ned their best (as they thought) for the last time,--cloth
of camlet and Cadiz and Limbourg, white cotton stockings, and
brass-buckled shoes. They came like captives led to execution. But at
their head a figure held our eye,--a figure that spoke of dignity and
courage, of trials borne for others. It was the village priest in his
robes. He had a receding forehead and a strong, pointed chin; but
benevolence was in the curve of his great nose. I have many times since
seen his type of face in the French prints. He and his flock halted
before our young Colonel, even as the citizens of Calais in a bygone
century must have stood before the English king.

The scene comes back to me. On the one side, not the warriors of a
nation that has made its mark in war, but peaceful peasants who had
sought this place for its remoteness from persecution, to live and die in
harmony with all mankind. On the other, the sinewy advance guard of a
race that knows not peace, whose goddess of liberty carries in her hand a
sword. The plough might have been graven on our arms, but always the
rifle.

The silence of the trackless wilds reigned while Clark gazed at them
sternly. And when he spoke it was with the voice of a conqueror, and
they listened as the conquered listen, with heads bowed--all save the
priest.

Clark told them first that they had been given a false and a wicked
notion of the American cause, and he spoke of the tyranny of the English
king, which had become past endurance to a free people. As for
ourselves, the Long Knives, we came in truth to conquer, and because of
their hasty judgment the Kaskaskians were at our mercy. The British had
told them that the Kentuckians were a barbarous people, and they had
believed.

He paused that John Duff might translate and the gist of what he had said
sink in. But suddenly the priest had stepped out from the ranks, faced
his people, and was himself translating in a strong voice. When he had
finished a tremor shook the group. But he turned calmly and faced Clark
once more.

"Citizens of Kaskaskia," Colonel Clark went on, "the king whom you
renounced when the English conquered you, the great King of France, has
judged for you and the French people. Knowing that the American cause is
just, he is sending his fleets and regiments to fight for it against the
British King, who until now has been your sovereign."

Again he paused, and when the priest had told them this, a murmur of
astonishment ca