with blood relations in the States, refused point blank to take up arms.
Others were busy harvesting, while not a few came out openly as traitors
and joined the ranks of Hull. Brock had no reinforcements of regular
troops, and small chance of getting any, and, what was far worse, he
received little moral support even from the Legislature, and none from
other sources from which he had a right to expect it. He called an extra
session of the House to enact laws to meet the crisis, to invest him
with greater authority and to vote money for defence. He closed his
Speech from the Throne with a declaration delivered in sonorous, ringing
tones that echoed throughout the chamber:

"We are engaged in an awful and eventful contest. By unanimity and
vigour we may teach the enemy this lesson, that a country defended by
free men, devoted to the cause of their King and constitution, can never
be conquered."

Though Brock's speech "inspired the faithful and foiled the designs of
some of the faithless," his demands were conceded in part only, and he
left for Fort George with heart filled with misgivings. In answer to his
request, Prevost declined to define the extent of the authority with
which he had himself vested him. Extreme measures, he told him, must be
taken at his own risk. Our hero was one of those limited few who had
sounded the depths of the truth that it was easier to do one's duty than
to know it. His shrewdness and self-reliance came to the rescue. Seeing
that the Niagara River would be selected as the point for invasion, he
made it his _defensive_ frontier, while the Detroit River was the
_offensive_ front of his campaign. These views he outlined to his staff
on the night following the prorogation of the House.

Judge Powell, after a long session of Council, the last to depart, was