72 The Winning of the West 



to keep close to their houses on pain of death; and 

 by daylight he had them all disarmed. The back- 

 woodsmen patrolled the town in little squads, while 

 the French in silent terror cowered within their low- 

 roofed houses. Clark was quite willing that they 

 should fear the worst; and their panic was very 

 great. The unlooked-for and mysterious approach 

 and sudden onslaught of the backwoodsmen, their 

 wild and uncouth appearance, and the ominous si- 

 lence of their commander, all combined to fill the 

 French with fearful forebodings for their future 

 fate. 25 



Next morning a deputation of the chief men 

 waited upon Clark; and thinking themselves in the 

 hands of mere brutal barbarians, all they dared to 

 do was to beg for their lives, which they did, says 

 Clark, "with the greatest servancy [saying] they 

 were willing to be slaves to save their families'," 

 though the bolder spirits could not refrain from 

 cursing their fortune that theyhad not been warned 

 in time to defend themselves. Now came Clark's 

 chance for his winning stroke. He knew it was 

 hopeless to expect his little band permanently to 

 hold down a much more numerous hostile popula- 

 tion, that was closely allied to many surrounding 



25 In his "Memoir" Clark dwells at length on the artifices 

 by which he heightened the terror of the French ; and But- 

 ler enlarges still further upon them. I follow the letter to 

 Mason, which is much safer authority, the writer having 

 then no thought of trying to increase the dramatic effect of 

 the situation which in Butler, and indeed in the "Memoir" 

 also, is strained till it conies dangerously near bathos. 



