[Exeunt Settlers ruefully.]

This foreign element will hamper us.
Its alien spirit ever longs for change,
And union with the States.

MACDONELL. O fear it not,
Nor magnify the girth of noisy men!
Their name is faction, and their numbers few.
While everywhere encompassing them stands
The silent element that doth not change;
That points with steady finger to the Crown -
True as the needle to the viewless pole,
And stable as its star!

BROCK. I know it well,
And trust to it alone for earnestness,
Accordant counsels, loyalty and faith.
But give me these - and let the Yankees come!
With our poor handful of inhabitants,
We can defend our forest wilderness,
And spurn the bold invader from our shores.

[Re-enter ORDERLY.]

ORDERLY. Your boat is ready, sir!

BROCK. Man it at once - I shall forthwith to York.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE SECOND. - YORK THE CAPITAL OF UPPER CANADA...

THE SPACE IN FRONT OF OLD GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

[Enter two U. E. LOYALISTS, separately.]

1ST U.E. LOYALIST. Well met, my friend! A stirrer like
myself.

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. Yes, affairs make me so. Such
stirring times
Since Brock returned and opened Parliament! Read you
his speech?

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. That from the Throne?

2ND U.E. LOYALIST. Ay, that!

1ST U.E. LOYALIST. You need not ask, since 'tis on
every tongue,
Unstaled by repetition. I affirm
Words never showered upon more fruitful soil
To nourish valour's growth.

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. That final phrase -
Oh it struck home: a sentence to be framed
And hung in every honourable heart
For daily meditation.

"_We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest. By
unanimity and dispatch in our councils, and by vigour
in our operations, we may teach the enemy this lesson,
that a country defended by free men, enthusiastically
devoted to the cause of their king and constitution,
can never be conquered._"

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. That reaches far; a text to fortify
Imperial doctrine and Canadian rights.
Sedition skulks, and feels its blood a-cold,
Since first it fell upon the public ear.

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. There is a magic in this soldier's
tongue.
O language is a common instrument;
But when a master touches it - what sounds!

1ST U. E. LOYALIST. What sounds indeed!
But Brock can use his sword
Still better than his tongue. Our state affairs,
Conned and digested by his eager mind
Draw into form, and even now his voice
Cries, Forward! To the Front!

2ND U. E. LOYALIST. Look - here he comes!

1ST U.E. LOYALIST. There's matter in the wind; let's
draw a-near.

[Enter GENERAL BROCK, accompanied by
MACDONELL, NICHOL, ROBINSON _and other Canadian
Officers and friends conversing_.]

BROCK. 'Tis true our Province faces heavy odds:
Of regulars but fifteen hundred men
To guard a frontier of a thousand miles;
Of volunteers what aidance we can draw
From seventy thousand widely scattered souls.
A meagre showing 'gainst the enemy's
If numbers be the test. But odds lie not
In numbers only, but in spirit too -
Witness the might of England's little isle!
And what made England great will keep her so -
The free soul and the valour of her sons;
And what exalts her will sustain you now
If you contain her courage and her faith.
So not the odds so much are to be feared
As private disaffection, treachery -
Those openers of the door to enemies -
And the poor crouching spirit that gives way
Ere it is forced to yield.