"They've sent a squad of men to clean out the house, I reckon," the old sailor said for father's benefit. "The officer ain't hurt so but that he can mount a spare horse which a colonel has just brought him. Now the two in command are pointin' out the different buildin's; looks as if they were pickin' out their quarters. There's one thing certain, fine birds like them won't want to sleep in a smoke-house, so we ain't likely to be turned out right away." I interrupted the report by exclaiming aloud in my excitement, for I saw smoke issuing from the dwelling, which I afterward learned was the home of Mr. Robert Sewall, and then it was I understood for what purpose the squad had been sent. "They've fired the house," Darius continued to my father, "an' without givin' them who may be livin' there a chance to carry anythin' out. Soldiers are stationed to prevent the people from tryin' to fight the flames, an' it wouldn't surprise me if we saw a pretty hot time in this town." At this moment a squad of men was sent to the rope-walk, another to the tavern hard by our place of refuge, and a third to the next building, which from the sign on its front I knew to be the National Intelligencer newspaper. After what we had seen it was not difficult to guess the purpose of these soldiers, and Darius said to my father: "They're firin' the rope-walk now, an' it looks as if the whole city might go." "Surely the British wouldn't do so barbarous a deed!" my father exclaimed. "War isn't carried on in that way these days." "It seems to be goin' so now. There comes the smoke from the tavern, an' men are stationed to prevent the people from savin' anything. How about it, lads? If we had spent our last cent hirin' a room there, the smoke would be forcin' us out by this time, an' we'd soon find ourselves prisoners in the hands of such as stand ready to burn a city where are mostly women an' children!" "It's not certain but that we'll be forced out as it is!" I exclaimed. "When the tavern barns get afire this smoke-house stands a good chance of burning." "It may be, lad; but the wind draws in on the other side, an' I'm allowin' that this shanty, small as it is, won't come to harm, though if it does go, we'll try to keep our upper lips stiff so the villainous red-coats shan't have a chance to crow over us very much." We saw the men comprising the escort now break ranks, each going, apparently, where he pleased, and Darius cried in anger: "It is to be a reg'lar sack of the city, such as we're told they had in the old times, when men were reckoned as bein' little better than brutes! Work like this will count big for the Britishers before the other nations of the world! There goes a crowd of soldiers into the little shop beyond the tavern; they're plunderin' it in piratical style! See 'em throw the goods out into the street! The red-coats from the encampment, scentin' booty, are comin' up by the hundreds!"