The Canadian Brothers; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled: A Tale of the Late American War — Volume 2Richardson, Major (John)
History
The Canadian Brothers; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled: A Tale of the Late American War — Volume 2
Richardson, Major (John)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction; War stories
girl, discontinued all allusion to the subject. But
Henry's anxiety was not the less poignant from being
confined within his own breast, and although it gratified
him to find that flattering mention was frequently made
of his brother at the mess-table, coupled with regret
for his absence, it was reserved for his hours of privacy
and abstraction to dwell upon the fears which daily became
more harrassing and perplexing.
On the present occasion, even while his brother officers
had thought nor ear but for the terrible tempest that
raged without, and at one moment threatened to bury them
beneath the trembling roof, the mind of Henry was full
of his absent brother, whom, more than ever, he now seemed
to regret, from the association of the howling tempest
with the wild element on which he had last beheld him;
and so complete at length had become the ascendancy of
his melancholy, that when the storm had been in some
degree stilled, and the rain abated, he look an early
leave of his companions, with a view to indulge in privacy
the gloomy feelings by which be felt himself oppressed.
In passing through the gate of the Fort, on his way into
the town, his attention was arrested by several groups
of persons, consisting of soldiers, Indians, and
inhabitants, who, notwithstanding the inclemency of the
hour, were gathered on the high bank in front of the
demi-lune battery, eagerly bending their gaze upon the
riser. Half curious to know what could have attracted
them in such weather from shelter, Henry advanced and
mingled in the crowd, which gave way at his approach.
Although the fury of the tempest had spent itself, there
was still wind enough to render it a matter of necessary
precaution that the bystanders should secure a firm
footing on the bank, while the water, violently agitated
and covered with foam, resembled rather a pigmy sea than
an inland river--so unusual and so vast were its waves.
The current, moreover, increased in strength by the sudden
swelling of the waters, dashed furiously down, giving
its direction to the leaping billows that rode impatiently
upon its surface; and at the point of intersection by
the island of Bois Blanc, formed so violent an eddy within
twenty feet of the land, as to produce the effect of a
whirlpool, while again, between the island and the Canadian
shore, the current, always rapid and of great force, flew
boiling down its channel, and with a violence almost
quadrupled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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