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The National Music of America. 195
One can also imagine the anxiety with which Key looked toward the fort in the gray of the morning of the fourteenth of September, 1814. The bombardment began at daylight on the thirteenth, and continued throughout the night following. Between fifteen and eighteen hundred shells were thrown, about four hundred falling within the fortifications. Yet only four men were killed, and twenty-four wounded, of the garrison of Fort McHenry. The American party on the cartel-ship had been increased by the presence of Doctor Beanes, whom Vice-Admiral Cochrane had courteously released and given in their charge. The firing suddenly ceased before daybreak of the fourteenth of September. Key and his friend, Mr. J. S. Skinner, who had been one of the party on the Minden, walked the deck impatiently, waiting for light that they might see the result. At last they were rewarded by beholding the stars and stripes still floating |
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