In answer, they were informed, that as the Major could not be removed, orders had been given by the General for every due care to be taken of him where he now lay, while Miss Montgomerie, yielding to solicitation, had been induced to retire into the family of the American General in the town, there to remain until it should be found convenient to have the whole party conveyed to the next American post on the frontier. CHAPTER XIII. It is difficult to imagine that the English General could in any way have anticipated so easy a conquest. He had no reason to undervalue the resolution of the enemy, and yet he appears to have been fully sanguine of the success of his undertaking. Possibly he counted much on his own decision and judgment, which, added to the confidence reposed in him by all ranks and branches of the expedition, he might have felt fully adequate to the overthrow of the mere difficulty arising from inferiority of numbers. Whatever his motive, or however founded his expectations of success, the service he performed was eminent, since he not merely relieved Amherstburgh, the key of Upper Canada, from all immediate danger, but at a single blow annihilated the American power throughout that extensive frontier. That this bold measure, powerfully contrasted as it was with his own previous vacillation of purpose, had greatly tended to intimidate the American General, and to render him distrustful of his own resources, there can be little doubt. The destructive fire from the well-served breaching batteries, was moreover instanced as an influencing cause of the capitulation; and there can be no question, that a humane consideration for the defenceless town, surrounded by hordes of Indians, had much to do with the decision of the American General. In justice to many officers of rank, and to the garrison generally, it must be admitted that the decision of their leader, if credence might be given to their looks and language, was anything but satisfactory to them, and it must be confessed that it must have been mortifying in the extreme, to have yielded without a blow a fortress so well provided with the means of defence. What the result would have been had the British columns mounted to the assault, it is impossible to say. That they would have done their duty is beyond all question, but there is no reason to believe the Americans, under a suitable commander, would have failed in theirs. Superiority of numbers and position was on the one side; a daring Chief, an ardent desire of distinction, and the impossibility of retreat without humiliation, on the other.