"Wadsworth obeyed, his rear gallantly covered by Lieutenant Watson with some marines. At the same time the guns on the wharf were spiked, the John Adams was set on fire, and Morris' men retreated across the Soadabscook, he being the last man to leave the wharf. Before he reached the bridge the British were on the bank above him; but he dashed across the stream, armpit deep in the water, and under a galling fire from their muskets, unhurt, joined his friends on the other side—Blake and his officers and a mere remnant of his command among them—and all retreated to Bangor. Morris did not stay there, however, but soon made his way overland to Portland."
"Did the British harm the people in that town, papa?" asked Elsie.
"They took possession, and there was no further resistance," replied the captain. "Then they sent some vessels, with about five hundred men, to Bangor. A mile from the town they were met by a flag of truce from the magistrates, who asked terms of capitulation. The answer was that private property would be respected. It was about ten o'clock when they reached the town, and Commodore Barrie gave notice that if the people would cheerfully send in the required supplies they should not be harmed in person or property. But he had hardly done so before he gave his sailors to understand that they might plunder as much as they pleased."
"And did they, papa?" asked Elsie.
"Yes," he said, "history tells us that almost every store on the western side of the creek, which there empties into the Penobscot, was robbed of all valuable property. Colonel John, however, did all he could to protect the inhabitants. The British forced the people to surrender all their arms, military stores, and public property of every kind, and to report themselves prisoners of war for parole, with a promise that they would not take up arms against the British.
"Having robbed the people of property worth twenty-three thousand dollars, destroyed, by burning, fourteen vessels, and stolen six, which they carried away with them, they left Bangor for Hampden, which they treated in the same way. There they desolated the church—tearing up the Bible and psalm-books, and demolishing the pulpit and pews. Lossing tells us that the total loss of property at Hampden, exclusive of the cargo of the Commodore Decatur, was estimated at forty-four thousand dollars. And in a note he adds that Williamson's 'History of Maine' says, 'In the midst of the rapine a committee waited on Barrie, and told him that the people expected at his hands the common safeguards of humanity, if nothing more; to which the brutal officer replied, "I have none for you. My business is to burn, sink, and destroy. Your town is taken by storm, and by the rules of war we ought to both lay your village in ashes and put its inhabitants to the sword. But I will spare your lives, though I don't mean to spare your houses."'"
"Oh, what a cruel wretch!" said Evelyn.
"A perfect savage, I should call him!" exclaimed Lucilla hotly.
"I entirely agree with you, ladies," said Mr. Lilburn, "and am sorry indeed to have to own him as a countryman of mine."