Gentlemen--One hour is allowed you from the receipt of this communication, for the removal of the unoffending inhabitants. THOMAS M. HARDY.[2] This notification was received by two magistrates[3] and Lieutenant Hough of the drafted militia, who went off to meet the flag. The officer was asked whether a flag would not be received on board. He said no arrangements could be made. They inquired whether Com. Hardy had determined to destroy the town. He replied that such were his orders from the Admiral, and that it would be done most effectually. When the gentlemen reached the shore, a crowd waited with great anxiety for the news; which being stated, consternation flew through the town. An express was despatched to General Cushing,[4] at New London. A number of volunteers hastened to collect ammunition; others ran to the battery, which consisted of two 18 pounders and a 4 pounder, on field carriages, with a slight breast work, 4 feet high. The sick and the aged were removed with haste: the women and children, with loud cries, were seen running in every direction. Some of the most valuable articles were hastily got off by hand, others placed in the gardens and lots, or thrown into wells, to save them from the impending conflagration. The sixty minutes expired, but the dreaded moment did not bring the attack. Nelson's favorite hero and friend was seized with the compunctions of magnanimity;--he remembered what ancient Britons were; he remembered that something was due to the character of Sir Thomas M. Hardy. Three hours in fact elapsed, when at 8 in the evening the attack was commenced by a discharge of shells from the bomb ship. Several barges and launches had taken their stations in different points, from whence they threw Congreve rockets, and carcasses. This mode of attack was continued incessantly till midnight; and the fire was returned occasionally from the battery, as the light of the rockets gave opportunity with any chance of success. The few drafted militia which had been sometime stationed there, under command of Lieutenant Hough, were placed in the best directions to give an alarm in case a landing should be attempted. During the night the volunteers and militia had assembled in considerable numbers; and the non-combatant inhabitants had generally removed to the neighboring farm-houses, in the momentary expectation of seeing their abandoned dwellings in flames. It was a night of inexpressible anguish to many a widow and orphan, to many aged and infirm, whose little pittance they were now apparently to lose forever. But Providence directed otherwise. This compact little village of 100 buildings had been for four hours covered with flames of fire and bomb shells, and not a single building was consumed nor a person injured.