forward in order that he
might see we understood somewhat of the respect due a commander.

CHAPTER XII.

SUSPENSE.

It is now in my mind to set down what may be dry reading for some who
chance to see this labor of love on which I am engaged, and yet if any
one desires to know exactly why it was the Britishers could destroy
the capital of our country, and come off very nearly scot-free, it is
absolutely necessary to become familiar with all our means of defense
at this time.

Therefore it is that I shall copy that which was published many years
later, by Mr. Lossing in his "War of 1812," and in so doing the reader
will ask how it is that I am writing this poor apology for a tale in
the year of grace 1814, and yet putting into it facts which were made
public many years later?

The answer to the riddle is not as puzzling as it would seem. I am now
man grown, with children of my own. Many years ago I put together this
story, and to-day, desiring that my own boys may read it, I am running
over the leaves to add here or there that which may make plain what
I, a lad of seventeen years, overlooked at the time, or believed to be
of little importance. How strange it is that the same thing appears
entirely different when viewed from the standpoints of a man and a
lad!

This is what Mr. Lossing says concerning the time of which I wrote
when everything was fresh in my mind, and the sense of a wrong done
this country by England still rankling deep in my heart:

"On the 6th of August (1814) the small British squadron in the
Chesapeake was reinforced by a fleet of twenty-one vessels
under Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, the senior commander on
the American station. These were soon joined by another under
Commodore Sir Charles Malcolm. These vessels bore several
thousand land troops commanded by General Ross, an Irish
officer, and one of Wellington's most active leaders.
Washington and Baltimore appear to have been chosen objects of
attack simultaneously. A part of the British naval force, under
Sir Peter Parker, went up the Chesapeake toward Baltimore, and
another portion, under Captain Gordon, went up the Potomac.

"At that time Commodore Barney, with a flotilla of thirteen
armed barges and the schooner Scorpion, with an aggregate of
about five hundred men, was in the Patuxent river. His vessels
had been chased out of the Chesapeake, and bloc