ara Falls where an
American landing was feared. Echoes of more distant wars reach this
remote frontier. This was the winter of Napoleon's terrible retreat from
Moscow and word comes, "glorious news certainly if true," that 140,000
French have been captured by the Russians.

Nearer home the chronicle was less glorious. The American fleet appeared
before York (Toronto), burned the Parliament Buildings and public
records, and carried off even the church plate, and the books from the
library, of Upper Canada's capital, acts avenged by the burning of
Washington later in the war. Flushed with success, the Americans now
prepared to attack Fort George in overwhelming force. The 49th, Nairne's
regiment, were the chief defenders. The attack came on May 27th, 1813.
There was sharp and bloody fighting. Greatly outnumbered, the British
were beaten; so hastily did they evacuate the fort that Nairne and
others lost their personal effects. He writes, somewhat ruefully, that
he has now only the clothes on his back and his watch, a purse, a family
ring, and some trinkets. But this had its compensations; now he could
carry everything in a haversack and blanket. Even paper, pens and ink
are hardly to be got; he is writing on the last bit of paper he is
likely to have for some time.

For many weeks the young man took his share in this campaigning in the
Niagara peninsula. The British headquarters were by this time at
Burlington Heights at the head of Lake Ontario, half way between Fort
George and York, the ruined capital. By June the British had turned on
the foe with vigour. On June 6th they rather stumbled into victory at
Stoney Creek, capturing two American Generals, Winder and Chandler. On
June 7th a British squadron, under Sir James Yeo, appeared off
Burlington Heights, bombarded the American camp on the shore at Forty
Mile Creek and compelled a retreat towards Fort George. Soon the British
were menacing the enemy in Fort George itself. Nairne's letters, watched
for, we may be sure, at Murray Bay with breathless interest, recount the
incidents of the campaign. At Beaver Dam, only a dozen miles or so from
Fort George, Lieutenant Fitzgibbon of Nairne's regiment, the 49th,
entrapped an advancing party of Americans and, by the clever use of 200
Indian allies, filled them with such dread of being surrounded and
massacred by the savages that nearly 600 Americans surrendered to little
more than one-third of their number. These same wild Indi