be exposed to a cross fire. The troops were drawn
up in three straight lines, like so many regiments upon a gala
parade; whilst the guns were used as connecting links to a chain,
being posted in the same order, by ones and twos, at every
interval.

In maintaining themselves, likewise, when attacked, they exhibited
neither skill nor resolution. Of the personal courage of the Americans
there can be no doubt; they are, individually taken, as brave a nation
as any in the world. But they are not soldiers; they have not the
experience nor the habits of soldiers. It was the height of folly,
therefore, to bring them into a situation where nothing except that
experience and those habits will avail; and it is on this account that
I repeat what I have already said, that the capture of Washington was
more owing to the blindness of the Americans themselves than to any
other cause.

CHAPTER XII.

ALEXANDRIA

WHILST the army was thus actively employed, the fleet did not remain
idle. A squadron of frigates, with two bomb-ships, under the command
of Captain Gordon, of the Sea-horse, penetrated up the Potomac, and
appeared before Alexandria. The whole of the militia of the district
was at this time called away for the defence of the capital,
consequently no place could be less prepared to resist an invader
than that city. A party accordingly landed from the ships without
opposition, and having destroyed the barracks, public works, and all
the cannon which they found on shore, they seized a number of
schooners and other small craft then lying in the harbour, and loading
them with flour and tobacco to a considerable amount, prepared to
rejoin the fleet in the bay.

But by this time the country was alarmed; a detachment was sent from
the main army, and being joined by the reserve of militia, it was
determined to intercept the squadron on its return. With this view,
several pieces of heavy cannon were mounted upon a steep part of the
bank, where the river, in making an angle, narrows considerably in its
channel. Thither also hastened large bodies of infantry; and before
the frigates had begun to weigh anchor nearly 5000 men were assembled
to prevent their passage.

Of these preparations Captain Gordon did not long remain ignorant; nor
was he backward in making the best arrangements possible to meet the
danger. By shifting the ballast in each of the vessels entirely to
one side, he caused them to lean in such a manner as