Another reminiscence of the sergeant-major gives a trait of Brock's character that was predominant throughout his career. One day he asked Fitz Gibbon why he had not carried out some order, and received for answer that it was impossible to execute it. "By the Lord Harry, sir," said the colonel in wrath, "do not tell me it is impossible. Nothing should be impossible to a soldier; the word 'impossible' should not be found in a soldier's dictionary."
Some time after, at Quebec, when the sergeant-major was an ensign, he was ordered to take a fatigue party to the bateau guard, and bring round to the Lower Town twenty bateaux to embark troops for Montreal. The tide had fallen and there were two hundred yards of mud over which it looked impossible to drag the bateaux, which were large, heavy, flat boats. He thought he would return, but it suddenly occurred to him that the colonel would ask: "Did you try?" He therefore gave the word, "Front!" and said to the soldiers: "I think it impossible for us to put these bateaux afloat, but you know it will not do for me to tell Colonel Brock so, unless we try it. Let us therefore try. There are the boats. I am sure if it be possible for men to put them afloat you will do it. Go at them." In half an hour the work was done. Thus the indomitable spirit of the commander was infused into the men who served under him.
CHAPTER VII
PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
In 1805 Brock was again quartered in Quebec. In August of that year, General Hunter, the acting lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada and commander-in-chief was taken ill and died at Quebec, just after the departure on leave of Sir Robert Millies. His death placed both provinces in a peculiar position. There was neither a governor, commander-in-chief, nor lieutenant-governor in the Canadas. Nor was there a chief justice, for Chief Justice Elmsley, who had succeeded Osgoode at Quebec, had died rather suddenly, while Chief Justice Cochrane, who had taken the former's place in Upper Canada, had been drowned with the solicitor-general and other members of the court by the foundering of the Speedy in Lake Ontario. The country was therefore deprived of almost all its leading officials. To meet the emergency Colonel Bowes of the 6th Regiment, as senior officer, had assumed the military authority and Mr. Thomas Dunn, president of the council, had been appointed civil administrator on the departure of Sir Robert Milnes. In Upper Canada, Mr. Peter Russell, senior councillor, called a meeting of the legislative council, and Mr. Alexander Grant, better known as Commodore Grant, was chosen acting lieutenant-governor. Alexander Grant was a native of Inverness, Scotland, and had served in Amherst's army, under whom he had been appointed to command a small fleet on Lake Erie. His home was at Grosse Point, above Detroit.
In October, 1805, Lieutenant-Colonel Brock was made a full colonel and shortly afterwards returned to England on leave. While there he seized the opportunity to lay before the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief, the scheme he had drawn up for the improvement of the army in Canada. The report was favourably received and some of its recommendations were afterwards carried out.
During the absence of Brock in Canada, some changes had come to his family. His eldest brother John, the brevet lieutenant-colonel of the 81st, and a soldier of great promise, had been killed in 1801 in a duel at the Cape of Good Hope. The second brother had long before been killed in service at Bâton Rouge, on the Mississippi. The third brother, Daniel de Lisle, was now a very important man in Guernsey. In 1795 he had been elected a jurat of the royal court and had been sent as its representative to London in connection with the trade and certain ancient privileges of the island. He was afterwards for many years lieutenant-bailiff or chief magistrate of Guernsey. The next brother, William, was a merchant residing in London and engaged in trade with the Baltic. He was married but had no children, and had taken the keenest interest in his brother Isaac's career, advancing the money when it was required for his various steps. Savery Brock, younger than Isaac, was the one whose exploits have been already related. Irving, the next brother, had literary tastes, was a clever translator, and a writer of pamphlets, some of which were of great merit. The two sisters were both married. Elizabeth to John E. Tupper, of Guernsey; Mary to Thomas Potenger, of Compton, Berkshire. Isaac Brock was tenderly devoted to his family as his many letters show, and his sojourn once more among them filled his heart with joy.
Events in Europe, 1804-5
The years 1804-5 had been eventful ones in Europe. In May, 1804, the first consul had been made by "the grace of God and the constitution of the republic," emperor of the French, and henceforth dropped the name of Bonaparte for that of Napoleon. He was crowned on December 2nd at Paris by the Pope, and afterwards at Milan as king of Italy. In England Pitt was once more at the helm as prime minister.