had even heard of the capture of Detroit, Isaac, unknown to them, was at
that moment lying cold in death within the cavalier bastion at Fort
George.

Little York was now Brock's headquarters. He built dockyards to shelter
His Majesty's navy, which consisted of two small vessels! He planned new
Parliament Buildings and an arsenal, prepared township maps showing
roads and trails, fords and bridges, all of which latter were in a
shocking condition. At York the timber and brushwood was so dense that
travel between the garrison and town was actually by water. His mind
made up that war with the United States was inevitable, he was
confronted with crucial questions demanding instant solution. Chief of
these was the defence of the frontier, 1,300 miles in length, which
entailed repairs of the boundary forts, the raising of a reliable
militia, the increase of the regular troops, the building of more
gunboats, and the solving of the Indian problem.

[Illustration: BUTLER'S BARRACKS (OFFICERS' QUARTERS), NIAGARA COMMON]




CHAPTER XIII.

THE WAR CLOUD.


A President of the United States had breezily declared that the conquest
of Canada would be "a mere matter of marching." The final expulsion of
England from the American continent he regarded as a matter of course.