By all odds, too, the most
tremendous view of the Falls is afforded by the point on the drive whence
you look down upon the Horse-Shoe, and behold its three massive walls of
sea rounding and sweeping into the gulf together, the color gone, and the
smooth brink showing black and ridgy.
Would they not go to the battle-field of Lundy's Lane? asked the driver
at a certain point on their return; but Isabel did not care for
battle-fields, and Basil preferred to keep intact the reminiscence of his
former visit. "They have a sort of tower of observation built on the
battle-ground," he said, as they drove on down by the river, "and it was
in charge of an old Canadian militia-man, who had helped his countrymen
to be beaten in the fight. This hero gave me a simple and unintelligible
account of the battle, asking me first if I had ever heard of General
Scott, and adding without flinching that here he got his earliest
laurels. He seemed to go just so long to every listener, and nothing
could stop him short, so I fell into a revery until he came to an end. It
was hard to remember, that sweet summer morning, when the sun shone, and
the birds sang, and the music of a piano and a girl's voice rose from a
bowery cottage near, that all the pure air had once been tainted with
battle-smoke, that the peaceful fields had been planted with cannon,
instead of potatoes and corn, and that where the cows came down the
farmer's lane, with tinkling bells, the shock of armed men had befallen.
Pages:
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160