one post after another, had entirely evacuated Canada about the 18th of June.

Thus ended one of the most wonderful adventures that the history of the world furnishes-a theme fit for the poet, the painter and the novelist, for here truth is stranger than fiction. If the expedition did not succeed fully, it did so in many respects; but the greatest effect it produced was its moral influence. Such an illustration of the spirit of patriotism, whether on a large or a small scale, often accomplishes more than bloody and victorious battles, by the influence it has upon the minds of men.

The reader will remember that some pages back (p. 232), we left a wrathy governor a voluntary prisoner in his own strongly fortified palace. This was Lord Dunmore of Virginia. What has become of him it is now our business to inquire. He says (and we have no disposition to doubt his words) that his present residence is on board the Fowey manof-war, anchored near Yorktown. He declares that himself and family had been exposed to a furious multitude, and he had thought it prudent to take refuge in a place of safety. The Assembly tell him that if he had acquainted them with his fears before leaving, they would have taken measures for the security of himself and his family; and then invite him to return. But he refuses, and tells them that they might send the bills on board his armed ship for examination. All intercourse was soon at an end, and the governor, or rather ex-governor, issued his proclamations, instituting martial law, and proffering freedom to those slaves who would repair to the British standard! Such cowardly proceedings merited the contempt of every generous mind. If an enemy is honourable, we may respect him though we detest his cause; but mean conduct compels us to pity or despise the man. Such a hero as Dunmore, of course, did not remain idle. He equipped and armed a number of other vessels, and as the provincials refused him provisions, instead of waging ordinary war, he proceeded to reduce Hampton to ashes, and wage a kind of piratical war. Again he came to shore at Norfolk, situated near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, on the Elizabeth

river, where a few loyalists and a very few frightened darkeys joined him; and, after defeating a handful of militia hastily assembled, the governor already considered himself a Cæsar, and had great hopes of re-conquering his province! The governor next entrenched himself in a strong position on the Elizabeth river with his amalgamated army.

The Virginians threw up entrenchments within cannonshot of the enemy. Dunmore sent Captain Fordyce to dislodge them, but being killed, and many of the troops killed and wounded, the rest retired. The negroes, of course, showed the white of the eye and ran. The governor rẹembarked, but returning some time after, and demanding food in vain, he burnt the town of Norfolk, on the 1st of January, 1776. About 6000 inhabitants were thus deprived of their homes. After this he joined General Howe at New York.

"-Sea-nursed Norfolk lights the neighbouring plains.
From realm to realm the smoky volumes bend,
Reach round the bays and up the streams extend;
Deep o'er the concave heavy wreaths are roll'd,
And midland towns and distant groves infold.
Through solid curls of smoke, the bursting fires
Climb in tall pyramids above the spires,
Concentring all the winds; whose forces, driven
With equal rage from every point of heaven,
Whirl into conflict, round the scantling pour
The twisting flames, and through the rafters roar,
Suck up the cinders, send them sailing far,
To warn the nations of the raging war,
Bend high the blazing vortex, swell'd and curl'd,
Careering, brightening o'er the lustred world,
Absorb the reddening clouds that round them run,
Lick the pale stars, and mock their absent sun:
Seas catch the splendour, kindling skies resound,
And falling structures shake the smouldering ground.

Crowds of wild fugitives, with frantic tread,
Flit through the flames that pierce the midnight shade,
Back on the burning domes revert their eyes,
Where some lost friend, some perish'd infant lies;
Their maim'd, their sick, their age-enfeebled sires

Have sunk sad victims to the sateless fires.

They greet with one last look their tottering walls,
See the blaze thicken, as the ruin falls,

Then o'er the country train their dumb despair,
And far behind them leave the dancing glare;
Their own crush'd roofs still lend a trembling light,
Point their long shadows and direct their flight;
Till wandering wide they seek some cottage door,
Ask the vile pittance due the vagrant poor;
Or, faint and faltering on the devious road,

They sink at last, and yield their mortal load."

The royal governors of other colonies took refuge on board of the English shipping, and royal government generally, by this abdication, terminated with the year 1775.

CHAPTER VI.

Blockade of Boston turned into a Siege-Americans fortify Dorchester Heights -Astonishment of the Enemy--Evacuate Boston-Sail to Halifax-Washington takes Possession of Boston.

"The cannons have their bowels full of wrath;

And ready-mounted are they to spit forth

Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls."

66

"Look, my lord!"

'Angels and ministers of grace defend us !"

THE garrison of Boston saw its sphere of operations, in procuring provisions, diminish from day to day. Not only had Washington encouraged the frequent skirmishes about Boston with this view, and to keep up the spirit of the Americans, and accustom them to the din of arms and the encounter of the enemy, but a decree of Congress prohibiting the exportation of provisions from the colonies to Canada, Nova Scotia, the island of St. John, Newfoundland and the Floridas, made provisions so scarce in these places that the inhabitants were themselves in want. If the British attempted to land and forage along the coast of the colonies, they were attacked and beaten back by the provincials. The enemy now became desperate; and one of their ships, laden with the

effects of some loyalists, being attacked by the inhabitants of Falmouth, Massachusetts, they bombarded the town, and then sent a detachment on shore to set it on fire and reduce it to ashes. The Assembly of Massachusetts, who had already ordained the armament of some vessels to protect the coast, now decreed that letters of marque and reprisal should be granted, and that admiralty courts should be established to decide on the validity of the prizes.

With a view to intercept the enemy's navigation and protect the coasts of the colonies, Congress decreed that a fleet of five ships of thirty-two guns, five of twenty-eight, and three of twenty-four, should be built and armed. Two were to be constructed in Massachusetts, one in New Hampshire, one in Connecticut, two in Rhode Island, two in New York, four in Pennsylvania, and one in Maryland. These vessels were equipped with great despatch, and the command of the squadron was given to Commodore Hopkins. Congress also created courts of admiralty, and authorized the capture of the ships in the service of the enemy, or which should lend them any assistance.

To their great amazement, the enemy soon saw swarms of American vessels along the coast; not only the squadron of Congress, but also the Massachusetts cruisers. These took an immense number of prizes, and rivalled the enemy on an element on which they had hitherto experienced no opposition from the provincials. The American vessels, hiding behind the great number of little islands along the coast, suddenly darted out and took the enemy's ships, loaded with provisions. By these means they not only cut off the provisions and fuel, but the arms and ammunition sent over from England, of which the provincials stood much in need, were also taken.

While Washington was thus gradually closing every door and avenue to Boston, by land and sea, not only cutting off the provisions of the enemy, but diminishing the chances of escape, he began to contemplate the best mode of taking John Bull by the horns; of making the whole British army prisoners, and of destroying the British squadron in the port and bay. Encouraged and urged by Congress to brave all dangers in

terminating the siege of Boston, before the arrival of reinforcements from England, when the services of the American army would be required elsewhere, Washington arranged a plan to take the city by assault. Calling his generals together, he proposed to them his plan of attack. The majority, however, opposed the plan; and it was finally agreed that the Dorchester Heights should be occupied; which commanding Boston and its harbour, the enemy would be forced to evacuate the city. This plan was preferred, as being attended with less risk than the other. The prudence and sagacity of the commander-in-chief, in estimating the probable issue of such an undertaking, constrains us to believe, that had his plan been carried into effect, the result would have been the capture of the British army.

The Americans, to mask their real design, opened batteries at various points, which incessantly fulminated with a terrible roar, on the night of March 2d, 1776. The darkness of the night was dissipated by the continual blaze. The bombs fell thick and fast in Boston; the houses were fired again and again, and the garrison were labouring continually in extinguishing the flames. Not suspecting that such a furious attack of cannon and bombs was a mere feint, the enemy had no fear of danger from any other quarter.

On the evening of the 4th of March, the Americans proceeded silently towards the peninsula of Dorchester. The darkness of the night, the favourable course of the wind, carrying away the unavoidable noise, and the continual deafening roar and thunder of the numerous batteries employed in the feint, all favoured the enterprise.

The van-guard, consisting of 1200 men, was followed by the carriages containing the entrenching tools. In the rear-guard were 300 carts of bundles of hay, fascines, &c., to cover the flanks of the troops in passing the isthmus of Dorchester, exposed to be raked on both sides by the guns on the British ships. Arriving upon the eminences, they commenced the work in excellent spirits, and with such surprising activity, that by morning they had two forts constructed, one on each