In the Current of the Revolution 71 



revel was held, he leaned silently with folded arms 

 against the door-post, looking at the dancers. An 

 Indian, lying on the floor of the entry, gazed in- 

 tently on the stranger's face as the light from the 

 torches within flickered across it, and suddenly 

 sprang to his feet uttering the unearthly war-whoop. 

 Instantly the dancing ceased ; the women screamed, 

 while the men ran toward the door. But Clark, 

 standing unmoved and with unchanged face, grimly 

 bade them continue their dancing, but to remember 

 that they now danced under Virginia and not Great 

 Britain. 23 At the same time his men burst into the 

 fort, and seized the French officers, including the 

 commandant, Rocheblave. 24 



Immediately Clark had every street secured, and 

 sent runners through the town ordering the people 



23 Memoir of Major E. Denny, by Wm. H. Denny, p. 217. 

 In "Record of the Court of Upland and Military Journal of 

 Major E. Denny," Philadelphia, 1860 (Historical Society of 

 Penn.). The story was told to Major Denny by Clark him- 

 self,, sometime in '87 or '88; in process of repetition it evi- 

 dently became twisted, and, as related by Denny, there are 

 some very manifest inaccuracies, but there seems no reason 

 to reject it entirely. 



24 It is worth noting that these Illinois French, and most 

 of the Indians with whom the French fur traders came in 

 contact, called the Americans "Bostonnais." (In fact the fur 

 traders have taught this name to the northern tribes right 

 across to the Pacific. While hunting in the Selkirk Moun- 

 tains last fall, the Kootenai Indian who was with me always 

 described me as a "Boston man.") Similarly the Indians 

 round the upper Ohio and thence southward often called the 

 backwoodsmen "Virginians." In each case the French and 

 Indians adopted the name of their leading and most inveter- 

 ate enemies as the title by which to call all of them. 



