“My God! monsieur, how can he? Should I be where I am, if that were the case? I will tell the truth, monsieur. The Governor expects you to come up the river, and men are there, on the watch.”
“Then we waste time here,” said the leader, abruptly. “Major Bowman, take your own company, with Harrod’s and Helm’s. Cross in this man’s boat, and march on the town as I told you. When you hear a gun from the fort, rush in with a shout, take the place, and disarm every one. You know the orders. Captain Montgomery’s company will follow me. Place a guard over this house, and shoot any one who tries to come out. Get in there!”
He signified his orders to the terrified Picards, who hurried into the house, expecting nothing less than instant death. The ignorant French were full of superstitious terrors about the Americans, whom they had been taught to regard as merciless savages; and Clark’s seeming brutality only confirmed the impression.
Then there was a hurried embarkation by the riverside.
Honest Picard never dreamed that his flat-boat, which had conveyed so many loads of cabbage to Kaskaskia, would come one July night, to be a transport for ferocious enemies. But it was even so, now. Loaded down to the water’s edge with wild-looking backwoodsmen, it served as a ferry for the three companies destined to attack the town, and, in less than an hour after, the whole body was on its silent way to Kaskaskia.
At the moment of starting, Clark led the remaining company down the river toward the fort, only about a half-mile below. The men proceeded in Indian file, stealing along like ghosts; and a person a hundred yards off could have suspected nothing.
In a short time the gray bastions of the fort loomed up before them, standing at the edge of a high bank, down which one of its outworks stretched to the water’s edge.
The leader stayed his men with a signal and stole forward himself to reconnoiter, when the sound of voices in gay conversation struck his ear; and, the moment after, a little postern door low down by the water, opened, and two men came out and advanced toward the Americans as if careless of danger.
Without an order given, every one of the invaders sunk down to the earth in an instant and vanished from view, leaving Clark alone in the middle of the open glacis.
The commander did not drop. He knew that he had been seen, for the two men halted and seemed undecided whether to advance or not.