Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the CanadasLizars, Robina
History
Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the Canadas
Lizars, Robina
Canada -- History -- Rebellion, 1837-1838
At one of the stopping-places of his former travels he had “felt his
patriotism gain force upon the plains of Marathon.” It now took the
persistent efforts of three messengers to oust him from a feather bed.
Colonel Moodie had lost his life trying to ride through the rebel
ranks to do this same service, and Colonel FitzGibbon lost no time
in warning all, governor and citizens alike. When Sir Francis was
inquired for at Government House at ten o’clock, Mrs. Dalrymple, his
sister-in-law, reported that the Governor was fatigued and already
asleep. FitzGibbon, restless and disturbed, feeling that he could never
sleep again, insisted; and the hero of active service in Spain, the
spectator of Waterloo and Quatre Bras, appeared in his dressing-gown,
concealed his irritation as best he might, and got back to bed as
quickly as possible. “What is all this noise about,” asked Judge Jonas
Jones, who also did not like disturbance; “who desired you to call me?
Colonel FitzGibbon? The zeal of that man is giving us a great deal of
unnecessary trouble.”
About an hour earlier, John Powell, a magistrate who had been busy
swearing in special constables, went on horseback with some other
volunteers to patrol the northern approaches to the city. At the
rise of the Blue Hill Mackenzie and two others were met, the first
armed with a large horse pistol, the others with rifles. Powell was
not only taken prisoner, but was told “they would let Bond Head know
something before long,” that “they had borne tyranny and oppression too
long, and were now determined to have a government of their own.” A
fellow-prisoner told Powell of the death of Colonel Moodie, put spurs
to his horse and managed to escape. Confident that the city’s safety
now depended on his own ability to elude his captors, Powell essayed to
do the same, but was told by one of them, Anderson, he “would drive a
ball through” him. Then followed the incident which has been described
as Anderson’s fall from his horse and picked up with neck broken, as
“an atrocious murder,” “a victim to Powell’s treachery,” and as a
self-deliverance from those whom he believed to be common assassins.
When questioned as to his arms he had replied that he had none, a
denial refuted shortly afterwards when he drew the pistols given him
by a bailiff on leaving the City Hall. Mackenzie had doubted his word,
but the statement was repeated. He replied, “Then, gentlemen, as you
are my townsmen and men of honour, I should be ashamed to show that
I question your word by ordering you to be searched.” Powell, in his
account, allows no such quixotic courtesy, and says he heard nothing
but mutterings of dissatisfaction. Then, not two feet from Anderson,
Powell suddenly reined back his horse, drew a pistol and fired. The
shot struck Anderson in the back of his neck; he fell like a sack--the
spinal cord was severed and death must have been instantaneous. To
wheel about, ride at a breakneck pace, pass Mackenzie himself, hear the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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