“Napoleon has come! Napoleon est ici! Vive Napoleon!”
For a time the simple French habitants were mute with astonishment. Then an answering shout rose: “Vive Napoleon! Vive la France!” It was like putting a match to fireworks. An indescribable excitement ensued. The settlers crowded the river bank. Trappers fired their guns in the air. And now from all the more distant houses, from the fort and from the watch-tower, many others—traders, soldiers, and even the governor and his secretary—came hastening to the landing-place.
Within five minutes more than a thousand people collected, all vastly astonished and overjoyed at the strange tidings.
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A babel of eager questions now burst forth. Was it true? Where was the mighty Frenchman? And who was worthy to entertain him? All looked to Governor Delassus. With inward consternation the good governor bethought himself as to his somewhat scanty accommodations. In short, the prank was even more successful than the waggish Grimsby had anticipated. Intent on securing the full dramatic effect of his joke at the proper moment, the frivolous lieutenant had kept the bear out of sight, in the horse stalls, till the boat drew in to the bank. Then hauling him suddenly forth by his chain, he made him rear on his haunches in plain sight of all and shouted, “Voila Napoleon!”
Lewis and Moses, from the deck above, also cried, “Here’s Napoleon!” and burst into shouts of laughter.
A jest of this kind was quite in keeping with the rough humor of frontiersmen,
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but with these French people it fell very flat. They neither understood nor appreciated it; they were simply bewildered.
“Un ours!” (a bear!) they murmured, with glances of displeasure and many shrugs of disgust.
“Un ours!” What did it all mean, and what in the world were these Americans laughing at? Where was the joke? They failed to see anything laughable. “Un ours!”
No one laughed, and at last the lieutenant tried to explain his joke. “Son nom est Napoleon!” said he, pointing to the bear. “That is his name! Napoleon! He has come to see you!” and Grimsby burst out in another laugh.
Dismal silence continued to prevail ashore, except that several, still shrugging with comical little grimaces, muttered that Monsieur, l’Americain, appeared to be un farceur—a joker!
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“Ah, well,” cried Grimsby, disgusted in turn by their lack of humor, “you had better take a good look at him! It is the only Napoleon that you will ever see come up the Mississippi! Your grand Napoleon has sold you out to the United States. Within ten days your new American governor will be here!”
At this juncture Capt. Meriwether Lewis, who had recently come there, made his way down to the bank, and hailing Captain Royce, whom he had previously met at Marietta, lent his aid to explain the matter to the governor and others. Captain Lewis was at this time completing his preparations for the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, which, under direction of President Jefferson, set off from St. Louis on the 10th of May following.
Lieutenant Grimsby had not seen the last of his joke, however. On setting off from the Milly Ayer the next morning, to
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lead Napoleon to the governor’s house, at the northeast corner of Main and Walnut Streets, he was stoned by some young loafers; and in his efforts to catch one of them he lost hold of Napoleon.
The bear, alarmed by the stones, galloped up the street and turned in at the open gate of one of the palisaded courtyards.
Immediately a great outcry ensued inside. Children and women screamed, and presently a gun was fired. Napoleon was creating a terrible commotion, and it was uncertain what damage to life or property he might be doing. But Grimsby, being overmatched by his assailants, was unable to go in pursuit of him. After a scuffle the lieutenant ran back to the river bank and called on Moses, Lewis and Wistar Royce to return with him.
The four set off together at a run, and on reaching the scene of the skirmish, found that Grimsby’s assailants had beaten a retreat,
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and a worse outcry than ever was issuing from within the courtyard of the house where the pet bear had taken refuge. But now the cries were those of pigs instead of human beings. The gate had swung to and latched, and the palisades were too high to scale.
After some delay Grimsby and his friends forced the gate,—for the case seemed urgent,—and found an odd state of affairs prevailing within. In one corner of the yard was a sow with a large litter of young pigs. To these Napoleon was paying assiduous attentions. But for each one that he seized he was forced to fight a pitched battle with the sow, which, in defense of her young, attacked him with great intrepidity, squealing and clacking her jaws in a most ferocious manner. With a stroke of his paw the bear was able to prostrate the sow, but immediately she was on her feet again, quite as fierce as before.
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There was such an uproar that the rescue party did not at first notice what had become of the people of the house till they heard them calling out from the roof.
The man, a French trader, had a gun, the flint-lock of which he was endeavoring to put in order. He had fired once, but had failed to do the bear much injury. The trader’s wife, children and two or three female servants were behind him on the roof, and they all besought the arksmen to drive out the bear and save their poor pigs.
Grimsby and Moses laid hold of the chain and tried to pull Napoleon away, but he had become excited in the affray with the sow. He was bleeding from several slight wounds; and, moreover, had had a taste of young pork. He turned upon his masters so savagely that they were obliged to let him go, but they finally succeeded in driving him out of the enclosure.
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Attracted by the clamor, a considerable crowd had collected in the street outside the gate, and when the bear rushed forth another hubbub rose. Napoleon ran up Market Street, however, which was then a mere country lane, and escaped through the broken gate of the stockade which enclosed the hamlet.
Outside the stockade there were clearings, fifty or sixty acres in extent, where the people raised wheat, corn and vegetables. It was while cultivating these crops a few years before that the settlers were surprised by the savages from the British post at Michilimackinac during the American Revolution. Across this cleared tract Napoleon was now escaping. On reaching the gateway of the stockade, Lewis caught sight of his shaggy black coat as he bounded over the charred logs that still encumbered the fields.
They all gave chase after him, for
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Grimsby was very desirous of presenting him to Major Stoddard; but the bear ran fast and reached the woods. For the time being, at least, he appeared to have had more than enough of civilization and its dubious luxuries—including young pigs with savage mothers. Lewis and Moses called after him in most endearing accents, but he still ran on. They could hear his long chain jingle as it dragged over logs; and now and then they sighted him, but could not overtake him.
Thinking, however, that he would stop after awhile, they followed on for several miles, through what was then a virgin forest of chestnut, walnut and sycamore.
At last they crossed a creek and saw the bear ascending a hill. Near the top of this hill they came upon him, hung up hard and fast by his chain, the ring in the end of which had caught between two fallen tree trunks. He was panting hard, and
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appeared to have had all the exercise he desired. He licked Moses’ hand when the boy patted his head, and went back with them in a very docile frame of mind to the governor’s house.
The arksmen were far too desirous of reaching home to dally longer than was necessary in St. Louis. Having landed his passenger according to agreement, and disposed of his venture in coffee and sugar, Captain Royce lost no time in returning down the river. He was not sorry to part company with the waggish Grimsby, whose propensity for practical joking rendered companionship with him both embarrassing and unsafe.
Having now the river current in aid of the paddle-gear, they reached the confluence with the Ohio in a little more than two days. After what had taken place there a week or more before, they judged it prudent to go past “Cairo” during the small hours
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of the night. Beyond doubt this was a wise precaution. It was learned subsequently that the population of the old “broadhorn” was watching the river for them. Practical jokes have an unpleasant habit of coming home to roost.
On March 19th they “cordelled” up Letart’s “Falls,” the scene of their encounter with the Shawnees, and a little before sunset, three days later—just a year and two days from the time when they had started—the Milly Ayer rounded the bend below Fish Creek, and came in sight of home.
As the familiar hillocks and clearings came into view, Lewis, Moses and Wistar waxed wild with excitement and delight. They danced and whooped; Moses actually stood on his head, and Marion Royce felt his own heart beating hard and fast. But he was pondering gravely on all that might have happened during their long absence,