front that nothing was attempted until the next
day, the 17th of December, just seventy-one days after the expedition
had left Detroit, when Hamilton came up at the head of his whole force
and entered Vincennes. Poor Helm was promptly deserted by all the creole
militia. The latter had been loud in their boasts until the enemy came
in view, but as soon as they caught sight of the red-coats they began to
slip away and run up to the British to surrender their arms. [Footnote:
_Do._ Intercepted letter of Captain Helm, Series B., Vol. 122, p. 280.]
He was finally left with only one or two men, Americans. Nevertheless he
refused the first summons to surrender; but Hamilton, who knew that
Helm's troops had deserted him, marched up to the fort at the head of
his soldiers, and the American was obliged to surrender, with no terms
granted save that he and his associates should be treated with humanity.
[Footnote: Letter of Hamilton, Dec. 18-30, 1778. The story of Helm's
marching out with the honors of war is apparently a mere invention. Even
Mann Butler, usually so careful, permits himself to be led off into all
sorts of errors when describing the incidents of the Illinois and
Vincennes expeditions, and the writers who have followed him have
generally been less accurate. The story of Helm drinking toddy by the
fire-place when Clark retook the fort, and of the latter ordering
riflemen to fire at the chimney, so as to knock the mortar into the
toddy, may safely be set down as pure--and very weak--fiction. When
Clark wrote his memoirs, in his old age, he took delight in writing down
among his exploits all sorts of childish stratagems; the marvel is that
any sane historian should not have seen that these were on their face as
untrue as they were ridiculous.] The instant the fort was surrendered
the Indians broke in and plundered it; but they committed no act of
cruelty, and only plundered a single private house.

Measures to Secure his Conquest.

The French inhabitants had shown pretty clearly that they did not take a
keen interest in the struggle, on either side. They were now summoned to
the church and offered the chance--which they for the most part eagerly
embraced--of purging themselves of their past misconduct by taking a
most humiliating oath of repentance, acknowledging that they had sinned
against God and man by siding with the rebels, and promising to be loyal
in the future. Two hundred and fifty of the militia, being gi