UNDER THE OLD FLAG
"And many an eye has danced to see
That banner in the sky."
It was in the early days of March, some eight months later, that the
big barge in which I had come down the Ohio, and thus far on the
Mississippi, put me ashore at New Madrid with my saddle-bags and my
horse Bourbon Prince; for so I had promptly named the black beauty for
whom I had exchanged my chestnut mare. He could never quite take the
place of Fatima in my affections, but I had grown very fond of him:
partly for his virtues, for he was a thoroughbred of famous lineage,
and partly, I have no doubt, because he had once belonged to
mademoiselle.
Of mademoiselle I had not heard for many months. I had arrived at home
in the late summer, to find my father a physical and almost a mental
wreck from the stroke of paralysis that had laid him low nearly three
months before. Yet I had never loved my strong, stern father in the
prime of manhood, managing great business enterprises, occupying
places of honor and responsibility in the State, as I loved this
feeble and broken old man with the face and the manner of a little
child. As the weeks went on and he gradually grew able to move about,
it was my pride and my joy to walk slowly down Chestnut Street, my
father leaning heavily on my arm, and looking up into my face to
comment with childish delight upon whatever pleased him in the
streets.
I had had to assume, to the best of my ability, his heavy business
responsibilities, and the charge of his great properties, and but that
my mother was herself a fine business woman and thoroughly informed on
my father's affairs I might have made shipwreck of it all. It was not
the life I had chosen for myself, but it lay so directly in the path
of duty there was no escaping it, and it kept every moment so fully
occupied there was no time left for brooding over private troubles.
I had received a letter from the Prince de Polignac about two weeks
after my return home, telling me of the safe arrival in Baden of the
Comtesse de Baloit. It was a very courteous letter, thanking me once
more for the great services I had rendered them on that eventful night
in the Chantilly parks, and inclosing a pleasant message of
acknowledgment from the Duc d'Enghien for the kindness shown his
cousin the countess. Mademoiselle had added a line in her own writing:
"Fatima is well, and I love her for the sake of dear old St.
Louis.
PELAGIE."
To most people that might seem a very common-place little message; to
me those sixteen words were the most wonderful ever written. I twisted
and turned them until each one became a volume of tender sentiments,
and the little signature "Pelagie" almost too sacred to be looked at,
and only to be kissed, shut up in my own room in the dark, or with
none but the moon to see.
I had replied to the prince's letter immediately, sending a courteous
message to the duke and a special one to Pelagie about Clotilde, whom
I had sent under safe escort to St. Louis. But although I had
intimated to the prince that it would give me very great pleasure to
hear occasionally of the welfare of the countess, I never heard from
any of them again.
This, of course, was an especial grief to me on Pelagie's account, but
also it touched me a little that the prince should so soon have
forgotten me and what he was pleased to term my "great services" to
him, for I had been strongly attracted to him by his noble bearing and
chivalrous protection of mademoiselle. Often, in thinking of them,--he
a noble young prince of great manly beauty and endowed by nature with
all charming and lovable qualities; she the most exquisite of
womankind,--I thought it would be strange indeed if in the intimate
companionship of that long ride together they had not become so deeply
interested in each other as to forget the existence of a young
American gentleman three thousand miles away.
When in the winter there came news of the Cadoudal plots against the
life of Napoleon, in which the young Prince de Polignac and his older
brother the duke were involved; that both brothers had been arrested,
tried, and condemned to death; and, later, that Napoleon had granted
them a free pardon, I could easily believe that other interests than
love and marriage had so absorbed the prince as to make him forgetful
of a distant acquaintance.
On the heels of this appalling news, which shook the world and which
yet left me glad and grateful that the chivalrous young prince had
been saved from the ignominious death of an assassin, there came a
letter to me from Captain Clarke, written in St. Louis, inviting me to
join the expedition of discovery and exploration which Mr. Meriwether
Lewis and he were to conduct up the Missouri River and across the
mountains.
Few duties have come to me in life more difficult to perform than the
writing of that letter declining the invitation. It was the life I
longed for, to be had for the taking, and an expedition of such kind
under the leadership of two men like my captain, whom I still adored,
and Mr. Meriwether Lewis, whom I greatly admired, was the strongest
temptation that could be presented to me.
But I knew well it was not for me. It would, no doubt, be a year or
two in the accomplishing, with many hazards to life and limb, and I
was now the virtual head of the family, with mother and sisters and
invalid father all looking to me for protection and guidance and
comfort. No, it was not to be thought of.
Without consulting any one I sent my answer, but I suppose my face was
an open book to my dear mother, and in some moment of abstraction I
had forgotten to be cheerful and so betrayed that something was
troubling me. At any rate, she came to my room one night, and there,
in the way that mothers have, she beguiled my secret from me. She
agreed with me that it would never do in my father's state of health
to join such an expedition, but she was greatly distressed for what
she called my disappointment, though I tried to assure her it was not
enough to think about.
Now mothers have a way of finding a salve for every hurt. I suppose it
is a talent God has given them, that this world may be a pleasanter
place for living in, and that the rugged path we have to tread through
it may be smoother and pleasanter to our feet. (Though I hope no one
will think because I have said this that I am one of those long-faced
people who think this world a vale of woes to be traversed as quickly
as possible, looking neither to the right nor to the left, lest they
see something to please their eyes. I have ever found it a pleasant
world, and my path through it of exceeding interest, with some sorrows
and many difficulties to test one's mettle and add to the zest of
living; but also with many wonderful and beautiful things lying all
along the path, that God has placed there that one may stop and enjoy
them and rest by the wayside.)
Now the salve my mother found for this hurt was one to my especial
liking.
"Though you could not be gone from home two or three years, my son,"
she said, "a matter of two or three months could make no great
difference to any one; why not go out to St. Louis, see your friends
there, and help the expedition get under way?"
My heart gave a great leap. "And get news of mademoiselle from Dr.
Saugrain," I said to myself; but then I hesitated. Would my father
miss me too sadly? for he had seemed to lean upon me much for comfort
and companionship. When I expressed my fears to my mother, she
hesitated also, but we both finally agreed we would leave it to her to
broach the matter to my father, and if it seemed to distress him too
greatly, we would say nothing more about it.
To my surprise, he was almost more eager for it than my mother. It
need not have surprised me, for even in the old days my father, though
stern, had never been selfish, and now all the unselfishness of his
nature had seemed to grow strong with his feebleness.
Thus it was that I stood once more on the shores of the Great River.
Had my impatience permitted me to wait a little longer at Pittsburg, I
might have found a boat going all the way to St. Louis, but I had
rather take the ride of nearly a hundred and fifty miles on Bourbon
(for so I had shortened his name) than to spend a day in idle waiting.
A barge going to New Orleans (New Orleans had been under our flag
since the twentieth of December, and the river was teeming with craft
bearing our merchandise to the once prohibited market) took me on
board and put me ashore at New Madrid in the early morning, and I lost
not a moment's time in getting started on my northward way.
The spring was early that year, and in the warm and sheltered valley,
lying open to the south, where New Madrid nestles, the orchards were
already a pink and white glory, and in the forest glades the wild
azaleas and the dogwood were just ready to burst into bloom. Riding
under leafy archways of tall trees garlanded with wild vines, or
through natural meadows dotted with clumps of shrubbery, as if set out
by the hand of man for a park, where the turf was like velvet under
Bourbon's feet; crossing little streams that a sudden rush of
headwater from the hills had swollen to dangerous torrents, or other
streams that backwater from the Great River had converted into inland
lakes; the air sweet with the fragrance of the wild crab and
blossoming grape; wood-thrush and oriole, meadow-lark and
cardinal-bird, making the woods ring with their melodies--this ride
through Upper Louisiana in the early springtime was one long joy to
eye and ear and nostril. Farther north the spring was less advanced,
only little leaves on the trees, and for flowers a carpet, sometimes
extending for miles, of creamy-white spring-beauties, streaked with
rosy pink, laid down for Bourbon's feet to tread upon; and for birds
the modest song-sparrow and bluebird, earliest harbingers of spring.
I stayed the first night in Cape Girardeau (and thought of the
chevalier in hiding for weeks among the Osages near by); the second
night I spent with the Vallés in Ste. Genevieve. I had known young
François Vallé in St. Louis the winter before, and meeting me on the
street as I rode into town, he carried me off at once to his father's
house with true Louisiana hospitality--a hospitality that welcomed the
coming but did not speed the parting guest. I found it hard work to
get away the next morning, with such friendly insistence did they urge
me to remain for a visit, seeming to feel also that I was putting a
slight upon their quaint old town--the oldest in Upper Louisiana--by
so short a stay.
But I was impatient to be on my way, and my impatience grew as I
neared St. Louis. A long day's ride brought me toward evening to the
banks of the Maramec, full to the brim of its high banks with
backwater from the Mississippi. I thought, at first, I would have to
swim it, but, fortunately, I spied a horn hanging from the limb of a
sycamore above my head, and I knew enough of the ways of this frontier
country to know that a horn by a river-bank meant a ferry. So I blew
it lustily, and in five minutes there appeared from under the
overhanging trees of the opposite bank a flatboat, paddled by an old
man, who not only ferried Bourbon and me safely across dry-shod, but
persuaded me to spend the night with him in his little cabin; for the
night was coming on cloudy and dark, and there were still nearly
twenty miles to ride, and swollen streams to cross that might mean
trouble in the dark. He had not the great house of the Vallés, with
troops of slaves to wait on us and an abundance of frontier luxuries
(for Mr. François Vallé, Sr., was the richest man in all that country)
but his hospitality was as genuine. For the ferriage he took money,
since that was his business; for the night's lodging and supper and
breakfast he would have none of it. True, my bed was only a bearskin
on the hard floor, and my supper and breakfast were the same,--a slice
of bacon and a bowl of hominy,--but such as he had he gave me of his
best.
In the early dawn I had a plunge in the Maramec for bath (and its
waters had the icy tang of the melting snows on the distant
mountains), and then I made a careful toilet, for in a few hours I
would see my old friends in St. Louis, and, at thought of the merry
glances from bright eyes I would soon be meeting, my heart sank within
me that Pelagie's would not be among them.
As I neared St. Louis, every step of the way was full of reminders of
her. Crossing La Petite Rivière, I thought of the day of the picnic on
Chouteau's Pond, and involuntarily I listened for the call of the
whippoorwill. But instead there was the happy song of the spring birds
filling the woods that crested the banks, and my heart grew lighter in
response to their joyous melodies.
I entered the town by the lower entrance, leading through the stockade
on to the Rue Royale, for I was of a mind to ride through the streets
of the town and see whom I should chance to meet before presenting
myself at Dr. Saugrain's.
I had advanced no great distance when I saw coming to meet me a
splendid procession: young men and maidens, parents and children, the
whole population of the town, I should think, in gala array, and
singing as they came.
I was overwhelmed at the prospect of such honor accorded me, and
greatly touched, too, that my old friends should welcome me back so
gladly, but I was in a quandary what to do: whether it would be more
dignified to stay Bourbon in the middle of the road and await their
approach, or whether to advance to meet them.
It puzzled me greatly, also, that they should have known the exact
moment of my arrival, for although both Dr. Saugrain and Captain
Clarke knew of my intended visit, they could hardly have calculated to
such a nicety not only the day but the very hour of my entry into
town. It must be that pickets had been stationed to descry my approach
from a distance and give the signal.
Still puzzling my brains over the wonder of it all, and hardly knowing
whether to feel more proud or more frightened at the honor intended
me, and wishing with all my heart that I had known of it that I might
have arrayed myself in a costume befitting the occasion, I slowly drew
near the procession, and the procession drew near me.
Then suddenly I discovered what nothing but my domtiferous vanity had
prevented me from discerning from the first: this was a religious
procession bearing the banners of the church and singing Aves and Te
Deums. I had known such processions before in St. Louis on saints'
days, and always headed by the two most beautiful maidens in the town,
bearing silver plates, who, as the procession drew up to the church,
stood on either side of the door holding the plates to receive alms. I
drew Bourbon to one side of the road and waited.
Yes, there were the two beautiful maidens with the silver plates, and
I was not surprised to see that one was Mademoiselle Chouteau; and as
she drew near she could not resist a saucy look of recognition in her
dancing eyes, entirely out of character in the leader of a religious
procession. I smiled back at her, my heart already growing warmer and
lighter with her friendliness, and then I glanced at the other: a wavy
mass of soft, dark hair, little ringlets about white neck and brow,
lips like a scarlet pomegranate blossom, and long, black lashes lying
on an ivory cheek, where the pale rose was fast turning to crimson
under my gaze.
It was Pelagie! Her cheek told the tale that she knew I was looking at
her, yet not once did she lift her eyes and look at me. I wonder that
my heart did not break through my breast, so great a bound it made
when I discovered her, and then all the blood in my body flowed back
upon it, and I sat on Bourbon as one carved in marble, while friends
and acquaintances passed by and smiled up at me in kindly welcome. Not
until Josef Papin left the ranks and came up to me with outstretched
hand could I recover myself and begin to feel alive again, with the
blood slowly running back in its courses and tingling in my
finger-tips.
"Come," he said, when the first greetings were over, "tie your horse
to the tree, and we will fall in at the end of the line and go up to
the church together. This is no saint's day, as you might think, but
we are to have mass for the last time under the old rule. The United
States troops come over to-day from Cahokia and take possession."
This was wonderful news to me, and I could not but feel a great
sympathy with him, for he spoke with a voice that faltered. What would
it not have meant to me if my own city of Philadelphia were being
transferred to the rule of France or Spain!
On our way he told me what my soul most longed to hear: how
mademoiselle came to be in St. Louis.
Her cousin, the Duc d'Enghien, had begun to feel that his home was no
longer a safe place for her, for Bonaparte's spies were watching him,
and he felt that though Baden was neutral territory he might at any
moment be arrested and thrown into prison. That would leave Pelagie
entirely unprotected, and he had begun to consider some other safer
retreat for her. When mademoiselle found that she was to be sent away
from Ettenheim, she begged that she might return to St. Louis, the
only place she had known as home, and to the people she loved, who had
been to her kindred and friends. It was only after much pleading that
the duke had been persuaded to let her go so far from home again, but
mademoiselle's heart was set on it.
"And," said Josef Papin, "as we both know, when she will, she will; I
defy any man to gainsay her. She arrived two weeks ago by way of New
Orleans, with a Monsieur and Madame Dubois, newly married, I believe,
who were coming over to America to settle."
"Monsieur and Madame Dubois!" I said, in some excitement.
"Yes; do you know them?" asked Josef, curiously.
"I am not sure. I may have met them; I met a Monsieur and Madame
Dubois once at Chantilly near Paris," I answered carelessly, "but very
likely they are not the same."
"No, they could not be," answered Josef, "for they were married only
just before leaving for America."
And then there was no chance to say anything more, for our end of the
procession was nearing the church door, where on either side stood
Mademoiselle Chouteau and Pelagie, holding out their silver plates
already piled high with livres.
As I glanced at Pelagie I felt as if royalty radiated from her--from
the proud pose of her dainty head to the high-bred arch of her little
foot. "A princess of Condé!" I exclaimed to myself half angrily, "and
meekly holding the church plate for negroes and Indians and humble
habitans, and smiling up into the faces of her old friends with a
royal sweetness."
I was on the side next her as we drew near the door. Will she look at
me? I wondered. We were the last in the line; it would hinder no one
if I stopped a moment beside her.
But I could not make her look up at me. One louis d'or after another I
piled upon her plate, but the only effect it had was to make it
tremble in her hands and the color deepen steadily in her face. I
could not stand there gazing rudely at her, and I went into the church
beside Josef Papin as in a dream, half doubting it was mademoiselle,
yet watching her eagerly as she and Mademoiselle Chouteau bore the
plates up the aisle and held them aloft before the altar for the
priest to bless.
The service that followed was indescribably solemn and touched me
greatly; it was as though it were a service for the dead, and the
people (the whole village was there, every man, woman, and child I had
known the year before) chanted the responses with the tears running
down their cheeks. Josef Papin had told me that the old priest who had
baptized all the younger generation and married their parents was
going away with the Spaniards, unwilling to be subject to a foreign
rule, and the mourning of the people for their father was from the
heart.
As they knelt upon the floor to receive the benediction (and the sound
of their kneeling was like the breeze among the dry leaves of autumn)
they broke out into a long, low wail that rose and swelled and then
died away in the sound of suppressed sobbing. Nevermore under Latin
rule would they kneel in their dear old church, but under the rule of
the hated Anglo-Saxons, their hereditary foe. Nevermore would the
priest they had loved and reverenced for years extend his hands over
them in blessing. The good father's voice broke again and again as he
tried in vain to utter the familiar words, until at length, his hands
upraised to heaven, tears streaming from his eyes, he uttered the
simple words, "Go in peace, my children."
I was near the door and I slipped quietly out. It was not a time to
meet old friends, and I felt like one intruding upon a house of
mourning. Heads were still bowed in the solemn hush that followed the
benediction and no one saw me go. I hurried back to where I had left
Bourbon, mounted him, and rode slowly up toward Government House.
Long before I reached it the streets were filled. With the quick
change from grave to gay, natural to these volatile creoles, the same
people that a few moments ago had been all tears and sorrow were now
all excitement and curiosity. Down from the fort on the hill marched a
troop of Spanish soldiers, stopping at Government House to salute the
governor, and then forming in company order in front of the house to
await the coming of the United States troops.
Beside Governor Delassus on the gallery of Government House stood my
old friend Mr. Meriwether Lewis; for he seemed an old friend to me,
though I had known him but that one memorable day in Washington. In
response to a friendly wave of the hand from both I dismounted and ran
up the steps to speak to them for a moment. They presented me to a
third officer, Captain Stoddard, the officer in command of the United
States troops who were to take possession, and also, as Governor
Delassus informed me, empowered by the French prefect at New Orleans
to receive the city for the French republic from the Spanish.
I stayed only a moment, for Captain Lewis told me I would find Captain
Clarke and Dr. Saugrain at the landing at the foot of the Rue
Bonhomme, so I followed in the wake of the motley crowd of habitans,
negroes, and Indians trooping along the Rue Royale and filling La
Place with a many-colored throng, as they had filled it on the day I
first set foot in St. Louis.
Bourbon Prince picked his way carefully along the steep path that led
down the bluff to the landing at the foot of the Rue Bonhomme, where
the boats from Cahokia bearing the United States troops were already
approaching the shore, and where I found awaiting them, as Captain
Lewis had said I should, my old friend, the little doctor, and my
captain (for so I shall always call Captain Clarke), and the warmth of
their greeting set my heart to dancing merrily.
My spirits had been rising steadily every moment since I had recovered
from my stupefaction at the sight of Pelagie. What though she would
not look at me, I was nothing daunted; for now that she was safe on
American soil,--yes, _American_, Spanish no longer,--nor chevaliers
nor dukes nor First Consuls should deter me from boldly trying to win
her. For the first time since I had known her I felt that I had a
right to try. She was no longer a titled lady of France, and I was now
my own master and could maintain her in greater luxury than she had
ever known. I would take her home with me to Philadelphia! and my
dear mother and my fond old father would love her as they loved my
sisters. My spirit was exultant, and that she dared not meet my eyes
lent more of hope than discouragement.
So it was with a happy heart that I met the little doctor's beaming
glance, and felt the strong grasp of my captain's hand as he uttered
his hearty "Welcome home, my lad." And little I cared that he called
me lad; indeed, had he addressed me by any other title I should have
missed some of the friendliness of his greeting.
"You are to stay at Émigré's Retreat, you know," said Dr. Saugrain;
"Madame Saugrain is as happy in the thought of your home-coming as if
you were her own boy."
But Josef Papin coming down the bluff at that moment and overhearing
the doctor, interposed:
"No, Dr. Saugrain, he is my guest this time. You had him all last
winter, and you have had Captain Clarke and Captain Lewis all this
winter; you must share some of your honors with me."
It was not for me to decide a question of such kind, and though my
heart turned longingly to the hospitable hearth that had first
entertained me in St. Louis, feeling that in no other house would it
seem so truly a home-coming, yet I was not sure but it was better that
it was finally decided that I should stay with Josef Papin, for I was
determined to put my fortune to the touch, and should Pelagie prove
unkind (a contingency, however, that I refused to contemplate), it
would be embarrassing indeed to be under the same roof with her.
But now there was no longer time for discussion of any kind, for the
boats were running their keels into the bank, and Lieutenant Worrall,
temporarily in command of the troops, was the first man to leap
ashore. We all went down to meet him, and when he had formed his
battalion in line, we accompanied him up the steep bluff and down the
Rue Royale to Government House, a great throng following.
Then Lieutenant Worrall drew up his troops facing the Spanish troops.
The open space where the Rue Royale crossed the Rue de la Tour was
densely packed with people. Every man, woman, and child of the
village, it seemed to me, must be there, yet I looked in vain for
either Madame Saugrain or Pelagie. I fastened Bourbon farther up the
street, and at the invitation of Governor Delassus sent us by an
orderly I accompanied Dr. Saugrain, Josef Papin, and my captain to the
gallery of Government House, where we found also both the Chouteaus
and many of the leading citizens of the village.
As soon as the American troops were drawn up in line, Governor
Delassus stepped to the front of the gallery, holding in his hand a
document bearing the seals of the United States and of Spain, and at a
sign from him, Captain Stoddard stepped to his side, a similar
document in his hand. Then Governor Delassus held the paper up so that
all the people might see, and, as every voice was hushed and all eyes
turned on him, he read:
"Now be it known unto all men by these presents that I,
Carlos D. Delassus, in quality of lieutenant-governor, at
the requirement duly made to me by Amos Stoddard, agent and
commissary of the French republic, have delivered to him the
full possession, sovereignty, and government of Upper
Louisiana, with all the military posts, quarters, and
fortifications thereto belonging or dependent thereof."
Immediately Captain Stoddard took up the refrain, reading on
from where the governor stopped:
"And I, Amos Stoddard, commissary as such, do acknowledge to
have received the said possession on the same terms
mentioned in these presents, of which I acknowledge myself
satisfied and possessed on this day. In testimony whereof
the lieutenant-governor and myself have respectively signed
these presents, sealed with the seal of our arms, being
assisted with the witnesses signed below. Of which
proceedings six copies have been made out, to wit, three in
the Spanish and three in the English languages.
"Given in the town of St. Louis of Illinois, 9th March,
1804.
"Amos Stoddard (seal)
"Carlos Dehault Delassus (seal)
"In presence of
Meriwether Lewis,
Captain First United States Regiment Infantry.
Antoine Soulard,
Surveyor-General, etc.
Charles Gratiot."
As Captain Stoddard finished reading, the governor turned to him and
with formal courtesy placed him in possession of Government House.
Captain Stoddard accepted it with a brief and appropriate speech, and
then, the silence still unbroken, the stately don turned once more to
the people and spoke to them directly:
"Inhabitants of Upper Louisiana:
"By the king's command I am about to deliver up this post and its
dependencies!
"The flag under which you have been protected for a period of nearly
thirty-six years is to be withdrawn. From this moment you are released
from the oath of fidelity you took to support it."
There was a stir among the people. Tears were running down the
weather-beaten faces of some of the older men, and many of the women
were sobbing quietly. Visibly moved himself, the governor added
another word:
"The fidelity and courage with which you have guarded and defended the
flag will never be forgotten; and in my character of representative I
entertain the most sincere wishes for your perfect prosperity."
The governor bowed and stepped back, and instantly there broke from
the people a storm of _adios_ and _benitos_ with tears and waving of
hands.
The governor motioned to a soldier standing by. The soldier stepped to
a corner of the gallery which could be seen from the fort on the hill,
and waved his hat. Instantly puffs of white smoke issued from the
full battery of the fort, followed by the roar of the cannon rolling
across the wide river to the distant bluffs of Cahokia. As the last
echo died away the soldier waved his hat once more. Slowly the flag of
Spain floating above the white tower sank. Once more the cannon
roared, and slowly the banner of France rose, higher and higher, until
its folds were flung proudly to the breeze, above the tower on the
hill, above the Great River, above the old French town where it had
floated thirty-six years before.
Almost every soul, save negroes and Indians, in that multitude
watching in breathless silence the exchange of the flags, was French,
and as the banner of the land they had never ceased to love and to
call home floated out on the breeze, with one accord they fell on
their knees, eyes streaming, arms outstretched toward the loved symbol
of their fatherland.
It had been the intention that the flag should remain there but a few
minutes--just long enough to show that Upper Louisiana was French, and
that France ceded it to the United States. But now Pierre and Auguste
Chouteau, the older Papin, Dr. Saugrain, all the leading citizens on
the gallery of Government House, gathered around Captain Stoddard and
begged him, with trembling voices and misty eyes, to let the old flag
stay for another day.
"Let us be Frenchmen for twenty-four hours," they begged, "and after
that we will try to be loyal citizens of the United States, as we have
been loyal citizens of Spain."
When Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke added their plea for the
Frenchmen, Captain Stoddard willingly granted it, and stepping to the
front of the gallery, he announced that for twenty-four hours the flag
of the French republic would float over St. Louis.
Then broke forth a delirium of joy. Men threw their arms around one
another and embraced and kissed in a fashion strange, indeed, to us
Anglo-Saxons; and women fell into one another's arms and sobbed. The
roar of the cannon had not ceased to roll over the heads of the people
at intervals of every two minutes, and now the United States troops
took their line of march up the Rue de la Tour to the fort on the hill
(for though the American flag did not float from it, they were to hold
it in the name of France); and the Spanish troops marched away.
The ceremonies for the day were over; the cannon ceased to roar, and
Captain Stoddard who was now in possession of Government House,
invited us all to stay to déjeuner. The meal was a long and
ceremonious one, with the Spanish don on Captain Stoddard's right and
one of the Chouteaus on his left, and I far down the table with some
of the younger men; and through it all I was thinking of that first
meal I had taken in St. Louis in this same Government House a year and
a half before, and of the toast that roused such enthusiasm then; and
every moment my impatience grew to get away and visit Émigré's Retreat
and Madame Saugrain, and--the Rose of St. Louis.