On the 31st Sir George wrote again: "I had scarcely closed the letter addressed to you yesterday when an aide-de-camp from Major-General Dearborn {270} made his appearance and delivered to me the despatch herewith transmitted." The despatch announced that the president of the United States had not thought proper to authorize a continuance of the provisional measure entered into by His Excellency and General Dearborn, through the Adjutant-General Colonel Baynes; consequently, the armistice was to cease four days from the time of the communication reaching Montreal and the posts of Kingston and Fort George. This despatch had been written while the authorities at Washington were in ignorance of what had happened at Detroit, for it said: "If a suspension of offensive operations shall have been mutually consented to between General Hull and the commanding officer of the British forces at and near Detroit, as proposed, they will respectively be authorized at the expiration of four days, subsequent to their receiving copies of this communication, to consider themselves released from any agreement thus entered into." General Brock adds a postscript on September 4th to the letter to his brother: "Hostilities, I this instant understand, are to be renewed in four days, and though landed only two hours I must return immediately to Niagara, whence I shall write fully." General Brock was of the opinion that an expedition should be immediately sent to Sacketts Harbour, thirty-five miles across the lake from Kingston, in order to destroy the arsenal there, {271} but Sir George Prevost disapproved. The official intelligence of the president's refusal to continue the truce reached the commander-in-chief at Montreal on August 30th, a day or two before the arrival there of Captain Glegg with the trophies and the despatches relating to the capture of Detroit. The attack on Sacketts Harbour could have been carried into effect immediately on the cessation of the armistice, but the opportunity was allowed to pass. In fact, in his general order of August 31st, Sir George Prevost was rather apologetic for having dared to invade the territory of the United States. [Sidenote: The British government]