He accepted promptly, appending to the articles of capitulation the following reasons for his action: "The remoteness from succor; the state and quantity of provisions, etc.; unanimity of officers and men in its expediency; the honorable terms allowed; and, lastly, the confidence in a generous enemy." Confidence in a generous enemy! Abject fear of the vengeance just wreaked upon his savage emissaries would have been the true statement.
Beverley read the paper when Clark sent for him; but he could not join in the extravagant delight of his fellow officers and their brave men.
What did all this victory mean to him?
Hamilton to be treated as an honorable prisoner of war, permitted to strut forth from the feat with his sword at his side, his head up--the scalp-buyer, the murderer of Alice! What was patriotism to the crushed heart of a lover?
Even if his vision had been able to pierce the future and realize the splendor of Anglo-Saxon civilization which was to follow that little triumph at Vincennes, what pleasure could it have afforded him?
Alice, Alice, only Alice; no other thought had influence, save the recurring surge of desire for vengeance upon her murderer.
And yet that night Beverley slept, and so forgot his despair for many hours, even dreamed a pleasant dream of home, where his childhood was spent, of the stately old house on the breezy hill-top overlooking a sunny plantation, with a little river lapsing and shimmering through it.

His mother's dear arms were around him, her loving breath stirred his hair; and his stalwart, gray-headed father sat on the veranda comfortably smoking his pipe, while away in the wide fields the negroes sang at the plow and the hoe.

Sweeter and sweeter grew the scene, softer the air, tenderer the blending sounds of the water-murmur, leaf-rustle, bird-song, and slave-song, until hand in hand he wandered with Alice in greening groves, where the air was trembling with the ecstacy of spring.
A young officer awoke him with an order from Clark to go on duty at once with Captains Worthington and Williams, who, under Colonel Clark himself, were to take possession of the fort.

Mechanically he obeyed.
The sun was far up, shining between clouds of a leaden, watery hue, by the time everything was ready for the important ceremony.

Beside the main gate of the stockade two companies of patriots under Bowman and McCarty were drawn up as guards, while the British garrison filed out and was taken in charge.