The smoke from the burning bridge joined that of the fire by the wharves, wrapping Edgar, as he stood on the shore, impatiently waiting for the messenger with the order that should prevent the capture of the "Gloucester". The Americans had been delayed by the confusion following the death of Pike, but Edgar was expecting to see their frigates off the wharves every minute. He had already been once to beg the captain to blow her up without the order. He could tell him it had been given, and its non-delivery was no doubt owing to the messenger's death in the explosion. But Blake had declined to take orders--or advice--from a militia officer, and Edgar had fumed on shore, to hurry back as his quick eye saw the enemy's ships advancing slowly through the smoke. But Half-moon Battery was empty with her guns spiked, and without a crew, the "Gloucester" could not fight. Still her captain refused to destroy her till the last minute, and before Edgar could convince him it had come, the frigates bore triumphantly down on them, and they were ignominiously captured. York surrendered at once, and at two in the afternoon, the American flag was raised over the town. The parliament buildings were sacked and fired, the town escaping by payment of a money requisition, but the stores were emptied and many houses robbed of silver, the enemy getting a spoil, mainly in furs, of half a million dollars. The officers of the "Gloucester" were sent on shore. Only Edgar stayed. A lean American pointed at him accusingly--"You are the renegade who called yourself Kaanah," he cried. "That is my name in the lodges of the Mohawks," Edgar answered carelessly. "If you mean to hang me you have a good chance." He glanced at the yardarm above his head, and threw open his collar, adding, "I am also a British subject, and England will make you pay for my murder. It would be nothing else, for you cannot find a man who can say I have done anything unworthy of my race."