ope-walk now, an' it looks as if the whole city
might go."

"Surely the British wouldn't do so barbarous a deed!" my father
exclaimed. "War isn't carried on in that way these days."

"It seems to be goin' so now. There comes the smoke from the tavern,
an' men are stationed to prevent the people from savin' anything. How
about it, lads? If we had spent our last cent hirin' a room there, the
smoke would be forcin' us out by this time, an' we'd soon find
ourselves prisoners in the hands of such as stand ready to burn a city
where are mostly women an' children!"

"It's not certain but that we'll be forced out as it is!" I exclaimed.
"When the tavern barns get afire this smoke-house stands a good
chance of burning."

"It may be, lad; but the wind draws in on the other side, an' I'm
allowin' that this shanty, small as it is, won't come to harm, though
if it does go, we'll try to keep our upper lips stiff so the
villainous red-coats shan't have a chance to crow over us very much."

We saw the men comprising the escort now break ranks, each going,
apparently, where he pleased, and Darius cried in anger:

"It is to be a reg'lar sack of the city, such as we're told they had
in the old times, when men were reckoned as bein' little better than
brutes! Work like this will count big for the Britishers before the
other nations of the world! There goes a crowd of soldiers into the
little shop beyond the tavern; they're plunderin' it in piratical
style! See 'em throw the goods out into the street! The red-coats from
the encampment, scentin' booty, are comin' up by the hundreds!"

From where we were perched it was possible to see three shops, and by
the time the tavern was well afire no less than five hundred men had
robbed these, tramping into the dirt such goods as they did not want
to carry away, and then the buildings were set on fire.

Verily it was a barbarous sack of the city!

Then it was, when the flames from the buildings of which I have spoken
were mounting high in the sky, that I observed the commander order up
a full company of soldiers. It was possible to see, for although night
had come the fire lighted up surrounding objects as at noonday, that
he gave them orders at great length, after which they started off
toward the Capitol at full speed.

"They're goin' to burn the government buildin's!" Darius cried for my
father's benefit. "A hundred or more have been detailed to do the
work, an' the commanders are watc