om, whilst in the kitchen were others answerable
to them in every respect. Spits loaded with joints of various
sorts turned before the fire; pots, saucepans, and other culinary
utensils stood upon the grate; and all the other requisites for
an elegant and substantial repast were in the exact state which
indicated that they had been lately and precipitately abandoned.

The reader will easily believe that these preparations were
beheld, by a party of hungry soldiers, with no indifferent
eye. An elegant dinner, even though considerably over-dressed,
was a luxury to which few of them, at least for some time back,
had been accustomed; and which, after the dangers and fatigues
of the day, appeared peculiarly inviting. They sat down to it,
therefore, not indeed in the most orderly manner, but with
countenances which would not have disgraced a party of aldermen
at a civic feast; and having satisfied their appetites with fewer
complaints than would have probably escaped their rival
gourmands, and partaken pretty freely of the wines, they finished
by setting fire to the house which had so liberally entertained
them.

I have said that to the inhabitants of Washington this was a
night of terror and dismay. From whatever cause the confidence
arose, certain it is that they expected anything rather than the
arrival among them of a British army; and their consternation was
proportionate to their previous feeling of security, when an
event, so little anticipated, actually came to pass. The first
impulse naturally prompted them to fly, and the streets were
speedily crowded with soldiers and senators, men, women, and
children, horses, carriages, and carts loaded with household
furniture, all hastening towards a wooden bridge which crosses
the Potomac. The confusion thus occasioned was terrible, and the
crowd upon the bridge was such as to endanger its giving way.
But Mr. Maddison, as is affirmed, having escaped among the first,
was no sooner safe on the opposite bank of the river, than he
gave orders that the bridge should be broken down; which being
obeyed, the rest were obliged to return, and to trust to the
clemency of the victors.

In this manner was the night passed by both parties; and at
daybreak next morning the light brigade moved into the city,
whilst the reserve fell back to a height about half a mile in the
rear. Little, however, now remained to be done, because
everything marked out for destruction was already co