Neville Trueman the Pioneer Preacher | Page 5

encounter
obloquy and suspicion from both sides, but I must obey my
conscience."
"Young man, I honour your choice," exclaimed the Squire effusively,
grasping his hand with energy. "I know what it is to leave home, and
kindred, and houses and lands for loyalty to my conscience and my
King. I left as fair an estate as there was in the Old Dominion because I
could not live under any other flag than the glorious Union Jack under
which I was born. It was a dislocating wrench to tear myself away from
the home of my childhood and the graves of my parents for an
unknown wilderness. Much were we tossed about by sea and land. Our
ship was wrecked and its passengers strewn like seaweed on the Nova
Scotia coast-- some living and some dead--and at last, after months of
travel and privation, on foot, in ox carts and in Durham boats, we found
our way, I and a few neighbours, to this spot, to hew out new homes in

the forest and keep our oath of allegiance to our King."
The old U. E. Loyalist always grew eloquent as he referred to his exile
for conscience' sake and to the planting by the conscript fathers of
Canada of a new Troy under the aegis of British power.
"I came of regular Yankee stock," said Mr. Trueman. "My mother was
a Neville--one of the Nevilles of Boston. She heard Jesse Lee's first
sermon on Boston Common, and joined the first Methodist society in
the old Bay State. My father was one of Ethan Allen's Green Mountain
Boys, and assisted at the capture of Ticonderoga. He was also a
volunteer at Bunker Hill. It was then he met my mother, being billeted
at her father's house."
"You have rebel blood in you and no mistake," said the Squire.
"I believe the colonists were right in resisting oppression in '76,"
continued Neville; "but I believe they are wrong in invading Canada
now, and I wash my hands of all share in their crime."
"We will not quarrel about the old war," said the veteran loyalist. "The
Gazette here says that many of your countrymen agree with you about
the new one. At the declaration of hostilities the flags of the shipping at
Boston were placed at half-mast and a public meeting denounced the
war as ruinous and unjust."
"I foresee a long and bloody strife," said Neville.
"Neither country will yield without a tremendous struggle. It is
ungenerous to attack Great Britain now, when, as the champion of
human liberty, she is engaged in a death-wrestle with the arch despot
Napoleon."
"But Wellington will soon thrash Boney," interjected Zenas, who was
an ardent admirer of the Peninsular hero, "and then his redcoats will
polish off the Yankees, won't they, father?"
"If you had seen as much of the horrors of war, my boy, as I have, you
would not be so eager for it. God forbid it should deluge this frontier
with blood; but if it do, old as I am, I will shoulder the old Brown Bess
there above the fireplace that your grandfather bore at Brandywine and
Yorktown."
"What I dread most is the effect on religion," said Trueman. "Several of
the Methodist preachers are, like myself, American- born, and we all
are stationed by an American bishop. I am afraid many will go back to
the States, and all will be liable to suspicion as disloyal to this country

by the bigoted and prejudiced. But I shall not forsake my post, nor
leave these people as sheep without a shepherd. If there is to be war and
bloodshed and wounds and sudden death on this frontier circuit, they
will need a preacher all the more, and, God helping me, I'll not desert
them.
"I am a man of peace, and fight not with worldly weapons, but I can,
perhaps, help those who do."
"God bless you for that speech, my brave lad," exclaimed the Squire.
"Nobody questions my loyalty, and if need arise, I'll give you a paper,
signed with my name as a magistrate, that will protect you from harm."
Kate had sat quiet, busily sewing, during this conversation, but her
heightened colour and her quickened breathing bore witness that she
was no uninterested listener. With a look of deep gratitude, she quietly
said, "We are all very much obliged to you, Mr. Neville, for your noble
resolve."
The young man thought that grateful look ample compensation for the
mental sacrifice that he had made, and an inspiration to unfaltering
fidelity in carrying it into effect.
The next morning all was bustle and excitement at the farmhouse. "All
hands were piped," to use a sea phrase, to aid in the revictualling of the
fort, the orders for which were