Page:George Bryce (1907) Laura Secord A Study in Canadian Patriotism.djvu/19

 But she was a woman of decision.

On one occasion the American soldiers had planned to rob her. She had a store of Spanish doubloons which she inherited and they knew it. She threw the coins into the blazing cauldron of water which hung over the blazing fire, and thus saved them.

She was a woman of few words, and with her husband's consent unwillingly given laid her plan.

She rose at early dawn on June 23. Although above the peasant garb which she assumed, yet without compunction she dressed in a short flannel skirt and cotton jacket, and without shoes and stockings started through the dewy herbage.

Though the story of her milkmaid dress is denied (the cow and milkpail being declared a fable) yet it is still believed. She sought her cow, the story goes, and secretly prodding it while pretending to milk it passed the American sentry. One report is that she carried a bunch of violets which she gave the sentry, but this seems somewhat apocryphal. Another explanation is that she gained permission to see her sick brother Charles who was at St. David's. But passion and inspiration find their own means, and she reached St. David's at sunrise. Her friends at St. David's dissuaded her, but it was useless. It is said that her niece, Elizabeth Secord, accompanied her for seven miles by road until Twelve Mile Creek was reached, but could go no further. This seems unlikely as a letter signed by herself says that American sentries were ten miles out from Fort George. This made it necessary for her to leave the public road. She also desired to avoid De Haren's post, lest there she should be delayed. Through the tangle wood of the pristine forest she made her way. Mrs. Curzon has dramatically represented the meeting of Mrs. Secord with a rattlesnake, which she addressed "Is there no Eden that thou enviest not?" Again she is disturbed by the howling of the wolves, only to say:

Thank God not me they seek

Some other scent allures the ghoulish horde?

She believes herself to be the child of favorable destiny.

The British line was connected by sentries from De Haren's command at Twelve Mile Creek up to the Indian encampment, and this with Fitzgibbon at De Cew's house.

Footsore and discouraged after some ten miles of a circuit through the woods, she came upon a British sentry. To him, however, she was able to disclose her errand. He passed her on upon her journey, warning her of the Indians whom she would encounter.