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 would like to,
the strong desire for vengeance which raised those shouting voices
and nerved those steady hearts to do or die in an undertaking
which certainly had a desperate look. Patriotism of the purest
strain those men had, and that alone would have borne them up; but
the recollection of smouldering cabin homes in Kentucky, of women
and children murdered and scalped, of men brave and true burned at
the stake, and of all the indescribable outrages of Indian warfare
incited and rewarded by the commander of the fort yonder, added to
patriotism the terrible urge of that dark passion which clamors
for blood to quench the fire of wrath.
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