the fort and town not two miles away. Here they halted, and looked to
their rifles and ammunition, making ready for the fight. Every man now
feasted his eyes with the sight of what he had so long labored to reach,
and forthwith forgot that he had suffered any thing; making light of
what had been gone through, and passing from dogged despair to the most
exultant self-confidence.

Between the party and the town lay a plain, the hollows being filled
with little pools, on which were many water-fowl, and some of the
townspeople were in sight, on horseback, shooting ducks. Clark sent out
a few active young creoles, who succeeded in taking prisoner one of
these fowling horsemen. From him it was learned that neither Hamilton
nor any one else had the least suspicion that any attack could possibly
be made at that season, but that a couple of hundred Indian warriors had
just come to town.

Clark was rather annoyed at the last bit of information. The number of
armed men in town, including British, French, and Indians about
quadrupled his own force. This made heavy odds to face, even with the
advantage of a surprise, and in spite of the fact that his own men were
sure to fight to the last, since failure meant death by torture.
Moreover, if he made the attack without warning, some of the Indians and
Vincennes people would certainly be slain, and the rest would be thereby
made his bitter enemies, even if he succeeded. On the other hand, he
found out from the prisoner that the French were very lukewarm to the
British, and would certainly not fight if they could avoid it; and that
half of the Indians were ready to side with the Americans. Finally,
there was a good chance that before dark some one would discover the
approach of the troops and would warn the British, thereby doing away
with all chance of a surprise.