As I have said, we expected momentarily to see the English squadron, and knew full well that it could not be successfully opposed by us; but yet we did not fold our hands in idleness. The guard-boats at the entrance of the bay, just inside the bar, were redoubled, and orders given that three musket-shots should be fired when the enemy hove in sight. The ship-carpenters were set at work building a blockhouse on the bluff east of Cascade Creek, to protect the shipyard, and such of the citizens as had not fled in terror were detailed to put up a redoubt on the heights commanding the bar, the same to be called Fort Wayne. Captain Perry sent messengers to Major-General Mead, at Meadville, asking that he order a body of militia to our aid with the least possible delay, and received from him the cheering intelligence that all men who could be spared should be set in motion at once. The brigs and the schooners were moored near the shipyard, for no attempt at taking them over the bar was to be made until we had a sufficient number of sailors to man them; but the gunboats were fully armed, and anchored off Hospital Point, because, owing to their light draught, they could leave the bay at almost any time. Alec and I, with many another lad, were ordered to labor at Fort Wayne; but it was understood that in case of an attack we should repair on board one of the gunboats without delay, and we knew that while the force of defenders was so small there would be no protest made, either by Captain Perry or my father, against our doing whatever might be possible in event of an engagement. Such was the condition of affairs with us on the morning of July 21. There was not an idler in the town, for the cowardly and indolent had long since fled to safer quarters, and as we worked with a will at whatever our hands found to do, every ear was pricked up for the signal which would tell that the enemy had at last decided to give us a taste of his quality. Although expecting it, when the signal was sounded we were taken by surprise, so to speak. It was nine o’clock in the morning when the reports of the muskets rang out on the warm, still air with a volume of noise which caused them to seem as loud as cannon, and the tools dropped from nearly every man’s hands as he sprang to the highest point of land in order to gain a good view of the lake. Alec Perry and I did not follow the throng that flocked to the summit of the heights; but, without so much as a single glance seaward, sped swiftly toward the old French fort, where we knew would be found a boat, and our only fear was lest the gunboats should leave the bay before we could board one of them.