Page:George Bryce (1907) Laura Secord A Study in Canadian Patriotism.djvu/24

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guinary and so far as Canada was concerned the most successful battle of the war, (July 26, 1814), though it cost so many precious lives. In 1901 the Ontario Historical Society erected a handsome monument over the grave of Laura Secord. Appropriate ceremonies were conducted. I had the pleasure of being present as a guest on that occasion, in the burying ground perhaps the most historic in all Canada. We shall hold the names of our historic dead in grateful remembrance. When can their glory fade! Brave men, and brave and faithful women were they.

"Ah! faithful to death were our women of yore!
Have they fled with the past to be heard of no more?
No. No! Though this laurelled one sleeps in the grave.
We have maidens as true, we have matrons as brave;
And should Canada ever be forced to the test—
To spend for our country the blood of the best—
When her sons lift the linstock and brandish the sword.
Her daughters will think of brave Laura Secord."
Charles Mair.