Fleurs De Lys, and Other Poems Part 13

LACHINE.

Misled by the information given him by the Indians, and also by the size of the St. Lawrence, Jacques Cartier [La Salle?] gave to Lachine its present name, thinking that by it a western pa.s.sage to China was possible. The Canadian Pacific Railway has furnished this pa.s.sage by land, and now a large portion of China's merchandise comes overland to Montreal for s.h.i.+pment to Europe.

DE SALABERRY AT CHATEAUGUAY.

During the Anglo-American War of 1812, the brunt of the fighting fell upon the Canadian Volunteers, and one of their most notable exploits is that which I have striven to portray in this poem. Hearing of the advance of the Americans, De Salaberry, with 400 Voltigeurs, entrenched himself at the junction of the Chateauguay and Outarde rivers, not many miles from Montreal. On the morning of October the 26th, this little band of heroes was attacked by 3,500 Americans. In spite of the most determined bravery, the Canadians would have been overcome by sheer force of numbers, but for the ruse described in the poem, a.s.sisted by a rapid discharge of musketry from new ambuscades. The Americans withdrew, and Lower Canada was saved.

TENNYSON.

This poem was written shortly after the appearance of "Sixty Years After," by Lord Tennyson, and while the critics on both sides of the Atlantic were, for the most part, tearing him to pieces.

A GREATER THAN HE.

Glooskap is to the Pen.o.bscot Indians much what Hiawatha was to those of Longfellow's wonderful poem. He is supposed to be making arrows in a long hut, waiting for the time, when, like Barbarossa, he shall come to save his countrymen. The only time that he was defeated was when he strove to conquer a baby. The story will be found in C. G. Leland's _Algonquin Legends_.

DAUNTLESS.

This is a true episode of the Hungarian rebellion of 1849. The young man's name was Ferenz Renyi, and he died recently in the asylum at Buda-Pesth. Haynau was attacked in Barclay's Brewery, London, in 1850, for cruelties of this kind, and barely escaped with his life from the infuriated employes.