No one asked when the eight had been blotted out, but Fernando knew he must have done it while the Macedonian was fighting the American frigate.  Sailors, driven to desperation, frequently take advantage of such occasions to wreak vengeance on cruel officers.  The boatswain’s mate who had flogged Sukey was found dead on the gun deck at the close of the fight.

The American forces were hurried forward to Washington, where everything was in the wildest confusion.  The contemptible Peace Party had done all by way of ridicule and argument to keep off the war, and were now doing all in their power to prevent its prosecution.  General Winder and Commodore Barney were in command of the land and naval forces of the United States, for the defence of Washington.  In vain Winder had called on the government for more troops and supplies.

When Fernando arrived at Washington, Barney had already blown up his flotilla at Pig Point, and with his soldiers and marines joined General Winder.

General Ross, the commander of the British land forces and one of the most active of Wellington’s officers, on finding the American flotilla a smoking ruin, marched to upper Marlborough with his troops, where a road led directly to Washington City, leaving Cockburn in charge of the British flotilla.  Winder had but three thousand men, most of them undisciplined, to oppose this force; and he prudently retreated toward Washington followed by Ross, who, on the 23d of August, was joined by Cockburn and his seamen.

Uncertain whether Washington City or Fort Washington was the destination of the enemy, Winder left a force at Bladensburg about four miles from the capitol, and with other troops watched the highways leading in other directions, while he hastened to the city to inform the president that the enemy were camped in ten miles of the capitol.

Neither President Madison nor his cabinet slept that night.  Fernando and his riflemen were sent to Bladensburg at midnight, and on the morning of August 24, 1814, a small scouting party sent down the road came back reporting that the British army was on the advance.

Fernando with his riflemen went to meet the enemy and hold them in check as long as possible.  About ten o’clock, they came in sight of the advance of the enemy.  About two hundred redcoats were led by an officer on horseback.

Sukey saw that officer, and he also saw an old tree about a hundred yards nearer the enemy and twenty paces to the left of the road.  From it, one would be in long rifle range of the British.

“Fernando, I want to go there,” said Sukey, hugging his long rifle as if it were his dearest friend.

“Go.”

He went with arms trailed, stooping as he ran, to keep the enemy from seeing him, and gained the tree, which stood on an eminence that overlooked the narrow valley below.  The British saw the Americans and halted.  The officer was riding up and down the line giving directions, wholly unconscious of the rifle behind the old tree.