But within a chamber solemn, barred aloft with many a column,
And with windows tow'rd Mount Vernon, windows tow'rd Potomac's shore,
Sat a figure, stern and awful; Chief, but not the Chieftain lawful
Of the land whose grateful millions Washington's great name adore—
Sat the form—a shade majestic of a Chieftain gone before,
Thine to honor, Baltimore!
There he sat in silence, gazing, by a single planet's blazing,
At a map outspread before him wide upon the marble floor;
And if 'twere for mortal proving that those reverend lips were moving,
While the eyes were closely scanning one mapped city o'er and o'er—