horse on which the general was riding fell
dead, carrying the officer to the ground with him in what looked to be
an ugly fall.

"That's a fool trick!" Darius cried angrily when no other sign of
attack could be seen or heard. "A crazy man must have fired that shot,
which can do no other good than to make the enemy hot to inflict some
punishment!"

We saw a score or more of the escort rush to the assistance of the
officer, while the remainder of the soldiers were wheeled about to
face the dwelling.

I was confident that they would fire a volley into the house, and,
indeed, I could well have excused such a course, considering the
provocation; but instead of this a squad of men were told off to enter
the building, as we saw when the force ran forward on the double-quick
with fixed bayonets.

By this time, as may well be imagined, all our party, with the
exception of my father, were clinging to the timbers of the building
that a view might be had of what was going on outside, and Darius,
ever mindful of others, took it upon himself to keep our invalid
informed of what was being done.

"They've sent a squad of men to clean out the house, I reckon," the
old sailor said for father's benefit. "The officer ain't hurt so but
that he can mount a spare horse which a colonel has just brought him.
Now the two in command are pointin' out the different buildin's; looks
as if they were pickin' out their quarters. There's one thing certain,
fine birds like them won't want to sleep in a smoke-house, so we ain't
likely to be turned out right away."

I interrupted the report by exclaiming aloud in my excitement, for I
saw smoke issuing from the dwelling, which I afterward learned was the
home of Mr. Robert Sewall, and then it was I understood for what
purpose the squad had been sent.

"They've fired the house," Darius continued to my father, "an' without
givin' them who may be livin' there a chance to carry anythin' out.
Soldiers are stationed to prevent the people from tryin' to fight the
flames, an' it wouldn't surprise me if we saw a pretty hot time in
this town."

At this moment a squad of men was sent to the rope-walk, another to
the tavern hard by our place of refuge, and a third to the next
building, which from the sign on its front I knew to be the National
Intelligencer newspaper.

After what we had seen it was not difficult to guess the purpose of
these soldiers, and Darius said to my father:

"They're firin' the r