Chapter VI

Then straight at the great, quiet city,
The strong and o'erconfident city,
The ruined and tempest-tossed city,
Doomed Queen of the North and the West,

The Fire-devil rallied his legions, and speeded them forth on the wind,
With tinder and treasures before him, with ruins and tempests behind.
The tenement crushed 'neath his footstep, the mansion oped wide at his
knock;
And walls that had frowned him defiance, they trembled and fell with a
shock;
And down on the hot, smoking house-tops came raining a deluge of fire;
And serpents of flame writhed and clambered, and twisted on steeple and
spire;
And beautiful, glorious Chicago, the city of riches and fame,
Was swept by a storm of destruction, was flooded by billows of flame.
The Fire-king loomed high in his glory, with crimson and flame-streaming
crest,
And grinned his fierce scorn on Chicago, doomed Queen of the North and
the West.