"'It is so! That has this day been done!' spoke the voice of the sorceress from within the cloud of white mist. "'If this is indeed true,' I said, 'show me what is the result, for the heavens must bow if this work of ruin is accomplished!' "'Look again, then!' said the voice. The strain of music, which had partially ceased for a moment, grew louder and sadder again, and I saw the white mist rolling and changing, as if a wind were stirring it. Gradually again it assumed shape and form; and in the moonlight, before the Capitol of the nation, its white proportions gleaming in the wintry ray, the form of Washington stood, the hands clasped, the head bare, and the eyes cast upward in the mute agony of supplication. "'All is not lost!' I shouted more than spoke, 'for the Father of his Country still watches his children, and while he lives in the heavens and prays for the erring and wandering, the nation may yet be reclaimed.' "'It may be so,' said the voice through the mist, 'for look!' "Again the strain of music sounded, but now louder and clearer, and without the tone of hopeless sadness. Again the white mists rolled by in changing forms, and when once more they assumed shape and consistency, I saw great masses of men, apparently in the streets of a large city, throwing out the old flag from roof and steeple, lifting it to heaven in attitudes of devotion, and pressing it to their lips with those wild kisses which a mother gives to her darling child when it has been just rescued from a deadly peril. "'The nation lives!' I shouted. 'The old flag is not deserted and the patriotic heart yet beats in American bosoms! Show me yet more, for the next must be triumph!' "'Triumph indeed!' said the voice. 'Behold it, and rejoice at it while there is time!' I shuddered at the closing words, but another change in the strain of music roused me. It was not sadness now, nor yet the rising voice of hope, for martial music rung loudly and clearly, and through it I heard the roar of cannon and the cries of combatants in battle. As the vision cleared, I saw the armies of the Union in fight with a host almost as numerous as themselves, but savage, ragged and tumultuous, and bearing a mongrel flag that I had never seen before--one that seemed robbed from the banner of the nation's glory. For a moment the battle wavered and the forces of the Union seemed driven backward; then they rallied with a shout, and the flag of stars and stripes was rebaptized in glory. They pressed the traitors backward at every turn--they trod rebellion under their heels--they were everywhere, and everywhere triumphant. "'Three cheers for the Star-Spangled Banner!' I cried, forgetting place and time in the excitement of the scene. 'Let the world look on and wonder and admire! I knew the land that the Fathers founded and Washington guarded could not die! Three cheers--yes, nine--for the Star-Spangled Banner and the brave old land over which it floats!'