Five hours later, Reid started back to Washington with details of reverses sent by military and city authorities that decided the administration to move the seat of government to Chicago without delay. He also carried from me (I remained in Philadelphia) a hastily written despatch to be transmitted from Washington via Kingston to the London _Times_, in which I summed up the situation on the basis of facts given me by my friend, Richard J. Beamish, owner of the Philadelphia _Press_, my conclusion being that the American cause was lost. And I included other valuable information gleaned from reporter friends of mine on the _North American_ and the _Bulletin_. I even ventured a prophecy that the United States would sue for peace within ten days. “What were General Wood’s losses in the battle of Philadelphia?” I asked Beamish. “Terribly heavy--nearly half of his army in killed, wounded and prisoners. What could we do? Von Hindenburg outnumbered us from two to one and we were short of ammunition, artillery, horses, aeroplanes, everything.” “Who blew up those railroad bridges and cut the wires?” “German spies--there are a lot of them here. They sank a barge loaded with bricks in the Schuylkill just above its joining with the Delaware and blocked the channel so that ten battleships in the naval basin at League Island couldn’t get out.” “What became of the battleships?” “Commandant Price opened their valves and sank them in the basin.” “And the American army, where is it now?” I asked. “They’ve retreated south of the Brandywine--what’s left of them. Our new line is entrenching from Chester to Upland to Westchester with our right flank on the Delaware; but what’s the use?” So crushing was the supremacy of the invaders that there was no further thought of resistance in Philadelphia. The German army was encamped in Fairmount Park and it was known that, at the first sign of revolt, German siege-guns on the historic heights of Wissahickon and Chestnut Hill would destroy the City Hall with its great tower bearing the statue of William Penn and the massive grey pile of Drexel and Company’s banking house at the corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets. Von Hindenburg had announced this, also that he did not consider it necessary to take hostages. There was one act of resistance, however, when the enemy entered Philadelphia that must live among deeds of desperate heroism.