Midnight
Those whom they had trusted as brothers , my boy -- whose country they were marching to defend with their lives -- assassinating them in cold blood ! I was sitting in my room at Willard 's , when a serious chap from New Haven , who had just paused long enough at the door to send a waiter for the same that he had yesterday , came rushing into the apartment with a long , fluttering paper in his hand . `` Listen to this , '' says he , in wild agitation , and read : BALTIMORE . Midnight shadows , dark , appalling , round the Capitol were falling , And its dome and pillars glimmered spectral from Potomac 's shore ; All the great had gone to slumber , and of all the busy number That had moved the State by day within its walls , as erst before , None there were but dreamed of heroes thither sent ere day was o'er -- Thither sent through BALTIMORE . But within a chamber solemn , barred aloft with many a column , And with windows tow ` rd Mount Vernon , windows tow ` rd Potomac 's shore , Sat a figure , stern and awful ; Chief , but not the Chieftain lawful Of the land whose grateful millions Washington 's great name adore -- Sat the form -- a shade majestic of a Chieftain gone before , Thine to honor , BALTIMORE ! There he sat in silence , gazing , by a single planet 's blazing , At a map outspread before him wide upon the marble floor ; And if ` twere for mortal proving that those reverend lips were moving , While the eyes were closely scanning one mapped city o'er and o'er -- While he saw but one great city on that map upon the floor -- They were whispering -- `` BALTIMORE . '' Thus he sat , nor word did utter , till there came a sudden flutter , And the sound of beating wings was heard upon the carvéd door .