half-mast and a public meeting denounced the war as ruinous and
unjust."

"I foresee a long and bloody strife," said Neville.

"Neither country will yield without a tremendous struggle. It is
ungenerous to attack Great Britain now, when, as the champion of
human liberty, she is engaged in a death-wrestle with the arch
despot Napoleon."

"But Wellington will soon thrash Boney," interjected Zenas, who
was an ardent admirer of the Peninsular hero, "and then his
redcoats will polish off the Yankees, won't they, father?"

"If you had seen as much of the horrors of war, my boy, as I have,
you would not be so eager for it. God forbid it should deluge this
frontier with blood; but if it do, old as I am, I will shoulder
the old Brown Bess there above the fireplace that your grandfather
bore at Brandywine and Yorktown."

"What I dread most is the effect on religion," said Trueman.
"Several of the Methodist preachers are, like myself, American-
born, and we all are stationed by an American bishop. I am afraid
many will go back to the States, and all will be liable to
suspicion as disloyal to this country by the bigoted and
prejudiced. But I shall not forsake my post, nor leave these
people as sheep without a shepherd. If there is to be war and
bloodshed and wounds and sudden death on this frontier circuit,
they will need a preacher all the more, and, God helping me, I'll
not desert them.