the first to drink the toast, and he sat down very
modestly amidst a thunder of applause.

The young man on the other side of me, somewhat flushed, leaped to his
feet.

"Down with the Federal government!" he cried; "what have they done for
us, indeed? Before General Wilkinson went to New Orleans the Spaniards
seized our flat boats and cargoes and flung our traders into prison, ay,
and sent them to the mines of Brazil. The Federal government takes sides
with the Indians against us. And what has that government done for you,
Colonel?" he demanded, turning to Clark, "you who have won for them half
of their territory? They have cast you off like an old moccasin. The
Continental officers who fought in the East have half-pay for life or
five years' full pay. And what have you?"

There was a breathless hush. A swift vision came to me of a man, young,
alert, commanding, stern under necessity, self-repressed at all times--a
man who by the very dominance of his character had awed into submission
the fierce Northern tribes of a continent, who had compelled men to
follow him until the life had all but ebbed from their bodies, who had
led them to victory in the end. And I remembered a boy who had stood
awe-struck before this man in the commandant's house at Fort Sackville.
Ay, and I heard again his words as though he had just spoken them,
"Promise me that you will not forget me if I am--unfortunate." I did not
understand then. And now because of a certain blinding of my eyes, I did
not see him clearly as he got slowly to his feet. He clutched the table.
He looked around him--I dare not say--vacantly. And then, suddenly, he
spoke with a supreme anger and a supreme bitterness.

"Not a shilling has this government given me," he cried. "Virginia was
more grateful; from her I have some acres of wild land and--a sword."
He laughed. "A sword, gentlemen, and not new at that. Oh, a grateful
government we serve, one careful of the honor of her captains.
Gentlemen, I stand to-day a discredited man because the honest debts I
incurred in the service of that government are repudiated, because my
friends who helped it, Father Gibault, Vigo, and Gratiot, and others
have never been repaid. One of them is ruined."

A dozen men had sprung clamoring to their feet before he sat down. One,
more excited than the rest, got the ear of the company.

"Do we lack leaders?" he cried. "We have them here with us to-night, in
this room. Who will stop us? Not