Alice of Old Vincennes

								


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Alice of Old Vincennes

by
Maurice Thompson

PREFACE

To M. PLACIDE VALCOUR
M. D., Ph D., LL. D.
MY DEAR DR. VALCOUR: You gave me the Inspiration which made this story
haunt me until I wrote it. Gaspard Roussillon's letter, a mildewed
relic of the year 1788, which you so kindly permitted me to copy, as
far as it remained legible, was the point from which my imagination,
accompanied by my curiosity, set out upon a long and delightful quest.
You laughed at me when I became enthusiastic regarding the possible
historical importance at that ancient find, alas! fragmentary epistle;
but the old saying about the beatitude of him whose cachinations are
latest comes handy to me just now, and I must remind you that "I told
you so." True enough, it was history pure and simple that I had in mind
while enjoying the large hospitality of your gulf-side home. Gaspard
Roussillon's letter then appealed to my greed for materials which would
help along the making of my little book "The Story of Louisiana."
Later, however, as my frequent calls upon you for both documents and
suggestions have informed you, I fell to strumming a different guitar.
And now to you I dedicate this historical romance of old Vincennes, as
a very appropriate, however slight, recognition of your scholarly
attainments, your distinguished career in a noble profession, and your
descent from one of the earliest French families (if not the very
earliest) long resident at that strange little post on the Wabash, now
one of the most beautiful cities between the greet river and the ocean.
Following, with ever tantalized expectancy, the broken and breezy hints
in the Roussillon letter, I pursued a will-o'-the-wisp, here, there,
yonder, until by slowly arriving increments I gathered up a large
amount of valuable facts, which when I came to compare them with the
history of Clark's conquest of the Wabash Valley, fitted amazingly well
into certain spaces heretofore left open in that important yet sadly
imperfect record.
You will find that I was not so wrong in suspecting that Emile Jazon,
mentioned in the Roussillon letter, was a brother of Jean Jazon and a
famous scout in the time of Boone and Clark. He was, therefore, a
kinsman of yours on the maternal side, and I congratulate you. Another
thing may please you, the success which attended my long and patient
research with a view to clearing up the connection between Alice
Roussillon's romantic life, as brokenly sketched in M. Roussillon's
letter, and the capture of Vincennes by Colonel George Rogers Clark.
Accept, then, this book, which to those who care only for history will
seem but an idle romance, while to the lovers of romance it may look
strangely like the mustiest history. In my mind, and in yours I hope,
it will always be connected with a breezy summer-house on a headland of