warning neither he nor any one else made any
adequate effort to shut it, and wide open it
still stood on that fatal day in August when the
British fleet appeared in Chesapeake Bay off
the mouth of the Potomac.

Great was the consternation when a post-
rider dashed into Washington bearing the
news. At once the wildest excitement prevailed.
The President and his cabinet made futile
plans which resulted only in a bewildering
series of contradictory orders despatched to
General Winder, and a general requisition on
the Governors of neighboring States for militia
to protect the capital. The citizens of Wash-
ington held a public meeting and raised a force
of volunteer troops which made haste to aid
General Winder in erecting defensive works
at Bladensburg, a village in Maryland, situ-
ated about four miles from Washington, -- its
doorstep, as it were, -- where the first stand
against the invaders was finally made. At
last, the conviction was forced home upon the
most sanguine that the British admiral made
no idle threat when he swore he would dine
in Washington, and make his bow in Mrs.
Madison's drawing-room.

Sunday, August twenty-first, 1814, was any-
thing but a day of rest for the dwellers at the
capital. Washington presented a miniature of

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