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 rope-walk now, an' it looks as if the whole city might go."
"Surely the British wouldn't do so barbarous a deed!" my father exclaimed. "War isn't carried on in that way these days."