The president and his secretaries of war and state had come to witness
the conflict and give assistance if possible. When the day was lost,
they mounted swift horses and dashed back to the city. Terrence, who had
captured the steed of a British officer, overtook the president's
advance party. Whipping his horse alongside the president, he cried:
"Misther Madison, wasn't that as illegant a knock down as iver a man saw
in all his life? I enjoy such."
"How are we to save Washington without an army?" cried the president,
whose mind was wholly occupied with the safety of the capital.
To this, Terrence responded with his stereotyped:
"Lave it all to me."
Mrs. Madison, at the White House, had already been apprised of danger,
by a messenger sent by her husband on the flight of the militia. Her
carriage was at the door ready for flight, and she had already sent
away to a place of safety silver plate and other valuables. While
waiting anxiously for her husband, she cut out of the frame for
preservation a full length portrait of Washington, by Stuart. At this
moment, her husband's messengers, Mr. Jacob Barker and another man,
entered the house. Mr. Barker cried:
"Fly, Mrs. Madison, the day is lost, and the British are coming!"
"Where is my husband?" she asked.
"Safe, and he will join you beyond the Potomac."
Pointing to Washington's picture on the floor, she cried:
"Save that picture! save or destroy it, but do not let it fall into the
hands of the British!"
Then, snatching up the precious parchment on which the Declaration of
Independence was written, and which contained the names of the fifty-six
signers of that document, she entered the carriage with her sister and
two others, and the four were driven away to a place of safety beyond
the Potomac.
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