It was nine minutes after ten o'clock when the first shot was fired. This shot was the signal for a broadside, and a shower of balls with three or four shells came screaming through the air striking the walls of the fort, or exploding over it. One of the shells buried itself in the sand but a few feet from Fernando, and burst, scattering sand and gravel over him.

"Fire!" cried Fernando, without moving from his position.

Immediately the thirty-two pounder and four smaller guns belched forth fire and thunder. Fernando watched the effect through the glass. The thirty-two went wild, and the shots from the smaller pieces fell short. He turned and gave some instructions to the gunners, while a shell came screaming over his head and burst a short distance away, killing one of the marines.

"Fernando, there ain't no need of you standing up there!" cried Sukey. "You ain't in the game, till we get near enough to use rifles."

"Divil a bit will the blackguards iver come near enough for that," cried Terrence, boldly mounting the breastwork. "Captain, lave me have a squint through yer glass," and Terrence, assuming a liberty which he only could, took the glass from his hand. The screaming shell and whistling shot continued to come from the Xenophon. "Faith, thim bees buzz nicely round a fellow's ears," added Terrence.

Fernando seized his glass, when the thirty-two was again sighted and fixed it on the ship. As the heavy boom shook the earth, he saw a great splash of water twelve feet from the bow.

"Let some one else train the gun," he cried. "You miss the mark."

All appeals to Fernando to come down from his dangerous position were unavailing. His anxiety to pierce the Xenophon with the thirty-two kept him on the parapet directing the gunners, while balls and shells shrieked about him. Job tried three shots; but only one did any injury, and that was some insignificant damage to the rigging. Fernando saw at once their disadvantage.

"Oh, if we only had one experienced gunner, he would drive the ship from the harbor," he thought.

Lieutenant Willard tried three or four shots, and one struck the bow. With glass in hand, Fernando remained on the earthworks, watching the effect of their balls and giving orders to the gunners, while balls and shells flew screaming around him. One shell exploded near the embrasure of one of the smaller guns killing one and wounding four. As yet, they had not touched one of the enemy, and the young commandant was chagrined, anxious and annoyed. He lost his temper and raved at the gunners, who were doing their best. They lacked science.

His brave riflemen stood under the earthworks, grasping their guns which were useless now, while they lamented that the Britons were not in range.

Officers, citizens and even privates implored Fernando to come down. A shell exploded in the air, and a piece grazed his shoulder, yet he kept his place on the rampart. Terrence Malone, who could see no reason for courting death, had sought shelter behind a gun carriage. Fernando's anxiety and mortification increased as he witnessed the repeated failures of his gunners to hull the Xenophon. Amid smoke, dust and whizzing missiles, he kept his post. The thunder of guns, the whizzing balls, and shrieking shells were unheard in his great anxiety to defeat the British.

Suddenly a hand clutched his arm, and a silvery voice, which he recognized in an instant, cried:

"This is folly! Come down—come down from this certain death!"

"Morgianna, you here!" he cried. "For Heaven's sake, go to the bomb-proof shelter. You must not expose yourself here."

"I will not go a step until you come from the rampart." She clung to him, and appealed so earnestly, the tears of anxiety and fear starting from her eyes, while her white, pleading face was upturned to his, that he could not deny her. All other appeals had been unheeded, but Morgianna's he could not refuse.

A wild cheer went up from the Americans within the fort as Morgianna descended from the redoubt with the daring captain. He hurried her away to the bomb-shelter, where her father lay raging and fuming, because his infirmity would not allow him to take part in the contest. Fernando obtained a promise from Morgianna that she would not venture from the shelter, by promising in return to keep off the redoubt.

The British shells were telling on the American fort. Though the walls were strong and resisted their balls, several men had fallen beneath their shells. Two solid shot and one shell struck Captain Lane's elegant mansion on the hill, fired from spite, as the house was far removed from the fort, and no one was near it. A cannon-ball entered the great, broad bay window overlooking the sea, made a wreck of the furniture in the parlor, crashed through the wall, shivering a tall mirror and spreading havoc in the room beyond.

The siege continued all day long, and late in the afternoon, just one hour before sunset, the redcoats appeared on the wooded hill back of the town, and opened fire with two small pieces and muskets. Fernando's riflemen had been waiting for this, and, with wild yells, they leaped the redoubts, deployed along the stone fences and houses and picked off the redcoats so rapidly, that they fled pell mell to their own works, glad to escape the bullets of those unerring riflemen.

The cannonade kept up until long after midnight. The sky was ablaze with circling shells, and the headlands reverberated with ten thousand echoes.

All the guns in the fort save the thirty-two were silent, for the smaller cannon at that range were useless. The soldiers in the fort lay on their arms, and Fernando slept none. With anxious face he went the rounds of the fort, occasionally watching through an embrasure the ship beyond and the circling shells. During the night, three more of their number were killed and six wounded, while as yet they had done the enemy no hurt.

Shortly after midnight, the firing grew slower and an hour later ceased altogether. Morning dawned slowly, and the flag still floated over the badly battered fort. A sullen, gloomy silence had fallen over the officers and men. They watched the enemy, who at daylight began to warp the ship in a little nearer, that her guns might be more effective. Fernando was silent and his brow dark. There seemed but one thing possible and that was defeat. Reinforcements need not be expected.

The Xenophon came a little nearer to shore, then let go her anchors again and lay broadside to the fort. It was quite evident that she was afraid to come too close, lest some blundering shot would strike her. All of a sudden, a sheet of flame and cloud of smoke from her side concealed the ship from view, and balls once more rained about the fort. The fire this day was more destructive than on the preceding. One house within the enclosure was completely battered down. The church which had been converted into a hospital was set on fire. Fernando discovered it in flames and ran thither to hurry out the wounded. Entering the burning building, through which a shell went screaming, he was horror-stricken and amazed to find Morgianna at one of the bunks, binding up the wounds of a sufferer.

"Morgianna, Morgianna!" he cried, "why do you risk your life here?"

"There is suffering and death here!" she answered. "Am I better than those who risk their lives for me?"

"Morgianna, you must not, yours is no common life—" he began. In the excitement of the moment he almost forgot himself. She was about to answer, when he said, "Noble woman! do not, for Heaven's sake, run needless danger."

They hurried the wounded from the burning building. Another house, lower down the hill, was also on fire. It was so near to the great gun, that the heat almost blistered the men who worked it, and for awhile their magazine was in great peril.

The soldiers did all in their power to extinguish the flames; but both church and house burned to the ground.

Night came once more, and the Americans were reduced to the sorest straits. Soon after dark, the cannonading ceased and a silence of death fell over the fort, broken only by the groans of some poor, wounded fellow. The people within the fort went about talking in whispers. Three bodies, which they had not had time to bury, lay, stark and silent under the shed, and there were nine fresh graves on the hillside. In addition, more than thirty of the defenders were disabled from wounds.

Captain Stevens, Sukey, Terrence and Lieutenant Willard were holding a consultation in a room of the old tavern. Lieutenant Willard said:

"Captain Stevens, there is no other alternative, we must surrender. To hold out longer is murder. If we had a few competent gunners we might drive her away, but with our inexperienced men, we are wasting ammunition and life to resist."

"There is one chance," said Fernando. "Perhaps we could carry the ship by the board."

"By the board! divil a bit!" put in Terrence. "Why they'd sink us all before we could get within a hundred yards of the plagued ship."

Sukey, remembering that Captain Snipes, his avowed enemy, was on board the Xenophon, was eager to make the effort to carry her by the board.

"It will be a desperate undertaking," said Lieutenant Willard. "If we had sailors instead of riflemen it might be done very easily; but it is a desperate chance; yet we are in a desperate situation."

"And faith ye'll come to a desperate end, if ye thry to carry that ship by the board," interrupted Terrence.

Fernando mustered three hundred men and, ascertaining there were boats to take them to the Xenophon, was about to give the orders to march to the water, when, suddenly, volley after volley of muskets and pistols rang out from the ship. The Americans had passed from the works and were drawn up on the sands. When they heard the firing at the Xenophon, they came to a halt, to guess and wonder at the cause.

It was decided to march the men by a round-about course to the promontory and embark in boats for the ship. By doing this, they could come upon the vessel from the side opposite to the fort, and effect a more complete surprise. Two dozen bold fishermen were entrusted to take the boats along the rocky shore to the point of embarkation. The night was quite dark, and, the water rough, so it required great skill to accomplish this difficult feat.

Fernando and his troops had gained the neck of land reaching to the promontory, and, fearing that the enemy might have landed a force there, and that they would be drawn into an ambuscade, he halted his troops in a dense growth of wood and left them with Lieutenant Willard, while he, with Sukey, Terrence and Job, crept forward to reconnoitre. They had almost reached the promontory, and, convinced that there was no one in ambush, were about to return to the main force, when suddenly an object presented itself to their eyes, which absolutely rooted them to the spot. At about twenty or thirty yards distant, where but the moment before the long line of horizon terminated the view, there now stood a strange figure, which might be six and might be twelve feet in height. It had evidently risen up out of the ground and was floating in the air, as there seemed to be nothing to connect it with the earth. There was a body of spotless white, an obscure mass which might be a head, and two long, white, straight arms, spread apart like a cross. This strange creature was advancing toward them.

"Oh, golly! massa, look ye dar! dat am a ghost!" whispered the darkey.

"A banshee, begorra!" said Terrence.

Fernando was impressed that the strange vision was the result of some English trickery, while Sukey, cocking his gun, declared:

"If it's mortal, I'll soon make it immortal."

"Hold, Sukey!" whispered Fernando, "let us see what it is before you fire."

"Golly! massa, it am comin' dis way!"

Fernando could see that the object, with its strange incongruous head, its long arms, of which it now seemed to have three or four, was advancing toward them over the uneven ground; and he gave the order to fall back until they were nearer the troops.

When within about one hundred paces, Fernando made a stand and cried:

"Halt!"

This was the first word uttered loud enough to reach the strange four-armed, one-headed, but legless spectre. It produced a wonderful effect, for the odd figure wheeled about and started off at something like a run. Sukey brought his gun to his shoulder and fired.

The report of the gun was the signal for the riflemen under Lieutenant Willard to charge, and all gave chase to the spectre.

"Don't fire another shot!" cried Fernando. The spectre had not gone a hundred paces, before it stumbled over a loose stone and fell. In a moment, Terrence Malone had seized it and cried:

"Huzzah! boys, I've caught the divil himsilf."

The spectre proved to be a very material like person in the form of a tall sailor with a white jacket and cap and blue trousers. His superabundance of arms could be accounted for by the long, white oar, which he had been carrying on his shoulder, and which he explained was his only weapon, offensive or defensive.

"Where are you from?" asked Fernando.

"I am from his majesty's frigate Xenophon," he answered.

"Are you a deserter?" asked Fernando.

"Yes, sir; I am an American by birth, and will die before I raise my hand against my country. To-day, because I refused to work at the guns, I was arrested, to be flogged in the morning, hung or shot at the pleasure of Captain Snipes."

"I believe I know that voice—" began Captain Stevens.

"Holy golly! it am Massa St. Mark!" yelled a voice behind them, and Job tore his way through the crowd and, flinging his arms about the sailor, cried: "Massa St. Mark! Massa St. Mark! am it you?"

"Faith, it's the best gunner in the British navy!" cried Terrence.

Fernando had no trouble in recognizing in the stranger the gentlemanly gunner of the Macedonian, who had saved him from being flogged. Terrence, Fernando, Job and Sukey crowded about the newcomer and for a moment plied him with questions. He explained that, having slipped his handcuffs, he rushed on deck, seized the oar, which he still carried, knocked down two sentries and leaped overboard. They fired a hundred shots at him; but, being an excellent swimmer, and the night being dark, he managed to escape. Lying on his back, holding to the oar, he watched for the flash of their guns and pistols, and, when they fired, ducked his head under the water.

The appearance of Mr. Hugh St. Mark naturally caused another consultation. He discouraged their desperate attempt to carry the ship by the board, and Fernando, after sending six fishermen to the headland to acquaint their companions there with the change, marched with his force back to the fort. An hour later the others came.

When day dawned, the Xenophon renewed her cannonading. Mr. Hugh St. Mark was given charge of the thirty-two, and after carefully measuring the distance with an experienced eye, he weighed the powder and loaded the gun. Fernando watched the flight of the first ball, which went whizzing over the leeward rail across the deck and out at the opposite port into the sea. The second shot cut some of the rigging. The British supposed those two shots accidents, but after the third, they were convinced that there was an experienced hand at the gun.

Fernando, in his anxiety to mark the effect of the third shot, forgot his promise to Morgianna and, with the glass in hand, mounted the rampart. The heavy boom of the cannon shook sea and shore. There was no need of a glass to mark the effects. The ball crashed through from side to side sending the splinters flying in every direction. A wild cheer rose from the fort, and Fernando saw five or six carried below the deck, while one of the guns was dismounted and useless. In a few seconds the great gun was again loaded. This, time the ball crashed through the hull. The fifth shot struck the mizzenmast about four feet above deck, and cut it almost away.

"Victory is ours!" cried Fernando, waving his sword in the air.

"Hurrah for ould Ireland and the United States foriver!" shouted Terrence, leaping on the embankment, and dancing a jig. But the Xenophon had not given up the contest yet. She continued to fire her balls and shells with murderous intent until the balls from St. Mark's direction had cut her mainmast down. It fell over on the lee side dragging with it the fore mainstay and crippling the rigging to such an extent that Captain Snipes began to fear he could not get his vessel out of the harbor. The weight of the mainmast hanging over the side of the vessel was so great that the vessel heeled over to leeward. A dozen carpenters with axes flew to cut away the wreck and the ship righted herself.

While others were rejoicing, Hugh St. Mark was busy sending ball after ball crashing into the Xenophon as if he had many old scores to settle. Sukey, who stood by his side, said:

"Mr. St. Mark, don't hit the captain—leave him for me."

The wind and tide bore the Xenophon to the mouth of the harbor just beyond the point of Duck Island, where she was temporarily safe from the balls of the avenging thirty-two.

It soon became evident that the land force under Lieutenant Matson intended to march to the point of land, embark, and return to the ship. Fernando determined to spoil their plan. He mustered two hundred and fifty of his soldiers, marines and militia and started to head them off. Lieutenant Willard was left alone in charge of the fort.

A villager who knew a nearer route guided them by it to a pass between two hills, where the Britons would be compelled to march. Sukey and Terrence were sent forward to reconnoitre, and as they came in sight of the narrow valley surrounded by hills they saw the head of the column of redcoats coming, their banner upheld to the breeze. Terrence wheeling about, ran with all speed back to the advancing soldiers, and cried:

"Come on, me boys! it's a divil's own time we'll have of it in the valley, all to ourselves."

"Halt! fix bayonets!" commanded Fernando. In a moment, the gleaming bayonets were on each gun. "Forward!—Double—Quick!"

The soldiers, at a run, dashed into the valley just as the British appeared, two volleys delivered in quick succession and they were at it steel to steel. Fernando, bareheaded, engaged a stout Briton in a hand-to-hand struggle, which a quick thrust from Sukey's bayonet ended. Next, Captain Stevens found himself hotly engaged with his old enemy Lieutenant Matson. Their blades flashed angrily for a moment, but as the lieutenant's men threw down their arms and begged for quarters, he realized the folly of resisting longer and yielded. His stubborn pride made the struggle hard. He offered his sword to his victor, which he politely declined.

"Keep your sword, lieutenant," said Fernando. "Though you are my enemy, I trust you have not forgotten that you are a gentleman."

"I trust not."

"You shall be paroled as soon as we reach the fort."

The Britons stacked their arms, and marched in double file under a guard to the fort. Oxen and carts were sent out for the arms and two pieces of artillery which were brought into the fort.

Silent and majestic as an uncrowned prince, seeming neither elated nor depressed by the victory, stood the gunner Hugh St. Mark by the side of the old thirty-two, with which he had fired the shots that saved the fort.

He was tall, straight, broad-shouldered, with hair once chestnut, but now almost gray. His age might be anywhere between forty and fifty years. So calm, majestic and mysterious did he seem, as, with folded arms, he stood gazing unconcernedly about him, that Fernando was constrained to ask himself:

"Who is he?"



CHAPTER XIX.

NEW ORLEANS.

Amid the exciting scenes which followed in such rapid succession, no one had noticed that the weather had undergone a wonderful change. By the time the prisoners were comfortably quartered the sun had set, and the sky was obscured with dark clouds from which constant flashes of lightning were emitted. The distant roll of thunder and the sighing of the wind gave warning of the approach of a storm.

"The Xenophon is in a poor condition to weather a storm to-night," said Lieutenant Willard. "With her hull raked fore and aft a dozen times, her mizzen gone, her foremast shot through, and her rigging so cut to pieces, she can hardly be managed in good weather. A storm would surely drive her on the rocks."

The vessel could be seen by the flashes of lightning, struggling to get to sea. At last she disappeared. The storm rose and the wind blew a perfect hurricane. Fernando had gone to see Captain Lane to make a full report. It was midnight, and he was still with the captain, when the boom of a gun at sea was heard. That was no gun of battle but a signal of distress.

"What is it?" cried Captain Lane.

"It's the Xenophon. I fear she cannot weather the storm."

Then they listened for an hour or more to the occasional boom of a cannon.

"She's comin' right in on the stony point sou'east o' the bay," cried Captain Lane.

Fernando started to his feet and said:

"We must go to their rescue."

At this Morgianna, who had been ministering to the wounded, entered and said:

"Are they not enemies?"

"Yes, but fellow-creatures, also. Those signal guns call out humanity, and the bravest are the most humane," said Fernando.

"I am glad you said that!" she remarked as Fernando hurriedly left the shelter in which the captain lay.

Day dawned and the Xenophon was a broken wreck scattered along the Maryland coast. Occasionally a bruised and bleeding form was picked up senseless or dead among the rocks, or on the beach. Sukey was busiest among the searchers; but the scenes of horror and suffering which everywhere met his view changed his hatred to pity.

At last he came upon a poor, bruised, thoroughly soaked, wretched-looking man lying among some rocks, where the angry waves and receding tide had left him. His once elegant uniform was now rotten, dirty rags. One gold epaulet was gone, and the other was so mud-besmeared that one could scarce tell what it was composed of.



It required a second look for Sukey to recognize in that miserable creature, drawing every breath in pain, the haughty Captain Snipes, who had scourged and disgraced him. Snipes had severe internal injuries and was dying. Sukey's thumb lifted the hammer of his gun, then he gazed on the agonized face of his enemy, and, the tears starting to his eyes, he let down the hammer. At this moment Fernando came up, and Sukey cried:

"I can't do it, Fernando,—I can't do it! I've prayed for this, for years, but now that it's given me, I can't. It's Captain Snipes, but he's too bad hurt to kill."

"God has punished him," said Fernando, solemnly. "Verily, 'vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.'"

They lifted their enemy as gently as if he had been their dearest friend and bore him to a fisherman's cottage, where Sukey did all in his power to alleviate his suffering; but his time on earth was short. Captain Snipes sank rapidly. That he was conscious and recognized his nurse no one can doubt, for just half an hour before he died, he took Sukey's hand and spoke the only words he was heard to utter after the wreck.

"Forgive me!" he said.

"I do, captain, God knows I do!" Sukey cried warmly, and the haughty, cruel Captain Snipes passed away, the victim of God's vengeance.

The day after the wreck of the Xenophon, news came from Baltimore of the repulse of the British fleet and army. It was a day of general rejoicing. A squadron was to be sent to guard the coast and relieve Fernando at Mariana. For some time he had been asking to be attached to some western regiment with his recruits. He received official notice that he had been assigned to a Kentucky regiment under Colonel Smiley, and, with the notice, came a commission to the rank of major. Fernando was ordered to join the regiment at Nashville, Tenn., to act under General Jackson in the South.

The war was shifting to the South; and the western and southern troops were hastening to its defence. Fernando notified his men of the order and Sukey volunteered to go with them. Job also enlisted as cook; but Terrence, having been notified that Privateer Tom ready for sea, once more bade them adieu, and departed for Philadelphia, taking Mr. Hugh St. Mark the gunner with him.

Fernando went to the great white stone house, which had been repaired and again occupied by Captain Lane and his daughter. Captain Lane and Morgianna were alone in the large sitting-room when he entered. The captain was convalescent, but not wholly recovered from his attack of rheumatism.

"So you are going away?" said Captain Lane when Fernando had told him of his last order.

"Yes, captain, a soldier belongs to his country."

"I know it. I don't blame you one bit. So you will serve under Jackson. Well, I don't think another ship will venture to bombard Mariana. Have you sent the prisoners to Baltimore?"

"Yes, sir, all save Lieutenant Matson. I took his parole, and he still remains in the village, I presume, during his pleasure. He will be required to report once a week to Baltimore, but that need not be in person."

The captain was silent. While speaking, Fernando kept his eyes from the face of Morgianna. He could not look at her and be a witness to the glow of joy which he knew must warm her cheek on being informed that her lover was to remain. She quietly left the apartment while he was conversing with the captain, and when he left, he found her alone in the hall.

It was almost dark; but her face in its beauty seemed to illumine the hall. He took her hand in his own, and felt that same old thrill of five years before.

"I am going away, Miss Lane," he said, "and I cannot go without bidding you adieu and telling you how much I appreciate your brave, noble, self-sacrificing efforts in caring for the wounded."

Fernando really had a different opinion of Morgianna from that he had at first entertained. He had thought of her only as a gay, frivolous girl, witty, brilliant and beautiful; but the scenes of death, the siege and carnage had shown him a new Morgianna;—it was Morgianna the heroine. She made several efforts to speak before she could fully control herself.

"Major Stevens," she faintly said after a struggle, "the people of this poor little village can never feel too grateful to you, for your brave and unselfish defence of their homes!"

"I am a soldier, Miss Lane, and I trust I did my duty."

Then they stood silent. Fernando would have given worlds to speak the promptings of his heart: but stubborn pride forbade him.

"Whither do you go?" she asked.

"To the South; what point I do not know, save that we join our regiment at Nashville."

"Will you ever come back, major?"

"If duty calls me—"

"But have you no friends," she asked slowly, "no friends here, whom you would like to see after the war is over?"

"Many, Miss Lane. These brave men and noble women, who have shared my toils and dangers, are very dear to my heart, and when the Britons have been driven from our country, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to renew my acquaintance with them."

"You are always welcome, major," she said, deeply moved. "Will you make me a promise?"

"What is the promise?"

"That you will come as soon as the war is over."

"It is only a polite way of inviting me to her wedding," he thought; then he asked:

"Will you be here?"

"If heaven spares me, I shall."

"Then I will return, Miss Lane, if I live."

Their discourse had been friendly, but cold and formal. Fernando had once overstepped the bounds when he declared his love; but he was careful not to do so again. Notwithstanding she had leaped to the redoubt amid screaming shells and whistling balls, to persuade him back to the trenches, he could see nothing more tender than love of humanity in her act. He was so thoroughly convinced that she would wed Lieutenant Matson, that he was once on the point of asking her when the marriage would take place, but the subject was too painful to mention.

She followed him quite to the door, and here he said in a voice that was husky despite his efforts to prevent it:

"Miss Lane,—Morgianna, I had him paroled for your sake. He can remain in the village."

He was gone before she could make any response. His men were mustered at peep of day and marched away to Baltimore.

General Andrew Jackson, to whom Fernando Stevens was marching, was the hero of the war of 1812 in the South. Having utterly crushed the Creek power and wrung from them a treaty which extinguished them politically as a nation, he set about securing that portion of the country against further molestation. The belief that the war in the South was ended proved a deception when the British suddenly appeared in a large force in the Gulf of Mexico. By permission of the Spanish governor of Florida, the British took possession of one of the forts at Pensacola, where they fitted out an expedition for the capture of Fort Bowyer, [Footnote: Now Fort Morgan.] on the eastern shore of the entrance to Mobile Bay. The British attacked the fort, but were repulsed. Jackson, who was at Mobile, hastened to Pensacola and demanded of the Spanish governor a surrender of the forts. The officer sent with the flag to demand the surrender was fired upon, and next day Jackson with his troops charged into the town; when the frightened governor offered to surrender the forts. This was done, and the British blew up one, and abandoned the others.

On his return to Mobile, Jackson found a message from New Orleans, urging him to hasten to the defence of that city, as the British commander in the gulf had declared his intention to invade Louisiana, and sent an inflammatory proclamation among the inhabitants.

Jackson arrived at New Orleans, December 2, 1814, and found the city utterly defenceless, and the people filled with alarm and distracted by petty factions. Danger was imminent. The British troops that left Chesapeake Bay after their repulse at Baltimore had gone to the West Indies, where they were joined by about four thousand veterans under the brave Irish General Keane. The combined forces sailed in the direction of New Orleans, late in November. The wives of many of the officers accompanied them, for not a man doubted that the speedy conquest of Louisiana would be the result of the expedition. The dullness of the voyage was enlightened by music and dancing, and all anticipated exquisite pleasures to be found in the paradise before them. It is said that the British officers had promised their soldiers the privilege of the city, when captured, for three days, and that "booty and beauty," was their watchword.

Fernando Stevens, with his experienced marksmen, joined Jackson at New Orleans on the very day that Jean Lafitte, the pirate of the Gulf, came to offer the services of himself and band to Jackson. The British General had tried to engage the services of this band of outlaws. Lafitte was a shrewd Frenchman, and he and his band had been outlawed by legal proceedings, though their crimes were only violations of the revenue and neutrality laws of the United States. When the invitation of the British was put into his hands, he feigned compliance; but as soon as the bearer had departed, he called his followers around him on the border of the sea, and said:

"Comrades, I am an adopted citizen of the United States, and will never violate the confidence placed in me by serving the enemies of my country. We have been outlawed; perhaps we deserve it by our irregularities. No matter; I am ready to serve my adopted country, and ask you to join me. What say you, comrades?"

His brawny followers threw up their hats and responded:

"We will! we will!"

Fernando was at the headquarters of General Jackson when the famous buccaneer held his interview with him. Fernando's regiment shortly after his arrival was assigned to the brigade of General Coffee.

The British forces halted at the entrance to Lake Borgne, between which and the Mississippi New Orleans stands. Here, on December 14th, they captured a flotilla under Captain Jones, which secured to them complete command of the lake.

Meanwhile Jackson placed New Orleans under martial law, and carried on his measures of defence so vigorously, that the citizens began to pluck up courage. When he heard of the capture of the flotilla, he sent couriers to General Coffee and others at the head of Tennessee and Kentucky troops, urging them to hasten to New Orleans. His efforts were timely, for, on the 22d of December, General Keane, with more than two thousand five hundred men, reached the banks of the Mississippi through a bayou, nine miles below the city and prepared to take New Orleans by surprise. Vigilant eyes were watching his movements; and a prisoner whom he had taken, escaping, hastened to New Orleans and gave General Jackson notice of the near approach of the foe. At the same time, Coffee and Carroll arrived with the Tennesseeans, and Jackson put a column in motion to meet the invaders. Early on the evening of the 23d of December, they marched, eighteen hundred strong, led by Jackson in person, and at the same time the armed schooner Carolinia dropped down the river to within musket range of the British camp. Shot from that vessel first revealed the fact to the British that their presence was known at New Orleans. The shells and shot from the vessel broke up their camp, when they were attacked in the dark by Jackson and his followers. The combat that followed was indecisive, except in making the invaders more cautious and discreet. In this night conflict, the Americans lost about two hundred men, while the British loss was twice as many.

New Orleans was saved from surprise; now it had to be saved from open invasion. The events of the 23d dispirited the British, and in this condition General Packenham found the troops on his arrival on Christmas day with reinforcements, to take the chief command. He was a veteran, fresh from the Spanish peninsula, and was delighted to find under his control some of the best of Wellington's regiments.

He immediately prepared to effect the capture of New Orleans and the subjugation of Louisiana without delay. With hot shot the annoying Carolinia was burned, and the Louisiana was the only American vessel left on the river.

Jackson was wide awake, however, and began throwing up a line of intrenchments from the banks of the Mississippi to an almost impenetrable swamp in the rear, four miles from New Orleans.

There has been some dispute in regard to the redoubt which defended New Orleans. There was an old story that a part of the redoubt was composed of cotton bales taken from a rich planter named Mulanthy, and that the cotton bales were afterward sold with hundreds of pounds of British bullets in them. General Harney, in the Washington Sunday Herald, several years ago denied this story. General Harney said:

"I asked General Jackson, General Adair and General Coffee, the latter having the immediate command of a brigade of Tennessee and Kentucky sharpshooters, whose long rifles mainly did the work of death, if there were cotton bales used at all, and they all answered that the only works the Americans had were of earth, about two and a half feet high, rudely constructed of fence-rails and logs laid twenty-four inches apart, and the space between them filled with earth, and if there had been any works constructed from cotton bales they must have known it." General Harney was made by the Washington Herald to say that in 1825 he was promoted to captain in the first infantry, and sent to Nashville, Tennessee, to recruit for his regiment, and while there he met with Generals Jackson and Coffee, from whom he obtained many points of the battle which have never been in print.

Fernando had seen no service since leaving Mariana on the Maryland coast. His riflemen were eager to meet the foe; but in the night encounter they had been detailed to guard the city, and preserve the peace. Day by day they had expected the enemy to advance to the attack; but the 7th of January, 1815, passed, and the British had not yet moved to the attack, further than some skirmishing and cannonading. On the night of the 7th, the Americans slept on their arms, for they knew Packenham would not long delay. The memorable morning of January 8, 1815, dawned at last.

There was a heavy fog on the river, and the British troops had actually formed and were advancing before Jackson had made his arrangements. Fernando had just roused Sukey, who, having been on guard most of the night, slept late, when he saw General Jackson on his white horse gallop up to where General Coffee and his staff stood. At this moment the fog lifted a little, and the formation of the British army was seen, and Fernando heard Jackson exclaim:

"By G—, they are ours!"

"They are coming, Sukey!" said Fernando. "Get your gun!".

"Won't they give me time to eat my breakfast?" Sukey asked.

"I am afraid not."

At this moment, Job, who was Fernando's cook, came running forward with some broiled beefsteak on the end of a ramrod. He gave it to Sukey and said:

"Heah, massa, take dis an' chomp um down foh dey git near enough to fight. I's gwine ter git my gun an' teach 'em dis chile ain't got no Angler Saxun blood in his veins."

Sukey presented an odd figure, for he wore no uniform. His head was covered with an old, low, broad-brimmed hat. He sat on the carriage of a brass gun near and ate his breakfast, while watching the enemy advance to the attack.

Coffee's part of the line, to which Fernando was attached, was on the flank extending to the swamp. About a quarter of a mile from it, there was a huge plantation drainage canal, such as are common in Louisiana lowlands. At this, General Packenham formed his first attacking column. His formation was a column in mass of about fifty files front. This was formed under the fire of the regular artillerists in a little redoubt in Coffee's front and that of some cannon taken from a man-of-war, placed in a battery on the river and served by sailors. Coffee, seeing the direction of the attack, which was intended to turn his flank, dashed down the line saying to his men:

"Hold your fire until you can see their belt-buckles."

The riflemen were formed in two ranks so that one rank would load while the other was firing.

Fernando's position behind the earthworks was near an old oak tree, which threw out its branches about his head. Sukey stood at his side holding his long rifle in one hand and his broiled meat and sea-biscuit in the other. The enemy came boldly forward, and a finer display was never seen on review. Their lines were well dressed and Packenham, on his snow white charger, rode as boldly as if he had no fear of death. As Sukey munched his hard biscuit, his eyes were steadfastly fixed on Lord Packenham.

"Say, Fernando, ain't that fellow on the big horse General Packenham?"

"No doubt of it, Sukey."

"He'd wipe out the score of what's left of one hundred and eight," said Sukey, swallowing his last bite of biscuit at one gulp and examining the priming in his gun.

Colonel Smiley was first to give orders to fire from Fernando's part of the work, and there rang out a volley all along the line. The brass pieces on their right began blazing away with the heavy iron cannon down toward the river, which with the rattling of small arms almost made the ground quake under their feet. Directly after the firing began, Captain Patterson, from Knox County, Kentucky, came running along. He leaped on the breastwork, and, stooping a moment to look through the darkness, as well as he could, shouted:

"Shoot low, boys! shoot low! rake them! rake them! They're comin' on their all-fours!"

It was so dark that little could be seen, until just about the time the battle ceased. The morning had dawned, but the dense fog and thick smoke obscured the sun. The Kentuckians did not seem to appreciate their danger, but loaded and fired, and swore, laughed and joked as though it were a frolic. All ranks and sections were soon broken and after the first volley every man loaded and fired at will. Sukey did not fire as often as some of the others, but at every shot he went up to the breastwork, looked over until he could see a redcoat, and then taking aim blazed away. After each shot he paused to write in his book. Lieutenant Ashby, who had had a brother killed at the River Raisin, seemed frantic with rage and fiendish glee. He ran up and down the line yelling:

"We'll pay you now for the River Raisin! We'll give you something to remember the River Raisin!" When the British came up on the opposite side of the breastwork, having no gun, he picked up a rifle barrel which had been broken from the stock and threw it over at them. Then finding an iron bar he leaped upon the breastwork and threw it at the mass of heads crowding forward to scale their works.

While the conflict was at its height, when Packenham was leading the last grand charge against the earthworks. Major Stevens' attention was directed by repeated and vociferous shouts to "come down," to an object on his right. Turning his eyes in that direction, he saw Sukey, standing coolly on the top of the breastwork peering into the darkness for something to shoot at. The balls were whistling as thick as hail around him, and cutting up the dirt at his feet.

"Come down, Sukey, come down!" Fernando commanded. Sukey turned round and, holding up the flap of his old, broad-brimmed hat with one hand, to see who was speaking to him, answered:

"Oh, never mind, Fernando—here's Sukey—I don't want to waste my powder, and I'd like to know how I'm to shoot until I see something. I'm watching for that man on the big white horse."

It was not long until Sukey got his eye on the man on the big white horse, and leveling his rifle pulled the trigger. At that instant Packenham fell, bleeding and dying, into the arms of Sir Duncan McDougall, his favorite aid, who performed a similar service for General Ross when he was mortally wounded a few months before. Sukey coolly descended from the breastwork and, sitting down at the root of a tree, took out his book and said:

"I've balanced the score. They flogged me; but, by the eternal, I'm more than even."

During the action some of the Tennesseeans became mixed with Smiley's regiment. One of them was killed about five yards from where Fernando stood. A ball passed through his head, and from the range of British bullets it seemed quite probable that he was accidentally shot by some of the Americans. This was the only man killed near where Fernando stood. The firing began to slacken when he fell. While three or four men were carrying the body away, a white flag was raised on the opposite side of the breastwork, and the firing ceased. The white flag was a handkerchief on a sword or stick. It was raised by a British major, who was cut off and unable to retreat with the main army. When the firing ceased, he came over the breastwork. A little Tennesseean, who looked as if he had spent his days in the fever-infested swamps, demanded his sword; but the officer was looking about for some commissioned officer to give it to, when Colonel Smiley, whose democratic principles were at enmity with punctilio, ordered him to hand over the sword to "Paleface," as the youth was called. A great many who were unable to escape in the retreat, came over and surrendered. Among them, Fernando saw a very neatly dressed young man, standing on the edge of the breastwork offering his hand as if for some one to assist him down. He was not over nineteen years of age, and his language and manner indicated the gentleman.

Major Stevens took his musket and set it against the breastwork and assisted him to the ground. He at once began to take off his cartouch box, and the major noticed a red spot on his clean, white under jacket.

"Are you wounded?" Fernando asked.

"Yes, sir, and I fear badly."

"Let me help you, my man!" said the major, unbuckling his belt.

"Please don't take my canteen, for it contains my water."

"I shall not take anything that does not encumber you."

Just then one of the Tennesseeans who had gone down to the river for water came along with some in a coffee-pot. The wounded man saw him, and said:

"I am very thirsty, sir, will you please give me a drop?"

"Oh, yes," said the Tennesseean. "I will treat you to anything I have got." The young man took the coffee-pot and swallowed two or three mouthfuls out of the spout, and handed it back. In an instant, Fernando saw him sinking backward. He called to Sukey, who was near, and they eased him down against the side of a tent, where he gave two or three gasps and was dead. He had been shot through the breast.

A number of British soldiers and officers had sought shelter from the fire of the Americans in the ditch on the other side of the breastwork. These, of course, being unable to retreat came in and surrendered. When the smoke lifted from the battlefield it disclosed a terrible spectacle. The field looked like a sea of blood, for it was literally covered with redcoats. Straight out before their position, the entire space occupied by the British troops was covered with dead or wounded. In some places, where the lines had made a stand, they lay in piles like winrows of hay, while the intervals between were more thinly sprinkled. About two hundred yards directly in front of their position, lay a large dapple gray horse, which was said to have belonged to Packenham. Nearly half way between the horse and the breastworks was a heap of slain, marking the spot where Packenham fell; his horse having retreated some distance before it went down.

The battle was over, and Sukey sat down to finish his breakfast which had been interrupted by the stirring event.

The British left seven hundred dead and fourteen hundred wounded on the field, while five hundred were made prisoners making a loss of twenty-six hundred. The Americans lost eight killed and thirteen wounded.

Packenham and three of his general officers slain in the fight were sent to England in casks of rum for burial. The British troops under General Lambert stole noiselessly away on the night of the 19th across Lake Borgne, in small transports, and escaped to the fleet. They then besieged Fort Bowyer for two days, February 20th and 21st, when Major Lawrence, who was in command, was compelled to surrender, and the victors were about to push on to Mobile, when they were arrested by tidings of peace.

The treaty of peace was signed at Ghent on December 24th, 1814, but, owing to the slow means of communication in those days, it was not known in America until the following February, or the battle of New Orleans would never have been fought.



CHAPTER XX.

CONCLUSION.

Though the United States of America had sustained their honor in the war of 1812, the fight was never fought to a finish, nor were the results as satisfactory as might have been hoped.

Had peace been made a little later, America might have obtained much better terms. The war had been waged under great difficulties by the Americans, who were not wholly united, and lacked money, men, arms, ships and experience, yet, under all these great difficulties, the United States came out of the war with the respect of the world, such as it had never before enjoyed. It became formidable to Europe as a great and vigorous power, with which it was not safe to trifle.

This was still more apparent, when the government declared war on the dey of Algiers, one of the pirate princes of North Africa, who, for hundreds of years, had made war on the commerce of all nations almost with impunity. Having violated their treaty, President Madison sent a naval force to the Mediterranean, which, on June 17th and 19th, captured two Algerian vessels-of-war and threatened Algiers. The dey made peace and gave liberty to all prisoners without ransom, and full satisfaction for damages to commerce.

The people of the new republic, learning by experience, in the year 1816, began improving their coast defences and increasing their navy. Commerce and manufacturers were encouraged. In the autumn of 1816, James Monroe was elected president of the United States. On December 11,1816, Indiana was admitted to the Union as a State.

With Monroe's administration, a new era dawned for America. The failure of the French revolution, and, finally, the failure of Napoleon Bonaparte and the re-establishment of the old monarchy in France, as the result first of the excesses of the French republic, and then of the military interference of Bonaparte with the existing state of things in Europe, had an important influence in modifying the politics of the Republican party in the United States; so they came, partially in Jefferson's administration and completely by the close of Madison's, to follow the wise and vigorous policy pursued by Washington and the Federal party; while the general government and the institutions of the country became deeply imbued with the regard to popular rights, and attention to the interests and will of the people that formed the leading idea of Jefferson and the original Democratic, or, as it was then called, Republican party.

The leading events of Monroe's two administrations were the attention given to internal improvements, among which may be mentioned the Erie canal in New York, the encouragement of manufactures, the acquisition of Florida by treaty, the Seminole war, the Missouri compromise, December 14th, 1819, the Monroe Doctrine, promulgated in 1822, and the visit of General Lafayette to the United States, in August, 1824.

But little explanation of these events is necessary. In December, 1817, Mississippi was admitted into the Union, and Alabama became a territory. On March 2, 1819, Arkansas was organized into a territory, and on December 14, Alabama was admitted to the Union. In this year commenced the earnest and acrimonious discussion between the North and South in regard to the extension of slavery. Both Maine and Missouri sought admission as States. Maine was admitted, March 15th, 1820, and, after a two years' wild debate, it was thought the whole question of slavery was settled by the Missouri Compromise, February 27, 1821. This compromise was the adoption of a provision in the bill for the admission of Missouri, that in all territory south of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude (the southern boundary of the State of Missouri) slavery might exist; but it was prohibited in the region north of that line. A member of congress from Georgia prophetically said in the course of the debate:

"A fire has been kindled, which all the waters of the ocean cannot put out, and which only seas of blood can extinguish." Had the Missouri Compromise been kept inviolate to the present day, slavery might still have existed below thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude.

The commerce of the United States was greatly injured by swarms of privateers under Spanish-American flags, who had degenerated into pirates, and so became outlaws, subject to chastisement by any nation.

They infested the West Indian seas and the northern coast of South America. Against these pirates and to protect American commerce, the United States sent Commodore Perry, with two ships of war, in the spring of 1819. Perry died of yellow fever soon after his arrival in southern waters. In June, 1822, Captain Allen, of the United States schooner Alligator, successfully fought a band of pirates in the West Indies, captured one of their schooners, and recaptured five American vessels; but Captain Allen was subsequently killed in an encounter with the bold buccaneers. The next year Commodore Porter, with a larger force, entered the pirate infested waters and almost completely destroyed the buccaneers. It was the policy of the government of the United States to favor the revolt of the Spanish-American provinces, whose flag these pirates had dishonored, as a means for preventing the establishment, in the future, of monarchical powers on the American continent. The latter policy was avowed by the president, and has never been lost sight of by our government, and is known in history as the "Monroe Doctrine." Accordingly, on the recommendation of the president, congress, early in 1822, resolved by a unanimous vote to recognize the independence of five of the revolted colonies, and appropriated $100,000 to defray the expenses of envoys to the seat of government of each, whom the president soon afterward appointed.

The year 1824 was marked by the visit of Washington's and America's best friend General Lafayette. As every boy has read of the visit of this good man, only a brief mention of so important an event is necessary. He arrived at New York August 15, 1824, and never did visitor receive so warm welcome by any nation.

"Many interesting incidents occurred during Lafayette's tour through the country. A touching one was related to the writer, many years ago, by George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of General Washington. In October, 1824, Lafayette visited Mount Vernon and the tomb of Washington. He was conveyed to the shore from the steamboat in a barge, accompanied by his son (who had lived at Mount Vernon with Custis when they were boys), secretary John C. Calhoun, and Mr. Custis. At the shore, he was received by Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of Washington, and the family of Judge Bushrod Washington, who was absent on official business. He was conducted to the mansion where, forty years before, he took his last leave of the patriot, whom he most sincerely loved as a father. Then the company proceeded to the tomb of Washington (the old one on the brow of the hill), when Mr. Custis, after a brief speech, presented the general with a gold ring containing a lock of Washington's hair. Lafayette received it with emotion, and, after thanking the donor, he affectionately embraced him and the other gentlemen present. Then he fervently pressed his lips to the door of the vault. It was opened and there were displayed the coffins of Washington and his wife, decorated with flowers. The general descended the steps, kissed the leaden caskets, while tears suffused his cheeks, and then reverently retired." [Footnote: Lossing's "Our Country," Vol. V., p. 1327.]

Shortly after peace was declared, Fernando's regiment was mustered out of the service, and he and Sukey went to their homes in Ohio. Both had done their share toward preserving the honor of their country and wished to retire to private life. A great change had come over Sukey. The text quoted by Fernando on the morning when they found Captain Snipes dead among the rocks seemed ever to ring in his ear.

"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." He proceeded to a careful study of the sentence, and from that became a student of the Bible. A few days after their return, he said:

"Fernando, what I did during the war was right, but was not done in the right spirit. I shot from revenge. I killed because I hated the British officers. I seemed to feel the stinging cuts of the cat on my back. That flogging made a devil of me. I hated the sight of a redcoat. It's all gone now—not that my revenge is satiated, but because I am changed. A new light has been opened up to my mind, and I can see it was no disgrace to be flogged for freedom. It was the ignorance of my enemies that I should have pitied instead of condemned."

Fernando suspected the bent of Sukey's mind long before he made the announcement that he intended to enter the ministry. Back to the Maryland Academy at Baltimore went Sukey. He entered the theological department, and four years later began a long and successful ministerial career.

Major Stevens had not forgotten his promise to pay the Maryland village a visit. If he had been disposed to forget his promise, which he was not, he would have been reminded of it by a letter which he received shortly after he returned home. The envelope was small, and the superscription was written in a neat feminine hand. Small as the envelope was, the letter contained much, for it was closely written and every page filled from top to bottom. There were other letters and petitions from the grateful citizens asking him to be present at the barbecue and Fourth of July celebration at the town of Mariana. None of these letters or invitations had stronger effect to induce him to take a journey to Maryland, than the closely penned missive did, though it was only a friendly letter.

Fernando set out the first of June. Peace again reigned over the fair land, and the country was all ablaze with glory. The ploughboy's whistle was heard in every field in harmony with the lark. The journey by mail coach was a pleasant one, for, being in no great haste, he traveled by easy stages, stopping over frequently to rest. He saw on every hand evidence of awakening interest and prosperity. New houses were building; new towns were laid out; new fields were inviting the ploughman; the busy hum of industry everywhere filled the heart of the patriot, and he more than once exclaimed:

"What a great country is ours!"

He arrived at Baltimore at the close of a delightful day, and alighted in front of the principal tavern. Some one, rushing across the street, pushed pedestrians right and left and howled in a voice loud enough to be heard three blocks away:

"Tear and ages! Clear the track!—that's himself—divil a one else!"

This exclamation came from Terrence Malone, who, bareheaded and in shirt sleeves, was rushing through the throng of people on the street in reckless disregard of high hats and crinoline. Women screamed and one hysterical creature tried to faint, but was restrained by the fear that her elegant costume might be soiled.

"Call the watchman! Take that fellow and lock him up! knock him down! Who is the wretch?"

These are only a part of the imprecations heaped on the devoted head of Terrence Malone, who, regardless of everything and everybody, burst his way through the crowd and reached Fernando's side.

"O, murther! O; holy mother! O, Moses! Is it yersilf safe afther all?"

The poor fellow could say no more, but burst into tears, for a more tender heart never beat in any breast. Terrence had just arrived an hour before in Baltimore, having come from a long cruise in which he brought four prizes, for the privateers were slow to learn that the war was over. He had put up at a rival house across the street and just removed his coat for a bath, when, looking out of the window, he recognized his old friend alighting from the stage coach.

All former arrangements were cancelled and Fernando and Terrence that evening occupied the same room. There was much to talk about. Terrence told him that Mr. Hugh St. Mark the "illigant" gunner had served in the last cruise on his vessel, and he never seemed to tire of talking about him. He was a "gintleman," from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Mr. St. Mark was on the ship in the harbor, and next day came ashore. He greeted the major with his kind quiet smile. Fernando learned that neither had been to Mariana since the bombardment and destruction of the Xenophon. He prevailed on them to accompany him, and next day in a swift yacht they sailed out of the harbor and down the coast. The scenery revived many recollections of Fernando's early experience. They passed the point where he had fought his duel, and he could not repress a smile at the ludicrous termination of what had so nearly proved a serious affair. Terrence did most of the talking, for Fernando was busy with his own reflections. He was asking himself if it might be possible that he would be just in time to witness the nuptials of Matson and Morgianna. He had never freed himself from the thought that she loved the lieutenant. Her regard for himself was gratitude not love. He would not allow himself to believe that she entertained a more tender sentiment.

When they arrived at Mariana the people congregated in a great crowd on the beach, and the local martial band, consisting of three drums and a fife, played "Yankee Doodle." while Fernando and his friends were escorted to the tavern. Here a local orator, who had been three times an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the halls of the legislature, made a short speech. This had scarcely terminated in three rousing cheers, when a carriage from Captain Lane's house came rattling down the street. The captain was in the vehicle.

"Why are you cheering? Who has arrived?" he demanded.

"Major Stevens, who saved Mariana, when the British were about to take it," the orator answered.

"Where is he?"

"In the tavern."

"But he is not going to stay there!" thundered the old sailor, rolling out of his carriage and rushing on the piazza. "I have made room in my own house for him, and, by the trident of Neptune! he shall come with me."

Fernando, hearing the voice of his old friend, came out to grasp his hand; and Captain Lane, pointing to his carriage, swore he had come to take him bag and baggage to his house. Fernando explained that he had two friends; but the captain did not care if he had a dozen, and in less time than the whole matter could be told the three travellers found themselves in the vehicle whirling up the avenue of trees, many of which still bore the marks of shells and cannon shot.

The greeting between Fernando and Morgianna was warm, but formal. Terrence impulsively grasped the little hand of the "maid o' the beach," as he called her, and paid her some pretty compliment, which caused her to blush, enhancing her beauty a hundred fold.

She was formally introduced to Mr. St. Mark, the gunner whose skill had saved them. She had seen the quiet man at a distance during the siege, but had never talked with him.

"Say, Fernando, do yez mark how Misther St. Mark stares at Miss Morgianna?" asked Terrence that evening. "Bad luck to his ill manners, if he wasn't so ould, I'd think he was in love with her."

Fernando made no response. Captain Lane, during the evening, engaged St. Mark in a discussion about General Jackson, who was undergoing a trial by the civil courts of New Orleans for the violation of the civil laws in saving the city. Captain Lane was loud in his condemnation of the Peace faction, which, not satisfied with having thrown every possible obstacle in the way of the administration in the prosecution of the war, was now ridiculing the manner in which it had terminated.

Fernando and Morgianna, during the course of the evening, found themselves alone, and he ventured to ask:

"Is Lieutenant Matson in America?"

"I think not," she answered, in a careless way that astonished him. He fixed his eyes on the floor for a moment, and then ventured to say:

"Pardon me, Miss Lane, but as your friend I am interested in your affairs;—when is it to come off?"

"When is what to come off?" she asked in real surprise.

"Your marriage with Lieutenant Matson."

She gazed at him a moment in astonishment, and then her old native mischievousness got control, and she laughed outright. His very earnestness gave the affair an air of ludicrousness.

"I am in earnest, Miss Lane," said Fernando, seriously.

"So I perceive," and she still laughed provokingly.

"May I ask if you have not been engaged all along to Lieutenant Matson?"

"No."

"When was it broken off?"

"It never was made."

Fernando turned his face away to hide his confusion and said half aloud:

"Have I been a fool all along? If it was not the lieutenant, then who in the name of reason was it?" The roguish creature seemed really to enjoy this discomfiture. Fernando's cheek had never blanched in battle, but in the presence of this little maiden he was a coward. After several efforts in which he found the old malady of something rising in his throat returning, he said:

"But, Morgianna, was he not your lover?"

"No, he was father's friend; but I could never love him, though I treated him respectfully." She was serious now.

"Then, Morgianna, who was it?" he asked impulsively. She was silent. He waited but a second or two and went on. "Some one surely stood in the way of our—my happiness. I had hoped that you did not despise me. I scarce dared to think you loved me, but it was some one,—who stood in my way?"

Her cheek grew crimson as the rich blood mounted to neck and face, and in a voice scarce audible she answered:

"No one!"

"Morgianna!" he whispered, "dare I hope—dare I for one minute—" he had risen to his feet and was standing at her side with wildly beating heart. She made no answer, but her long drooping lashes almost concealed her eyes, as she gazed on the floor.

He advanced a step nearer, bent over and took one little trembling hand in his own. She did not attempt to withdraw it this time, and, gently slipping his disengaged arm about her waist, he murmured:

"Morgianna!"

Still she was silent. He went on:

"You know how I have loved you all these years;—you must have known how I have suffered and braved dangers untold. I sought—defied death, because I deemed you lost. I spared the man I thought my rival, because I believed you loved him. Though a young man, there are gray hairs in my head, for it has been a living death since that night, Morgianna. Why have you——"

"Oh, don't, don't!" she plead, tears starting to her beautiful eyes. "Don't speak that way—forgive me."

"Morgianna!" cried Fernando, "Morgianna!"

"Call me that; aye call me that always," exclaimed the captain's little daughter; "never speak coldly to me, never be distant, never again reprove me for the follies I have long repented, or I shall die, Fernando."

"I reprove you!" said Fernando.

"Yes, for every kind and honest word you uttered went to my heart. For you who have borne so much from me—for you, who owe your suffering to my caprice—for you to be so kind—so noble to me—oh, Fernando!"

He could say nothing, not a syllable. There was an odd sort of eloquence in his arm, which had crept further round her waist, and their lips met.

The barbecue and celebration was next day. Fernando was present, but a little absent-minded. When called on for a speech, his ideas were confused, and he was about to break down, when a voice behind him whispered:

"Ye're makin' a divil's own mess of it, Fernando, lave it to me."

He took Terrence at his word, and announced that his Irish friend, one of the defenders of Mariana, would now address them, and gave way to the orator. Terrence did the subject justice. With the rich brogue of Ireland rolling from his tongue, he avowed himself an American. He declared that he was a better American than many present, as he was an American from choice, and they by necessity. Terrence was an orator, and with his ready wit, soon had the audience roaring and wild with enthusiasm.

Fernando did not hear much of the speech, for he and Morgianna had stolen away to the rocky promontory to listen to the sad sea waves, while they built air castles for the future.

Next day, Mr. St. Mark expressed a wish to see Captain Lane in private. The request was granted, and when they were alone in the apartment of the old sea-captain, St. Mark said:

"Pardon me, Captain Lane; but I wish to speak to you on family matters, which may seem not to concern me."

"Heave ahead, shipmate, for I have no family secrets."

"Will you tell me the maiden name of your wife?"

"I never had a wife."

This announcement brought St. Mark to his feet, and his usually placid features exhibited the wildest excitement. "Never married! But your daughter—"

"Only daughter by adoption, shipmate. She is no blood relation to me, though I love her as dearly as any father could."

"But her father—her mother?"

"I don't know who either of them are, I can only suspect."

"Don't you know their names?"

"I never did."

"This is remarkable!" and the features of the usually quiet man betrayed the greatest excitement. "Where did you find her and when?"

"I found her at sea when she was a baby, too young to speak or remember anything of herself."

"Captain Lane, do you mind telling me all about the finding of her?"

The captain did not, and proceeded to tell him the story of Morgianna, which the reader already knows. St. Mark had regained his composure at the conclusion of the story and, in a calm, clear voice, said:

"Captain, I may have the sequel to your story. I am a native of Vermont and, at the age of twenty-two, married Bertha Rigdon of Boston, whose brother Alfred, like myself, was a sea captain. We were both young, ardent lovers of liberty, and thoroughly imbued with the ideas of Thomas Jefferson in regard to the French Revolution. When our government refused to take up the quarrel with France, we determined to espouse her cause ourselves. Both our fathers had died prisoners on board the old Jersey prison ship, and we felt that our lives should be devoted to avenging them. This resolution was wicked, and perhaps the punishment which followed we deserved.

"We each commanded a vessel which began a warfare on English commerce, defying all their embargo acts and neutrality laws. We were soon declared outlaws and prices set on our heads. Not only Great Britain, but Spain, Prussia and Austria declared us pirates, and our own government dared not shelter us.

"My wife, with our infant child, accompanied me on my last voyage. I was sailing in company with her brother, Captain Alf Rigdon, when we were chased by some British cruisers off Rio in June, 1796, and Alf's brig being the swiftest sailer, I sent my wife and child aboard his vessel, with a large sum of money to have them conveyed to the United States and cared for until we could return.

"I parted from the ship and after a three days' chase was overhauled by the British cruisers and captured. I was forced to join her navy to save my life, and served Great Britain until I deserted during the siege of Mariana. I have never heard of my brother-in-law, my wife or child since."

Captain Lane prided himself on being able to control his feelings under all circumstances; but it required no little effort for him to do so now. After a few moments, he asked:

"What was the name of your brother-in-law's ship?"

"Morgianna!"

Captain Lane did not start, for he expected this.

"Was he a free mason?"

"Yes, sir."

"Can you describe how he looked then?"

"He was about thirty-five years of age, a little above middle height, with a broad forehead, over which fine brown hair fell in careless folds; he wore his beard and mustache long, the beard extending in a point two or three inches below the throat. His eyes were brown, large and full of expression while in conversation. He was brave, noble, and all that goes to make up a grand man."

"And your wife, can you describe her?"

"She was an exact counterpart of your daughter."

Captain Lane rose and with considerable emotion grasped the hand of St. Mark, and said:

"My daughter is your daughter."

Then came the serious task of breaking the intelligence to Morgianna.

It was done deliberately and quietly, without any sensational scene. Yet her joy at discovering her father increased her happiness almost to overflowing. "I am more blest than most girls," she declared. "I have two fathers, and while I will learn to love my new father, I will not forget to love my old father."

The marriage of Fernando and Morgianna was celebrated the following autumn at the new church which had been erected over the Ashes of the former one. Both of Morgianna's fathers were present; but to her real father was consigned the honor of giving away the bride.

Terrence and Sukey were present. The Irishman declared the matter might have been consummated long ago if they had only left it to him.

The wedding day was made a public holiday in the village. Never in all its existence was the little hamlet so gay. Bands played, choruses sang, and the old cannon, still left at the tumble-down fort, fired a salute, while American flags waved from every house. The local orator, who still entertained hopes of the legislature, delivered a stirring address.

Job, who heard of the happy event, came all the way from Baltimore to shake the hand of "Massa Stevens" and wish him much joy.

"I iz all right now, massa," he declared. "I iz found my own sure enough massa agin, an' I'm goin' back to work for him all de time. No more goin' to sea fer me; I iz no Britisher."

Fernando and his father-in-law, soon after his marriage, engaged in manufacturing enterprises in New England, with Captain Lane as the silent partner and moneyed man of the enterprise. Home industries having been fostered by the war, American manufactures promised a bright future.

Sukey was for many years a prominent minister of the Gospel in Ohio. Terrence studied law and became a leading member of the Philadelphia bar.

Mariana is now no more. Time and disaster have swept it from the peninsula, and to-day it remains only in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. The Stevens family, though subjected to many disasters, has grown, and become a part of the history of the country. The humble part played by Fernando in sustaining the honor of his country has never been recorded by the general historian; but it lingers in the memory of the grateful posterity of many of the heroic men and women who lived in the trying days of the early history of the Great Republic of the New World.

THE END.



HISTORICAL INDEX.

* * * * *

Adams, John, first minister to Court of St. James

Adams' proposition of reciprocity rejected by England

Alabama and Arkansas organized as Territories and Alabama becomes a State

Alert captured by the Essex

Alexandria plundered by British

Algerians force Americans to pay tribute

American army at Detroit

Americans attacked at River Raisin

Americans return to Detroit

Americans repulsed at La Colle

American troops at Bladensburg

Attack by British on Plattsburg fails

Bainbridge forced to convey the Algerine ambassador to Constantinople

Baltimore threatened by the enemy

Barclay, Commodore, defeated at Lake Erie

Barker, Mr., warns Mrs. Madison to fly

Barron, Commodore, suspended from the navy

Battle of Bladensburg

Battle of Chicago

Battle of Chippewa

Battle of Chrysler's Farm

Battle of Emucfau

Battle of Fort Stephenson

Battle of Horse-shoe Bend

Battle of Lake Erie

Battle of Lundy's Lane

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Queenstown

Battle of River Raisin

Battle of Sackett's Harbor

Battle of the Thames and death of Tecumseh

Battle of Tippecanoe

Black Partridge saves Mrs. Helm at Chicago

Blockades of French and English

Bonaparte conquers almost all of Europe

Boerstler, General, captured at Beaver's Dam

British agent at Pensacola offers Indians five dollars for each scalp

British arraigned by committee on foreign relations

British at Lake Borgne

British capture Washington, and burn Capitol

British discrimination in favor of New England States

British impressment of American seamen

British repulsed at Fort Erie

British instigate Indians to an uprising

Brock, General, proceeds to attack Detroit

Brown, General Jacob, at Kingston

Brown repulses Prevost at Sackett's Harbor

Brown, General, at Lundy's Lane

Burr's, Aaron, conspiracy

Calhoun, John C., in debate favors war

Camp meeting in the old pioneer days

Canada divided into Upper and Lower Canada

Canada, invasion of

Chandler and Winder, Generals, captured

Chauncey, Commodore, blockading British at Kingston

Chesapeake attacked by Leopard

Chesapeake captured by Shannon

Citizen Genet, insolence of

Clay, Henry, speaker of the house of representatives

Clermont, Fulton's first steamboat

Coffee, General, defeats Indians at Tallahatchee

Committee of Democrats inform Madison he must declare war

Contraband munitions of war

Constitution, the, captures Guerriere

Constitution, the, captures the Java

Constitution, February 28, 1815, captures two British vessels

Creek Indians in South attack Fort Mimms

Croghan, Major George, in command of Fort Stephenson

Dearborn commissioned major-general

Decatur, Stephen, destroys ship Philadelphia

Defeat of the prophet

Democratic party, how organized

Detroit besieged

Detroit surrendered by Hull

"Don't give up the ship"

Dudley, Colonel, mortally wounded near Fort Meigs

Effects of the Embargo Act

Embargo Act of 1807

Embargo laid on commerce for forty days before declaring war

Emigrants to the Ohio—the journey

Emperor of Russia offers himself as a mediator between the United States and Great Britain

England's idea of American independence of colonies

Enterprise, the, captures the British Boxer

Essex captures the Alert in a fight of eight minutes

Essex captures twelve British whalers

Essex captured by two British men-of-war

Federal party, how organized

Floyd, General, defeats Indians at Autossee

Fort Stephenson, British repulsed at

Fort George captured by General Scott and Commodore Perry

Fort Erie strengthened by General Ripley

Fort McHenry bombarded

Fort Bowyer, British repulsed at

"Free Trade and Sailors' Eights," motto of Essex

French Revolution, its effect on American politics

Frolic, British ship, captured by American Wasp

Frolic captured by Orpheus

Great Britain holds her posts in violation of treaty

Greenville, the prophet at

Guerriere captured by Hull

Hamilton, Alexander, leader of the Federalists

Hamilton, Alexander, murdered by Aaron Burr

Harrison, General W.H., invites Tecumseh and the prophet to a council at Vincennes

Harrison prepares to attack the prophet

Harrison at Tippecanoe

Harrison attacked at 4 o'clock A.M.

Harrison succeeds Hull

Harrison, General, at Fort Meigs

Harrison, offended at General Armstrong, the secretary of war, resigns

Heald, Captain, at Fort Dearborn, notified of the fall of Mackinaw

Heald attacked near Fort Dearborn or Chicago

Heald, Captain, and wife saved from massacre

Helm, Mrs., saved by Black Partridge

Henry, John, gets admission to Madison by a letter from Elbridge Gerry

Henry sells President Madison his papers

Houston's, Sam, General, victory at Horse-shoe Bend

Hornet captures the Peacock

Hornet captures the Penguin

Hull, Governor of Territory of Michigan

Hull in Washington, made Brigadier-General

Hull invades Canada; retreats

Hull at Detroit

Hull surrenders Detroit

Hull convicted of cowardice but pardoned

Hull, Captain, captures the Guerriere

Indians, treaty with, for Ohio lands

Indians, instigated by British to uprising

Indians plundering on the Wabash

Indiana and Illinois become Territories

Inhabitants of the Great West

Internal improvements after the war of 1812

Irish-American patriotism

Jackson, General Andrew, in command in the South

Jackson defeats Creeks at Emucfau

Jackson charging into Pensacola

Jackson at New Orleans

Jackson attacks the British camp

Jefferson, Thomas, founder of Democratic party, moved by French Revolution

Jefferson and Hamilton's opposing views on French Revolution

Jefferson, Thomas, elected President

Jefferson, description of; his policy

Jefferson's cabinet

Jefferson's ideas of peace and war

Johnson, R.M., Colonel, at the Thames

Keane, General, threatening New Orleans

Key, Mr. Francis S., the poet, composing the "Star Spangled Banner" while a prisoner

King George III. hopelessly insane; Prince of Wales ruler

Lafayette's, General, visit to America

Lafitte, Jean, pirate of the Gulf, offers his services to Jackson

Lake Erie, battle of

Lambert, General, retreats from New Orleans

Laulewasikaw, the prophet, Tecumseh's twin brother

Lawrence, Captain, death of

Legislatures by concurrent resolutions ask Congress to declare war

Lewistown, Delaware, bombarded

Louisiana purchased from France

Louisiana admitted to the union

Mackinaw captured

Macedonian captured by Decatur

Madison, James, President; his cabinet

Madison's political changes

Madison's inaugural address makes him popular

Madison's message to Congress to declare war against Great Britain

Madison re-elected President of the United States

Madison's second inauguration

Madison and cabinet flying from Bladensburg

Madison, Mrs., saves Washington's picture and parchment of the Declaration of Independence

Maine becomes a State

Maiden captured by Americans

Marcy, Wm. L., captures first British colors

Massacre at River Raisin

Maumee Rapids, Harrison building Fort Meigs at

Measures taken to sustain the declaration of war

Miller defeats Indians

Miller, Colonel, at Lundy's Lane

Ministers of the Gospel on the frontier

Missouri Compromise

Monroe, James, elected President of United States

Monroe Doctrine

Nautilus captured by Peacock, the last naval engagement of war

Naval forces on lakes

Napoleon, influence of, on United States gone

New England governors (Caleb Strong, William Plummer, and Roger Griswold) refuse their militia to serve the United States

New England coast threatened

New Orleans, Jackson at

New Orleans under martial law

Ohio valley opened up to settlers

Ohio becomes a State, in 1802

Ontario, naval force on

Orpheus captured by Frolic

Oswego, New York, destroyed by British

Packenham, General, death of

Peacock captures the Nautilus, the last naval engagement

Peacock captures Epervier

Peace party

Pelican captures Argus

People forcing the war on the leaders

Perry's victory on Lake Erie

Pioneer's home

Pike, General, death of

Pottawattomies attack Americans near Chicago

Pirates of the West Indies

Preparations for war made

President and the Little Belt

President captured by English vessels

Prevost, Sir George, repulsed at Sackett's Harbor

Proctor attacks General Winder at River Raisin

Questions of wrong reviewed in Madison's message

Queenstown, battle of

Raisin River, Americans at

Raisin River, Winchester attacked at

Rattlesnake captured by a British man-of-war

Redoubts at New Orleans

Rial, General, defeated by General Scott

Ripley, General, in command at Lundy's Lane, retreats.

Rodgers, Commodore, insulted by Little Belt

Ross, General, and Cockburn, threaten Washington City

Ross, General, death of

Sackett's Harbor, siege of

Scott, Winfield, at Queenstown

Scott, General, at Lundy's Lane

Shawnees under Tecumseh roused

Short, Lieutenant-Colonel, killed at Fort Stephenson

Smythe, General, dismissed from service

"Star Spangled Banner," how composed

Stephenson, British repulsed at

Stonington, British repulsed at

Strong, Caleb, Governor of Massachusetts, refused to allow militia of his State to defend northern Territory against British

Tecumseh rousing Indians to resistance

Tecumseh opposing sale of lands

Tecumseh demands a return of lands

Tecumseh's speech to Proctor

Tecumseh and Proctor abandon Maiden

Tecumseh, death of

Treaty with Indians for Ohio valley lands

United States commerce a prey to British cruisers

United States offers to register seamen

Van Horne defeated

Van Rensselaer, Stephen, Brigadier-General New York militia

"Victor and spoils" theory inaugurated by Jefferson in 1801

Vixen, United States brig, captured by the Southampton

War declared by Congress

War of 1812 waged under difficulties

War with Algiers

Washington's wisdom and conservative policy

Washington, George, laying corner-stone of capitol building, 1793

Washington City, seat of government removed to

Washington City, threatened by British

Washington City, captured by British, pillaged and capitol building burned

Wasp captures Frolic and is captured

Wasp captures Reindeer, Avon and three other prizes and mysteriously disappears

Whitney, Eli, inventor cotton gin

Winder, General, trying to raise troops to defend capitol

Xenophon, the, on the Maryland coast

Young members in Congress who favor war with England elect Henry Clay speaker

York, siege of

Zeal of Jefferson to aid French



CHRONOLOGY.

PERIOD X.—AGE OF LIBERTY ESTABLISHED.

A.D. 1800 TO A.D. 1824.

18OO. INDIANA TERRITORY formed,—July 4.

LOUISIANA ceded to France by Spain by secret treaty,—Oct. 1.

SEAT OF GOVERNMENT removed to Washington, D.C.; Congress met,—Nov. 17.

1801. THOMAS JEFFERSON inaugurated president,—March 4.

MILITARY ACADEMY established at West Point, N.Y.,—March 10.

TRIPOLI declared war against the United States,—June 10.

1802. GEORGIA'S cession of territory to General Government,—April 24.

OHIO admitted to the Union,—Nov. 22.

1803. LOUISIANA ceded to the United States by France for 80,000,000 francs,—April 30. (By this cession the United States claimed to the present western boundary of Florida.)

1804. The Philadelphia destroyed by Decatur at Tripoli,—Feb. 16.

DUEL between Hamilton and Burr, at Hoboken, N.J.,—July 11.

TWELFTH AMENDMENT to the Constitution declared in force,—Sept. 25.

ORLEANS TERRITORY formed,—Oct. I.

DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA formed, same as Louisiana cession, less Orleans Territory,—Oct. I.

1805. LOUISIANA TERRITORY formed,—March 3.

JEFFERSON'S second presidential term began,—March 4.

TREATY OF PEACE concluded with Tripoli,—June 4.

MICHIGAN TERRITORY formed,—June 30.

1806. BONAPARTE'S Berlin Decree,—Nov. 21.

1807. BRITISH "ORDERS IN COUNCIL" requiring goods to land in Great Britain,—Jan. 7.

THE Chesapeake attacked by the Leopard off the coast of Virginia,—June 22.

AARON BURR tried for treason, at Richmond, Va.; acquitted,—Sept. 1.

FULTON successfully applied steam navigation on the Hudson,—Sept. 14.

BRITISH "ORDERS IN COUNCIL" prohibited trade with France and allies,—Nov. 17.

BONAPARTE'S Milan decree prohibited trade with English colonies,—Dec. 17.

1808. BONAPARTE'S Bayonne decree ordered seizure of United States vessels,—April 17.

1809. NON-INTERCOURSE ACT, prohibiting trade with Great Britain and France, passed,—Feb. 27.

ILLINOIS TERRITORY formed,—March 1.

JAMES MADISON inaugurated president,—March 4.

1810. BONAPARTE'S Ramboulliet decree; 132 American vessels seized and sold,—March 23.

1811. GEORGE, Prince of Wales, appointed regent of Great Britain,—Feb. 3.

BATTLE between the President and Little Belt, off Virginia,—May 16.

BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE, Ind.; Harrison defeats Indians,—Nov. 7.

1812. LOUISIANA admitted into the Union,—April 30.

WAR with Great Britain proclaimed by the United States,—June 19.

HULL'S EXPEDITION against Fort Maiden, Canada,—July.

FORT MACKINAW captured by British and Indians,—July 17.

FIRST BATTLE of Brownstown, Mich.; British defeated Van Horn,—Aug. 5.

SECOND BATTLE of Brownstown, or Manaugua; American victory,—Aug. 9.

BRITISH sloop Alert taken by the Essex, off Newfoundland,—Aug. 13.

HULL surrendered Detroit,—Aug. 16.

THE Guerriere, British frigate, captured by the Constitution, off Massachusetts,—Aug. 19.

BATTLE OF QUEENSTOWN, Canada; Van Rensselaer wounded, Brock killed,—Oct. 13.

BATTLE OF LEWISTON, N. Y.; Cowardly conduct of American militia,—Oct. 13.

BRITISH ship Poictiers captured the Frolic and Wasp, off North Carolina,—Oct. 18.

BRITISH ship Macedonia captured by United States, off Canary Islands,—Oct. 25.

MISSOURI TERRITORY formed,—Dec. 7.

BRITISH frigate Java captured by the Constitution, off Bahia, Brazil,—Dec. 29.

1813. BATTLE OF FRENCHTOWN, Mich.; Winchester defeated by Proctor,—Jan. 22.

BRITISH brig Peacock captured the Hornet off the Demarara, South America,—Feb. 24.

MADISON began second presidential term,—March 4.

BATTLE OF YORK, Canada (now Toronto); explosion of British magazine,—April 27.

FORT MEIGS besieged by 2,000 British and Indians under Proctor,—May 1.

GENERAL CLAY and I,200 Kentuckians dispersed besiegers,—May 5.

PBEVOST made an unsuccessful attack on Sackett's Harbor,—May 29.

THE Chesapeake, Captain Lawrence, captured by the Shannon, in Massachusetts Bay,—June I.

DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON (now Lower Sandusky, O.) by Major Crogan,—Aug. 3.

AMERICAN brig Argus captured by the Pelican, in the English Channel,—Aug. 14.

THE CREEK WAR; Massacre of Fort Mimms, Ala.,—Aug. 30.

BRITISH brig Boxer captured by the Enterprise, off Maine,—Sept. 5.

PERRY'S victory at west end of Lake Erie,—Sept. 10.

BATTLE OF THE THAMES, or Moravian town, Canada; Tecumseh killed,—Oct. 5.

BATTLE OF TALLADEGA, Ala.; Jackson defeated the Creeks,—Nov. 9.

BATTLE OF CHRYSLER'S FIELD, Canada; British repulsed,—Nov. 11.

PORTER made a successful cruise in the Pacific with the Essex.

1814. BATTLE OF TOHOPEKA, or Horse-Shoe Bend, Ala.; last of the Creek War,—March 27.

AMERICAN frigate Essex captured off Chile,—March 28.

WILKINSON repulsed at La Colle Mill, Canada,—March 30.

Peacock captured British brig Epervier, off Florida,—April 29.

Wasp captured British sloop Reindeer, near English Channel,—June 18.

GENERALS SCOTT AND RIPLEY captured Fort Erie,—July 3.

BATTLE OF CHIPPEWA, Canada; Scott defeated Riall,—July 5.

BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE, Canada, the most obstinate of the war,—July 25.

FIRST BATTLE of Fort Erie, Drummond repulsed,—Aug. 15.

Ross dispersed Americans at Bladensburg, Md.,—Aug. 24.

WASHINGTON D. C., captured; public buildings burned,—Aug. 24.

BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN; American victory, Sept. 11.

BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG, N. Y.; Prevost, British, defeated by McComb,—Sept. 11.

Ross defeated Americans at North Point, Md.; death of Ross,—Sept. 12.

BROOKS' unsuccessful bombardment of Fort McHenry, Md.,—Sept. 13.

BRITISH bombarded Fort Boyer, Mobile Bay, without success,—Sept. 15.

SECOND BATTLE of Fort Erie; Brown dispersed besiegers,—Sept. 17.

JACKSON drove British from Pensacola, Fla.,—Nov. 7.

AMERICAN flotilla surrendered to the British, at Lake Borgne, La.,—Dec. 14.

CONVENTION at Hartford, Conn., opposed to the war,—Dec. 15.

BATTLE nine miles from New Orleans; Jackson retired to intrenchments,—Dec. 23.

TREATY OF GHENT, Belgium (peace), signed,—Dec. 24.

1815. BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS, fourteen days after treaty of peace,—Jan. 8.

BRITISH squadron captured the frigate President, off New Jersey,—Jan. 15.

BRITISH Cyane and Levant captured by Constitution, off Madeira Islands,—Feb. 20.

WAR against Algiers declared by Congress,—March 3.

Hornet captured British brig Penguin, off Brazil,—March 23.

1816. BANK OF UNITED STATES re-chartered for twenty years; capital, $35,000,000,—April 10.

INDIANA admitted into the Union,—Dec. 11.

1817. ALABAMA TERRITORY formed,—March 3.

JAMES MONROE inaugurated president; "era of good feeling,"—March 4.

SEMINOLES and Creeks began depredations in Georgia and Alabama.

MISSISSIPPI admitted into the Union,—Dec. 10.

1818. JACKSON seized Spanish forts in Florida.

JOINT occupation of Oregon by United States and Great Britain agreed upon.

PENSACOLA, Fla., seized by Jackson; Spanish officials sent to Cuba,—May 25.

ILLINOIS admitted into the Union,—Dec. 8.

1819. FLORIDA ceded to the United States by Spain,—Feb. 22.

ARKANSAS TERRITORY formed,—-July 4.

ALABAMA admitted into the Union,—Dec. 14.

1820. ACCESSION of George IV. to throne of Great Britain,—Jan. 29.

MISSOURI COMPROMISE ACT passed,—March 3.

MAINE admitted into the Union,—March 15.

1821. MEXICO became independent of Spain,—Feb. 24.

MONROE began second presidential term,—March 5.

MISSOURI admitted into the Union,—Aug. 10.

1823. FLORIDA TERRITORY formed,—March 3.

"MONROE DOCTRINE" enunciated in the annual message,—Dec. 2.

1824. LAFAYETTE visited the United States.—Aug. 15.

THE END