Which flag will fly in the morning? This was the question asked by a young man as he was held prisoner on a British ship during the battle of Baltimore 200 years ago last night.
The British were aiming to take the city of Baltimore, but were receiving heavy fire from Fort McHenry 6 miles down the bay from Baltimore Harbor.
That young man, named Francis Scott Key, looked desperately through "the rockets red glare" to see whether "the flag was still there."
"Does that star spangled banner yet wave?" he wanted to know. And "by the dawn's early light" it was clear that the stars and stripes still flew over Fort McHenry, not the union jack as he and the other Baltimoreans had feared.
Francis Scott Key penned a poem to express his emotions from that night on this day 200 years ago. This poem was set to music and has become the United States' national anthem.
Last night in Baltimore we saw the Star Spangled Spectacular celebration during which fireworks were exploded from Baltimore's Inner Harbor all the way to Fort McHenry. It was deafening, and it likely sounded exactly like it did on the same night 200 years previous when there were "bombs bursting in air" and when the question was, 'Which flag will be flying in the morning?'
I wonder the same about Edinburgh this week. Which flag will be flying on Friday morning?