The prisoner of the border :: :: University of Virginia Library

Both towns, of course, became at once the scene of the utmost
excitement—for it was evident to all that Fort Wellington was the
point of attack, and thousands of people thronged the shores upon
either side of the river, anxious to witness so momentous an event
and rife with conjectures as to its issue.

On the American side, however, all were not idle spectators.
Captain B., of the United States, had taken the first opportunity
of washing his hands of guilt, by stopping at Morristown, and giving
notice to the authorities of the movement in which he had
been made to play so important, yet so unwilling a part, and an
express had been dispatched by land to Ogdensburgh, in order that
measures might be taken there to intercept the schooners, or at
least to prevent their receiving accessions to their numbers.

This precaution had operated very differently from the design
of its originators. No sooner had the United States reached her
wharf at Ogdensburgh, where she arrived soon after the express,
than a multitude of people rushed with loud shouts on board, took
forcible possession of her, and started out to the relief of the
grounded vessel. This movement was met by a corresponding
one from the watchful citizens of Prescott, at whose wharves a
steamboat was also lying. The Experiment (such was her name)
had either been armed in anticipation of an attack, or was temporarily

supplied with a piece of ordnance from the town, with
which she greeted the American steamer several times, a compliment
which the latter was unfortunately unable to return, nor
could she, on account of the shallowness of the water, get near
enough to the disabled vessel to render effectual assistance. But she
passed down the river about a mile, to Windmill Point, on the
Canadian side, where the other schooner had preceded her, which
latter vessel, after landing her forces, returned to attempt to take
off the men from her grounded consort.

The United States accompanied, and covered the schooner from
the fire of the Experiment, which followed both at a prudent distance;
but in the meantime, the excited populace on the American
side were preparing other help for the invaders. A small steam
ferry-boat, which plied between Prescott and Ogdensburgh, well-manned,
and provided with small arms, was sent out to the relief
of the stationary schooner, which she succeeded in hauling off,
under a brisk fire from the Experiment, returning the salute with
muskets and rifles, at the expense of seven lives to the enemy.

The United States, meanwhile, returned to Windmill Point,
landed between one and two hundred of her men, and, with a small
remainder, returned to Ogdensburgh, where she was surrendered to
her owners, and, to the signal dismay of her neutral captain, was
immediately afterwards seized by the government.

Among those who had been most forward in this initiatory step
of the war, whose courage and skill had been most conspicuous, who
had seemed everywhere present at once, who had animated and
inspired all hearts with his own enthusiasm, was the hero of the
thousand isles, William Johnson. He had now returned in the
United States, and proceeded to earnestly harangue the populace,
urging and beseeching them to go with him, and join the few
hundreds who had already effected a landing on the other side.
He succeeded in inducing some, at different times in the course of
the day, to cross with him in the schooners, but rumors of a most

extraordinary defection from the little army, in the persons of their
principal leaders, began to prevail, carrying dismay to the hearts
of all the active friends of the cause.

B— and E— had re-crossed, like the brave Johnson, to
Ogdensburgh with the design, or pretence, of urging the large
number of patriots assembled there to cross and join their comrades,
but the former of these individuals was either taken suddenly
ill, or feigned illness, and both proved inaccessible to their friends
on reaching the American shore. They either departed, or remained
concealed, leaving the brave Van Shoultz alone to conduct their
perilous enterprise, with little chance of farther accessions from
the American shore, and deprived even of a large portion of the
military stores which had been prepared for the expedition.

The little band of invaders, meanwhile, unconscious that they
were deserted, and expecting hourly the return of the schooners,
with their leaders and their allies, proceeded to strengthen their
position at Windmill Point, and to prepare for the coming contest.
They took possession of the Windmill, and of several other
large stone buildings, and awaited with sanguine expectation, not
only the approach of their American friends, but the accession of
that coming multitude of Canadian patriots, whom they believed to
be hastening to their standard.

When the desertion of two of their leaders, and the loss of a
large portion of their stores, became known, they were saddened
indeed, but by no means in despair. The greater, they thought,
would be the honor of the Spartan few who maintained their proud
position, and became the rallying point of a nation's oppressed and
uprising masses.

Colonel Van Shoultz proved equal to his responsible position;
he had officers and men of indomitable courage around him, and
his gallant ally, Johnson, seemed in himself a host, so great was
the influence of his name and of his dauntless demeanor.

But it is time to speak more in detail of the immediate subjects

of our narrative, whose fortunes were so intimately connected with
the events of the war. Harry Vrail's intimacy with Colonel Van
Shoultz had resulted in keeping both himself and his brother near
that officer while on board the vessel, and with him they had been
among the first to set foot on the enemy's shore. When the Polander
found himself chief in command, he consulted his young
friend frequently in his movements, and he would gladly have elevated
him to a position near himself in authority, if he had been
able to do so, but he did not feel at liberty to disturb the settled
orders of rank in his little band. In the division of forces, the
Vrails became attached to a party under the command of Col.
Allen, which was stationed in a stone store-house, that, like the
Windmill, served to some extent the purpose of a fort, and Brom,
to his great delight, found himself in no danger of a separation
from his chosen master.

But there was another member of the invading army who found
less cause for exultation. Barak Jones had made some mistake in
regard to his expected opportunity for leaving the schooner and
landing at Ogdensburgh and to his great dismay he found himself on
British soil, in company with the men whom his eager persuasions
had induced to enlist. He would have returned when B— and
E— went back, but he had been so terrified while on board the
United States, by the pursuit of the Experiment, and by the cannonading
from that vessel, that he did not dare to attempt to recross
while she was lying in the river, waiting to renew the attack.

There were other opportunities for escape on the first day, in
the schooner with which Commodore Johnson crossed several
times, bringing over recruits, but here the danger was equally
great, and was magnified tenfold by his fears. Yet he would have
run the risk of returning, in preference to remaining, if he had not
been induced to believe, probably by some of his proselytes, who
despised his pusillanimity and wished to detain him, that there
would be a chance to cross in the schooner at night, when darkness

would shield it from any serious attack. That opportunity
of course, did not come, and Barak, more dead than alive, remained
in the camp, not in any recognized military capacity, nor
directly attached to any division of the troops, but selecting his
quarters with those whom he thought most safely stationed, and
most remote from the danger of a first attack.

Thomas Vrail's ardor for the war had considerably cooled, and
he chafed not a little at serving merely as a private, while carrying
a captain's commission in his pocket. Yet he continued sanguine
of soon seeing himself at the head of a valiant company,
and one of the laurelled victors in the great revolution at hand.

Harry, although more skeptical, was not without similar hopes.
He knew well that the spirit of rebellion extended far and wide
throughout the Canadas, and he could not doubt the information
which had come from so many seemingly authentic sources, that
the people had already flocked by myriads to the standard of revolt.
Rumors of approaching armies began to reach them, almost
from the moment they touched Canadian soil, and they were hourly
excited and tantalized by these fallacious tidings. In the meantime,
the provincial government was not idle. If the friends of
the patriots were tardy, their enemies were not. The garrison
was increasing at Fort Wellington, troops were pouring into Prescott,
and armed vessels made their appearance in the river.
Everything, indeed, indicated that the enemy were not going to
await an attack from the invaders, but that they were about to
take the initiative step in the approaching hostilities.

Harry Vrail's judgment was too clear to overlook the perilous
position in which his comrades and himself were placed. He saw
how disastrous must be the result, if their landing should prove to
be premature, and if they should fail to effect a speedy junction
with the insurgent forces of the provinces. Very valorous he
knew their little army to be, but he was not visionary enough to
expect that, few as they were, and imperfectly provided with military

stores, they could maintain themselves against the tenfold
force which would speedily be brought against them, and which, if
insufficient, could easily be increased yet tenfold more.

But Harry did not quail. He had chosen his part, perhaps mistakingly,
but he was a man in the broadest acceptation of that significant
word. He was prepared to do his full duty to the cause
which he had espoused, and to endure whatever destiny it might
entail upon him. If he saw the danger, he did not proclaim it;
his voice and mien was everywhere that of the courageous and
ardent soldier, who, if he did not achieve, would at least deserve
success. He knew that help might come in time to save them,
and he acted like one who believed it would. To Colonel Van
Shoultz alone, in their most private consultations, did he disclose
his full views, and in the mind of that brave, but discreet man, he
found them fully reflected.