Page:George Bryce (1907) Laura Secord A Study in Canadian Patriotism.djvu/23

 and I dreaded at the time that she must suffer in health in consequence of fatigue and anxiety, she having been exposed to danger from the enemy, through whose line of communication she had to pass. The attempt was made on my detachment by the enemy, this detachment, consisting of upwards of 500 men, with a field piece and fifty dragoons, was captured in consequence. I write this certificate in a moment of much hurry and from memory, and it is therefore thus brief.

(Signed)JAMES FITZGIBBON. Formerly Lieutenant in the 49th Regiment. LATER DAYS

Laura Secord lived for fifty-five years after this eventful journey. Her husband who never wholly recovered from his wounds became Collector of Customs, and survived this time of storm and battle for twenty-eight years.

Of Mrs. Secord's family four daughters married, and two were unmarried. One son Charles, a well known barrister, lived till 1872, and one of Charles Secord's daughters, Mrs. Isaac Cockburn has been a resident of Winnipeg for a number of years.

She remembers her grand mother and says: "She was of fair complexion, with kind brown eyes, a sweet and loving smile hovering about the mouth. This did not denote weakness.  She was five feet four inches tall, and slight in form."

Mrs. Cockburn further says: "My grand mother was a woman of strong personality and character, and her word carried great weight with it. She was a great favorite with young people, who on returning from school for their holidays, would say after a brief time in the house, "Now we must go and see Mrs. Secord."

When the Prince of Wales, our present King, visited Canada in 1860, the veterans presented him with an address signing their names to it. Laura Secord insisted on signing hers also, as being one of them. The Prince of Wales hearing of her great service to the Empire, asked more fully of her, of this she was very proud, and all the more when she afterwards received from him, on his return to England the sum of £100 sterling.

Full of years (93) and honors, Mrs. Secord passed away, and was laid beside her husband in the burying ground of Lundy's Lane, or Drummondville, or still again Niagara Falls South, as it is called. This burying ground was surely suitable for the last resting place of one who had gone through so many of the storms of life, for it was the old battlefield of Lundy's Lane, the most