Pope almost to the last had talked of victory.

Then came a telegram, asking if the capital could be defended in case his army was destroyed.

Next came the army preceded by thousands of stragglers and heralds of disaster.
The people were dropped from the golden clouds of hope to the hard earth of despair.

They strained their eyes toward Manassas, where the flag of the Union had twice gone down in disaster.

It was said, and there was ample cause for the saying of it, that Lee and Jackson with their victorious veterans would appear any moment before the capital.
There were rumors that the government was packing up in order to flee northward to Philadelphia or even New York.
But Dick believed none of these rumors.