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 XIII

THE CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON

intervals during the morning of March 31st four large German merchant ships, duly consigned to Baltimore for the avowed purpose of rushing to that port certain orders for German goods which had been delayed by the war, passed in through the Capes, reported to the signal station, and proceeded up the Chesapeake. In the upper reaches of the Bay, after sundown, they closed up; and about midnight they anchored well away from the course followed by shipping, and abreast a fine stretch of sandy beach which lines the western shore of the Bay, a few miles below Annapolis. The sky was clouded and the night intensely dark.

Two hours before midnight commenced 134