Another theory that has been advanced is that the blue quarter was taken from the blue banner of the Scotch Covenanters, and was therefore significant of the Solemn League and Covenant of the United Colonies against oppression, while the stripes were a blending of the red colours used in the army with the white flags used in the navy. We give the theory for what it is worth, which we venture to say is not very much; but as it was advanced by an American writer, we give it place.
Should our readers care to consider yet another theory, they may learn that the genesis of the star-spangled banner was very much less prosaic. Prose has it that a Committee of Council, accompanied by General Washington, called on Mrs. Ross, an upholstress of Arch Street, Philadelphia, and engaged her to make a flag from a rough sketch that they brought with them, that she in turn suggested one or two practical modifications, and that at her wish Washington re-drew it there and then, that she at once set to work on it, and in a few hours the first star-spangled flag was floating in the breeze; but the poet ignores the services of Mrs. Ross altogether, and declares that
"When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of Night
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure celestial white