through the smoke to see if the
flag was still flying.

These two men were in the strangest place that could be imagined. They
were in a little American vessel fast moored to the side of the British
admiral's flagship. A Maryland doctor had been seized as a prisoner by
the British, and the President had given permission for them to go out
under a flag of truce, to ask for his release. The British commander
finally decided that the prisoner might be set free; but he had no
idea of allowing the two men to go back to the city and carry any
information. "Until the attack on Baltimore is ended, you and your boat
must remain here," he said.

The firing went on. As long as daylight lasted they could catch glimpses
of the Stars and Stripes whenever the wind swayed the clouds of smoke.
When night came they could still see the banner now and then by the
blaze of the cannon. A little after midnight the firing stopped. The two
men paced up and down the deck, straining their eyes to see if the flag
was still flying. "Can the fort have surrendered?" they questioned. "Oh,
if morning would only come!"

At last the faint gray of dawn appeared. They could see that some flag
was flying, but it was too dark to tell which. More and more eagerly
they gazed. It grew lighter, a sudden breath of wind caught the flag,
and it floated out on the breeze. It was no English flag, it was their
own Stars and Stripes. The fort had stood, the city was safe. Then it
was that Key took from his pocket an old letter and on the back of it he
wrote the poem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The British departed, and the little American boat went back to the
city. Mr. Key gave a copy of the poem to his uncle, who had been helping
to defend the fort. The uncle sent it to the printer, and had it struck
off on some handbills. Before the ink was dry the printer caught up one
and hurried away to a restaurant, where many patriots were assembled.
Waving the paper, he cried, "Listen to this!" and he read:--

"O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous
fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and