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An excerpt from The battle of York; ...:
The Parliament had but recently completed its sittings and festivities were still being maintained. A little girl of six narrated that her mother, Mrs. Grant Powell, had issued invitations for a party on the evening of the 26th, the supper table had been laid and she had been dressed to see the company arrive. Only one lady and no gentlemen came, when later on her father hurried in saying the American fleet had been sighted, and he and the other volunteers had been ordered under arms. Then may have come the scene so graphically told by our poet, Charles Mair, in the stirring lines in his Drama of Tecumseh.
"What news afoot? Why every one's afoot and coming here
York's citizens are turned to warriors
The learned professions go a-soldiering
And gentle hearts beat high for Canada.
For, as you pass, on every hand you see
Through the neglected openings of each house
Through doorways, windows, our Canadian maids
Strained by their parting lovers to their breasts,
And loyal matrons busy round their lords
Buckling their arms on, or, with tearful eyes
Kissing them to the war."
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