“The metropolis of our country was abandoned to its horrid fate.” - Mordecai Booth, August 24th, 1814.
Xavier didn’t play the evening of August 24th, 1814. On that evening men clad in red and in misguided defense of a rightly deposed leader marched through the US Capitol and burned it. Xavier didn’t play that night. British Major General Robert Ross laughed to an onlooking woman as the flames danced and a hurricane blew in that both he and “Providence” intended to destroy the city that night. That was the last time that armed invaders crossed the threshold of the US Capitol.