a two-wheeled cart, and myself. We were going to Cahokia, and
it was very cold, and when the tireless wheels bumped from ridge to
gully, the gentlemen grabbed each other as they slid about, and laughed.

All at once the merriment ceased, and looking forward we saw that Tom had
leaped from his saddle and was bending over something in the snow. These
chanced to be the footprints of some twenty men.

The immediate result of this alarming discovery was that Tom went on
express to warn Captain Bowman, and the rest of us returned to a painful
scene at Kaskaskia. We reached the village, the French gentlemen leaped
down from their stools in the cart, and in ten minutes the streets were
filled with frenzied, hooded figures. Hamilton, called the Hair Buyer,
was upon them with no less than six hundred, and he would hang them to
their own gateposts for listening to the Long Knives. These were but a
handful after all was said. There was Father Gibault, for example.
Father Gibault would doubtless be exposed to the crows in the belfry of
his own church because he had busied himself at Vincennes and with other
matters. Father Gibault was human, and therefore lovable. He bade his
parishioners a hasty and tearful farewell, and he made a cold and painful
journey to the territories of his Spanish Majesty across the Mississippi.

Father Gibault looked back, and against the gray of the winter's twilight
there were flames like red maple leaves. In the fort the men stood to
their guns, their faces flushed with staring at the burning houses. Only
a few were burned,--enough to give no cover for Hamilton and his six
hundred if they came.

But they did not come. The faithful Bowman and his men arrived instead,
with the news that there had been only a roving party of forty, and these
were now in full retreat.

Father Gibault came back. But where was Hamilton? This was the
disquieting thing.

One bitter day, when the sun smiled mockingly on the powdered common, a
horseman was perceived on the Fort Chartres road. It was Monsieur Vigo
returning from Vincennes, but he had been first to St. Louis by reason of
the value he set upon his head. Yes, Monsieur Vigo had been to
Vincennes, remaining a little longer than he expected, the guest of
Governor Hamilton. So Governor Hamilton had recaptured that place!
Monsieur Vigo was no spy, hence he had gone first to St. Louis. Governor
Hamilton was at Vincennes with much of King George's gold, and many
suppl