Immediately Clark had every street secured, and sent runners through the town ordering the people to keep close to their houses on pain of death; and by daylight he had them all disarmed.  The backwoodsmen 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 silence of their commander, all combined to fill the French with fearful forebodings for their future fate. [Footnote:  In his “Memoir” Clark dwells at length on the artifices by which he heightened the terror of the French; and Butler 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 comes dangerously near bathos.]

    Clark’s Diplomacy.

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 they had 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 population, that was closely allied to many surrounding tribes of warlike Indians; he wished above all things to convert the inhabitants into ardent adherents of the American Government.

So he explained at length that, though the Americans came as conquerors, who by the laws of war could treat the defeated as they wished, yet it was ever their principle to free, not to enslave, the people with whom they came in contact.  If the French chose to become loyal citizens, and to take the oath of fidelity to the Republic, they should be welcomed to all the privileges of Americans; those who did not so choose should be allowed to depart from the land in peace with their families.

    The Creoles Espouse the American Cause.

The mercurial creoles who listened to his speech passed rapidly from the depth of despair to the height of joy.  Instead of bewailing their fate they now could not congratulate themselves enough on their good-fortune.  The crowning touch to their happiness was given by Clark when he told the priest, Pierre Gibault, in answer to a question as to whether the Catholic Church could be opened, that an American commander had nothing to do with any church save to defend it from insult, and that by the laws of the Republic his religion had as great privileges as any other.  With that