the quarters of the commanding officer, and the arsenal, and are
arranged in a picturesque and symmetrical manner within the square. The
grounds are shaded by ornamental trees, and the dwellings are adorned
with gardens and shrubbery. Broad and neatly kept walks, some gravelled
and others paved, bordered by finely clipped hedges, extend across the
green or along the line of the buildings, opening charming vistas in
every direction. Four venerable pieces of artillery, all betokening
great age, if not service, standing in the centre of the square, furnish
the only outward and visible show of the military character of this
immense establishment.

The principal building, as regards size and architectural beauty, is the
arsenal, which is two hundred feet long by seventy wide, and three
stories high,--each story being sufficiently capacious to contain one
hundred thousand muskets. The muskets, when stored in this arsenal, are
arranged in racks, set up for the purpose, along the immense halls,
where they stand upright in rows of glittering steel, and so closely
resemble the pipes of an organ that the propriety of Longfellow's simile
suggests itself at once to every observer:--

"This is the arsenal. From floor to ceiling,
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms;
But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing
Startles the villages with strange alarms."

Unhappily, the last two lines of this beautiful stanza no longer
appropriately describe the quiet and peaceful condition of these then
harmless arms,--one hundred and fifty thousand of them having been
literally stolen from this arsenal by Floyd during the last year of his
secretaryship at Washington, and sent South in anticipation and