They found no one to stop them. The soldiers in the fort
were having a dance, and the Americans could hear the merry music
of a violin and the laughing voices of girls.
Clark left his men just outside the fort, and, finding a door open,
he walked in. He reached the room where the fun was going on, and
stopping there, he stood leaning against the door-post, looking on.
The room was lighted with torches; the light of one of the torches
happened to fall full on Clark's face; an Indian sitting on the floor
caught sight of him; he sprang to his feet and gave a terrific
war-whoop. The dancers stopped as though they had been shot; the
women screamed; the men ran to the door to get their guns. Clark did
not move, but said quietly, "Go on; only remember you are dancing
now under Virginia, and not under Great Britain." The next moment
the Americans rushed in, and Clark and his "Long Knives," as the
Indians called his men, had full possession of the fort.
[Illustration: CLARK LOOKING ON AT THE DANCE.]
164. How Fort Vincennes was taken; how the British got it back again;
what Francis Vigo[8] did.--Clark wanted next to march against Fort
Vincennes, but he had not men enough. There was a French Catholic
priest[9] at Kaskaskia, and Clark's kindness to him had made him our
friend.
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