CASS. But I see - -

HULL. No "buts"! You have my orders.

CASS. No solid reason here, naught but a group
Of flimsy apprehensions - -

HULL. Go at once!
Who kicks at judgment, lacks it.

CASS. I - -

HULL. No more! I want not wrangling but obedience here.

[Exeunt_ CASS and other officers
incensed._]

Would I had ne'er accepted this command!
Old men are out of favour with the time,
And youthful folly scoffs at hoary age.
There's not a man who executes my orders
With a becoming grace; not one but sulks,
And puffs his disapproval with a frown.
And what am I? A man whom Washington
Nodded approval of, and wrote it too!
Yet here, in judgment and discretion both,
Ripe to the dropping, scorned and ridiculed.
Oh, Jefferson, what mischief have you wrought -
Confounding Nature's order, setting fools
To prank themselves, and sit in wisdom's seat
By right divine, out Heroding a King's!
But I shall keep straight on - pursue my course,
Responsible and with authority,
Though boasters gird at me, and braggarts frown.

[Exit.]

SCENE FIFTH. - SANDWICH, ON THE DETROIT...

- A ROOM IN THE BABY MANSION.

Enter GENERAL BROCK, COLONELS PROCTOR, GLEGG,
BABY, MACDONELL, NICHOL, ELLIOTT _and other
Officers_.

BABY. Welcome! thrice welcome!
Brave Brock, to Sandwich and this loyal roof!
Thank God, your oars, those weary levers bent
In many a wave, have been unshipped at last;
And, now methinks those lads who stemmed the flood
Would boldly face the fire.

BROCK. I never led
Men of more cheerful and courageous heart,
But for whose pluck, foul weather and short seas,
'Twere truth to say, had made an end of us.
Another trial will, I think, approve
The manly strain this Canada hath bred.

PROCTOR. 'Tis pity that must be denied them now,
Since all our enemies have left our shores.

BROCK. No, by my soul, it shall not be denied!
Our foe's withdrawal hath a magnet's power
And pulls my spirit clean into his fort.
But I have asked you to confer on this.
What keeps Tecumseh?

ELLIOTT. 'Tis his friend, Lefroy,
Who now rejoins him, after bootless quest
Of Iena, Tecumseh's niece.

BROCK. Lefroy! I had a gentle playmate of that name
In Guernsey, long ago.

BABY. It may be he.
I know him, and, discoursing our affairs,
Have heard him speak of you, but in a strain
Peculiar to the past.

BROCK. He had in youth.
All goods belonging to the human heart,
But fell away to Revolution's side -
Impulsive ever, and o'er prompt to see
In kings but tyrants, and in laws but chains.
I have not seen or heard of him for years.

BABY. The very man!

BROCK. 'Tis strange to find him here!

ELLIOTT. He calls the red men freedom's last survival;
Says truth is only found in Nature's growth -
Her first intention, ere false knowledge rose
To frame distinctions, and exhaust the world.