Page:America Fallen!.djvu/153

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Capture of Washington
141

for the love of our country—the President first, then the——"

And with a groan he crumpled up and lay as though dead before the gaping night force.

Then the spell broke—they rushed to the fallen man. "Why, it's Bronson, the war correspondent," said Murphy, "and if Bronson says the Germans are coming, coming they are. For God's sake get busy."

And they did so to such good effect that, as the enemy swept into the city in the early dawn, there pulled out of the Union Station, for Philadelphia, an express train, bearing the members of the Cabinet and their families, together with the ranking official in the Departments of War, the Navy, and Finance.

The seizure of the city was accomplished with characteristic precision and dispatch. Every company and detachment had its objective. The advance force, 1,200