o the liquors. While he
hastily swigged and smacked he heard the firing begin with a crackling,
desultory volley. He laughed jovially, there in the dark, between
draughts and deep sighs of enjoyment.

"Et moi aussi," he murmured, like the vast murmur of the sea, "I want
to be in that dance! Pardonnez, messieurs. Moi, je veux danser, s'il
vous plait."

And when he had filled himself he plunged out and rushed away, wrought
up to the extreme fighting pitch of temper. Diable! if he could but
come across that Lieutenant Barlow, how he would smash him and mangle
him! In magnifying his prowess with the lens of imagination he swelled
and puffed as he lumbered along.

The firing sounded as if it were between the fort and the river; but
presently when one of Hamilton's cannon spoke, M. Roussillon saw the
yellow spike of flame from its muzzle leap directly toward the church,
and he thought it best to make a wide detour to avoid going between the
firing lines. Once or twice he heard the whine of a stray bullet high
overhead. Before he had gone very far he met a man hurrying toward the
fort. It was Captain Francis Maisonville, one of Hamilton's chief
scouts, who had been out on a reconnoissance and, cut off from his
party by some of Clark's forces, was trying to make his way to the main
gate of the stockade.

M. Roussillon knew Maisonville as a somewhat desperate character, a
leader of Indian forays and a trader in human scalps. Surely the fellow
was legitimate prey.

"Ziff! diable de gredin!" he snarled, and leaping upon him choked him
to the ground, "Je vais vous scalper immediatement!"

Clark's plan of approach showed masterly strategy. Lieutenant Bailey,
with fourteen regulars, made a show of attack on the east, while Major
Bowman led a company through the town, on a line near where Main street
in Vincennes is now located, to a point north of the stockade.
Charleville, a brave creole, who was at the head of some daring
fellows, by a brilliant dash got position under cover of a natural
terrace at the edge of the prairie, opposite the fort's southwestern
angle. Lieutenant Beverley, in whom the commander placed highest
confidence, was sent to look for a supply of ammunition, and to gather
up all the Frenchmen in the town who wished to join in the attack.
Oncle Jazon and ten other available men went with him.

They all made a great noise when they felt that the place was
completely invested. Nor can we deny, much as we woul