston in Upper Canada. The news
has reached him that war has been declared; and already, busy with the
tas