“I will,” answered the Union officer, and ran up one pair of stairs after another to the roof of the hotel. Here the halliards of the flag-staff were cut and the flag brought down on a run. With the colors wound over his arm, Ellsworth began to descend to the street. He had just reached the second floor of the building when the proprietor of the hotel, a man named Jackson, appeared in the hallway armed with a double-barrel shotgun. “Will haul it down, will you?” he muttered and pointing his weapon at Ellsworth’s breast, fired. The gallant leader of the Ellsworth Zouaves was killed instantly, and sank down without a moan. “Ellsworth is shot! Help!” came the cry from the Union officer’s companions, and then one fired at Jackson with fatal effect. As the hotel man went down in a pool of blood the others leaped upon his body and thrust it through with their sabers. “Spare him!” came in a woman’s voice, and the secessionist’s wife came rushing forth from a bedroom. Thinking her husband might still breathe, she threw herself on his corpse, while the Union men, knowing he was dead, picked up their lifeless leader and carried him away. CHAPTER IX THE ADVANCE TO BULL RUN The excitement around the hotel was for a time intense, and not only the Zouaves, but also the Goreville Volunteers had all they could do to restore order and thus prevent further bloodshed. Many of the Union men were in favor of burning the Marshall House to the ground, but other counsel prevailed and the building was spared. It may be added here that later on Colonel Ellsworth’s body was sent on to New York, where the funeral services were among the largest and most imposing ever witnessed in that city. The funeral of Jackson was also well attended, and each man was looked upon as a martyr by those whose side he happened to represent. The death of Ellsworth was a shock to Louis. It was the first soldier he had heard of being slain, and he shuddered when, later on, he gazed at the cold, set face of the dashing Zouave, whose striking uniform of red, blue, and yellow had made him more dashing than ever. It was the lad’s first taste of grim war--and there was much still in store. The Zouaves having taken complete possession of Alexandria, the Goreville Volunteers were sent back to their old quarters at Washington, to remain there for a possible call from the upper Potomac. It was during this wait that Louis one day came almost face to face with President Lincoln, who was inspecting the remnant of the army, in company with General Scott. The sad, earnest face of the President impressed him greatly, and he could not help but think of what a tremendous responsibility now rested on the shoulders of the nation’s chief executive. “He’s got more of a load than I would like to carry,” said he to Harry Bingham. “With so many thousands of eyes upon him, he can’t afford to make a mismove.”