e stood, is compact and regular, containing, I should
conceive, at least twenty thousand souls within itself; nor can
the population of the other quarters be estimated at less than
double that number.

Such was then the city of Washington, of which our hasty and
unfriendly visit did not allow us to take a very minute survey.
I return now to the movements of the British army.

I have stated above that our troops were this day kept as much
together as possible upon the Capitol Hill. But it was not alone
on account of the completion of their destructive labours that
this was done. A powerful army of Americans already began to show
themselves upon some heights, at the distance of two or three
miles from the city; and as they sent out detachments of horse
even to the very suburbs, for the purpose of watching our
motions, it would have been unsafe to permit more straggling than
was absolutely necessary. The army which we had overthrown the
day before, though defeated, was far from annihilated; it had by
this time recovered its panic, began to concentrate itself in our
front, and presented quite as formidable an appearance as
ever. We learnt, also, that it was joined by a considerable force
from the back settlements, which had arrived too late to take
part in the action, and the report was, that both combined
amounted to nearly twelve thousand men.

Whether or not it was their intention to attack, I cannot pretend
to say, because it was noon before they showed themselves; and
soon after, when something like a movement could be discerned in
their ranks, the sky grew suddenly dark, and the most tremendous
hurricane ever remembered by the oldest inhabitant in the place
came on. Of the prodigious force of the wind it is impossible
for one who was not an eye-witness to its effects to form a
conception. Roofs of houses were torn off by it, and whirled
into the air like sheets of paper; whilst the rain which
accompanied it resembled the rushing of a mighty cataract rather
than the dropping of a shower. The darkness was as great as if
the sun had long set, and the last remains of twilight had come
on, occasionally relieved by flashes of vivid lightning streaming
through it; which, together with the noise of the wind and the
thunder, the crash of falling buildings, and the tearing of roofs
as they were stript from the walls, produced the most appalling
effect I ever have, and probably ever shall, witness. The storm
lasted