He paused, and a hoarse murmur of anger ran along the ranks.

“Whose gold but George’s, by the grace of God King of Great Britain and Ireland?  And what minions distribute it?  Abbott at Kaskaskia, for one, and Hamilton at Detroit, the Hair Buyer, for another!”

When he spoke Hamilton’s name his voice was nearly drowned by imprecations.

“Silence!” cried Clark, sternly, and they were silent.  “My friends, the best way for a man to defend himself is to maim his enemy.  One year since, when you did me the honor to choose me Commander-in-chief of your militia in Kentucky, I sent two scouts to Kaskaskia.  A dozen years ago the French owned that place, and St. Vincent, and Detroit, and the people there are still French.  My men brought back word that the French feared the Long Knives, as the Indians call us.  On the first of October I went to Virginia, and some of you thought again that I had deserted you.  I went to Williamsburg and wrestled with Governor Patrick Henry and his council, with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Mason and Mr. Wythe.  Virginia had no troops to send us, and her men were fighting barefoot with Washington against the armies of the British king.  But the governor gave me twelve hundred pounds in paper, and with it I have raised the little force that we have here.  And with it we will carry the war into Hamilton’s country.  On the swift waters of this great river which flows past us have come tidings to-day, and God Himself has sent them.  To-morrow would have been too late.  The ships and armies of the French king are on their way across the ocean to help us fight the tyrant, and this is the news that we bear to the Kaskaskias.  When they hear this, the French of those towns will not fight against us.  My friends, we are going to conquer an empire for liberty, and I can look onward,” he cried in a burst of inspired eloquence, sweeping his arm to the northward toward the forests on the far side of the Ohio, “I can look onward to the day when these lands will be filled with the cities of a Great Republic.  And who among you will falter at such a call?”

There was a brief silence, and then a shout went up from the ranks that drowned the noise of the Falls, and many fell into antics, some throwing their coonskin hats in the air, and others cursing and scalping Hamilton in mockery, while I pounded on the drum with all my might.  But when we had broken ranks the rumor was whispered about that the Holston company had not cheered, and indeed the rest of the day these men went about plainly morose and discontented,—­some saying openly (and with much justice, though we failed to see it then) that they had their own families and settlements to defend from the Southern Indians and Chickamauga bandits, and could not undertake Kentucky’s fight at that time.  And when the enthusiasm had burned away a little the disaffection spread, and some even of the Kentuckians began to murmur against Clark, for faith or genius was needful to inspire men to his plan.  One of the malcontents from Boonesboro came to our fire to argue.