was very shallow, and only by building occasional dikes to
produce a current did the party find it possible to complete the
journey. As conferences with the Indians further delayed them, it
was not until a few days before Christmas that the invaders
reached their goal.

The capture of Vincennes proved easy enough. The surrender, none
the less, was made in good military style. There were two iron
three-pounders in the wretched little fort, and one of these was
loaded to the muzzle and placed in the open gate. As Hamilton and
his men advanced, so runs a not very well authenticated story,
Lieutenant Helm stood by the gun with a lighted taper and called
sternly upon the invaders to halt. The British leader demanded
the surrender of the garrison. Helm parleyed and asked for terms.
Hamilton finally conceded the honors of war, and Helm
magnanimously accepted. Hamilton thereupon drew up his forces in
a double line, the British on one side and the Indians on the
other; and the garrison--one officer and one soldier--solemnly
marched out between them! After the "conquerors" had regained
their equanimity, the cross of St. George was once more run up on
the fort. A body of French militia returned to British allegiance
with quite as much facility as it had shown in accepting American
sovereignty under the eloquence of Father Gibault; and the French
inhabitants, gathered again in the church, with perfectly
straight faces acknowledged that they had "sinned against God and
man" by taking sides with the rebels, and promised to be loyal
thereafter to George III.

Had the British forces immediately pushed on, this same scene
might have been repeated at Kaskaskia and Cahokia. Clark's