Its fluttering motions seemed to Harry more significant than ever of defiance.

He understood the melancholy ring in Colonel Talbot's voice.

He, too, like the boy's father, had fought under that flag, the same flag that had led him up the flame-swept slopes of Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec.
"Here they come," exclaimed St.Clair, "and I know already the answer that they bring!" The small boat that he had predicted put out from Sumter and quickly landed at the Battery.

It contained three commissioners, prominent men of Charleston who had been sent to treat with Major Anderson, and his answer was quickly known to all the crowd.

Sumter was the property of the United States, not of South Carolina, and he would hold it for the Union.