8. Hamilton's boat was seen to approach. A few minutes before seven it touched the rocks, and Hamilton and his second ascended. The principals and seconds exchanged the usual salutations, and the seconds proceeded immediately to make the usual preparations. They measured ten full paces; then cast lots for the choice of position, and to decide who should give the word. The lot in both cases fell to General Hamilton's second, who chose the upper end of the ledge for his principal, which, at that hour of the day, could not have been the best, for the reason that the morning sun and the flashing of the river would both interfere with the sight.

9. The pistols were then loaded and the principals placed, Hamilton looking over the river toward the city, and Burr turned toward the heights under which they stood. As Pendleton gave Hamilton his pistol, he asked, "Will you have the hair-spring set?" "Not this time," was the quiet reply. Pendleton then explained to both principals the rules which had been agreed upon with regard to the firing; after the word present they were to fire as soon as they pleased. The seconds then withdrew to the usual distance. "Are you ready?" said Pendleton. Both answered in the affirmative. A moment's pause ensued. The word was given. Burr raised his pistol, took aim, and fired.

10. Hamilton sprang upon his toes with a convulsive movement, reeled a little toward the heights, at which moment he involuntarily discharged his pistol, and then fell forward headlong upon his face, and remained motionless on the ground. His ball rustled among the branches, seven feet above the head of his antagonist and four feet wide of him. Burr heard it, looked up, and saw where it had severed a twig. Looking at Hamilton, he beheld him falling, and sprang toward him with an expression of pain upon his face. But at the report of the pistols, Dr. Hosack, Mr. Davis, and the boatman hurried anxiously up the rocks to the scene of the duel; and Van Ness, with presence of mind, seized Burr, shielded him from observation with an umbrella, and urged him down the steep to the boat. It was pushed off immediately, and rowed swiftly back

to Richmond Hill, where Swartwout, with feelings that may be imagined, received his unhurt chief-a chief no more!

11. Mr. Pendleton raised his prostrate friend. Dr. Hosack found him sitting on the grass, supported in the arms of his second, with the ghastliness of death upon his countenance. "This is a mortal wound, doctor," he gasped; and then sunk away into a swoon. The doctor stripped off his clothes, and saw at a glance that the ball, which had entered his right side, must have penetrated a mortal part. Scarcely expecting him to revive, they conveyed him down among the large rocks to the shore, placed him tenderly in the boat, and set off for the city. The doctor now used the usual restoratives, and the wounded man gradually revived. "He breathed," to quote the doctor's words; his eyes, hardly opened, wandered without fixing upon any object; to our great joy, he at length spoke. My vision is indistinct,' were his first words. His pulse became more perceptible, his respiration more regular, his sight returned. Soon after recovering his sight, he happened to cast his eye upon the case of pistols, and observing the one that he had. had in his hand lying on the outside, he said: 'Take care of that pistol; it is undischarged and still cocked; it may go off and do harm. Pendleton knows (attempting to turn his head. toward him) that I did not intend to fire at him.'

12. "Then he lay tranquil till he saw that the boat was approaching the wharf. He said: Let Mrs. Hamilton be immediately sent for; let the event be gradually broke to her, but give her hopes.' Looking up, he saw his friend, Mr. Bayard, standing on the wharf in great agitation. He had been told. by his servant that General Hamilton, Mr. Pendleton, and myself, had crossed the river in a boat together; and too well he conjectured the fatal errand, and foreboded the dreadful result. Perceiving, as we came nearer, that Mr. Pendleton and myself only sat up in the stern-sheets, he clasped his hands together in the most violent apprehension; but when I called to him to have a cot prepared, and he, at the same moment, saw his poor friend lying in the bottom of the boat, he threw up his eyes, and burst into a flood of tears and lamentations.

13. "Hamilton alone appeared tranquil and composed. We then conveyed him as tenderly as possible up to the house. The distress of his amiable family was such that, till the first shock had abated, they were scarcely able to summon fortitude enough to yield sufficient assistance to their dying friend." By nine in the morning the news began to be noised about in the city. A bulletin soon appeared on the board at the Tontine Coffee-House, and the pulse of the town stood still at the shocking intelligence. People started and turned pale as they read the brief announcement: "GENERAL HAMILTON WAS SHOT BY COLONEL BURR THIS MORNING IN A DUEL. THE GENERAL IS SAID TO BE MORTALLY WOUNDED."

14. Bulletins, hourly changed, kept the city in agitation. All the circumstances of the catastrophe were told and retold, and exaggerated at every corner. The thrilling scenes that were passing at the bedside of the dying man-the consultations of the physicians-the arrival of the stricken family-Mrs. Hamilton's overwhelming sorrow-the resignation and calm dig nity of the illustrious sufferer-his broken slumbers during the night--the piteous spectacle of the seven children entering together the awful apartment-the single look the dying father gave them before he closed his eyes-were all described with amplifications, and produced an impression that can only be imagined. He lingered thirty-one hours. The duel was fought on Wednesday morning. At two o'clock on Thursday afternoon, Hamilton died.

15. The newspapers everywhere broke into declamation upon these sad events. I suppose that the "poems," the " elegies," and the "lines" which they suggested would fill a duodecimo. volume of the size usually appropriated to verse. In the chief cities, the character of the deceased was made the subject of formal culogium. The popular sympathy was recorded indelibly upon the ever-forming map of the United States, which bears the name of Hamilton forty times repeated.

[Burr's political influence was completely destroyed by this duel; and on Jefferson's re-election to the presidency, George Clinton was chosen to succeed Burr as Vicepresident. Burr having been subsequently engaged in an expedition at the West, was charged with treason; but, although generally believed to be guilty, was acquitted. His death occurred in 1836.]

Capture of Washington by the British.-Hildreth.

[In the summer of 1814, a British squadron, under Cochrane, arrived in Chesapeake Bay, bringing a large body of troops, commanded by General Ross, and designed to operate against some of the most important cities in that vicinity, more especially the Capital, Washington. A landing was effected at Benedict, on the Patuxent River, and the American flotilla, under Commodore Barney, was burnt to prevent its falling into the enemy's hands. The preparations made for resistance by the Americans had been very hurried, and were by no means effective, the troops consisting almost exclusively of raw militia, under the command of General Winder, while the British force consisted of a division of Wellington's late army-the victorious veterans of Waterloo. The Maryland militia were commanded by Brigadier-general Stansbury. The following is extracted from the "History of the United States," by Richard Hildreth.]

1. THE eastern branch of the Potomac, deep enough opposite Washington to float a frigate, dwindles at Bladensburg to a shallow stream. The few houses occupy the eastern bank. Stansbury, abandoning the village and the bridge, had posted his men on an eminence on the Washington side of the river, with his right on the Washington road, in which were planted two pieces of artillery, to sweep the bridge. Pinkney's riflemen lined the bushes which skirted the river bank. The Baltimore regiment had been originally posted nearest the bridge; but, by Monroe's orders, who rode up just before the battle began, they were thrown back behind an orchard, leaving Stansbury's drafted men to stand the first brunt of attack.

2. As Winder reached the front, other military amateurs" were busy in giving their advice, the enemy's column just then beginning to show itself on the opposite bank. Another Maryland regiment, which had marched that morning from Annapolis, but by a route which avoided the British army, appeared just at this moment on the field, and occupied a commanding eminence. The forces from Washington, as they arrived, were drawn up in the rear of the Maryland line. Barney, with his sailors, and Miller, of the Marines, arrived last, and planted four heavy guns in a position to sweep the road, with the advantage, also, of being flanked by the Annapolis regiment.

3. The British soldiers, by the time they reached Bladensburg, were almost ready to drop, so excessive was the heat; and so formidable was the appearance of the American army, that

Ross and his officers, reconnoitering from one of the highest houses of the village, were not a little uneasy as to the result. But it was now too late to hesitate. The British column, again in motion after a momentary check, dashed across the bridge. Some discharges of Congreve rockets' put the Maryland drafted militia to flight. They were followed by the riflemen, Pinkney getting a broken arm in the tumult, and by the artillerymen, whose pieces had scarcely been twice discharged; and as the British came up, the Baltimore regiment fled also, sweeping off with them the general, the president, and the cabinet officers.

4. Encouraged by this easy victory, the enemy pushed rapidly forward till Barney's artillery opened upon them with severe effect. After several vain efforts, during which many fell, to advance in face of this fire, advantage was taken of the shelter of a ravine to file off by the right and left. Those who emerged on the left encountered the Annapolis regiment, which fled after a single fire. Those on the right fell in with some detachments of regulars, forming an advanced portion of the second line. They retired with equal promptitude, as did the militia behind them; and the enemy having thus gained both flanks, the sailors and marines were obliged to fly, leaving their guns and their wounded commanders in the enemy's hands.

5. Such was the famous battle of Bladensburg, in which very few Americans had the honor to be either killed or wounded, not more than fifty in all; and yet, according to the evidence subsequently given before a congressionial committee of investigation, everybody behaved with wonderful courage and coolness, and nobody retired except by orders or for want of orders. The British loss was a good deal larger, principally in the attack on the sailors and marines. Several had dropped dead with heat and fatigue, and the whole force was so completely exhausted that it was necessary to allow them some hours' rest before advancing on Washington.

6. The Maryland militia, as they fled, dispersed in every direction, and soon ceased to exist as an embodied force. The District militia kept more together; the Virginians had at last obtained their flints, and Winder had still at his command