nine o'clock
We have amused them all winter ; it 's but fair that they should give us a little fun now . '' Clark shrugged his broad shoulders and passed on . He understood perfectly what the people of Vincennes had suffered under Hamilton 's brutal administration . At nine o'clock an order was passed to cease firing , and a flag of truce was seen going from Clark 's headquarters to the fort . It was a peremptory demand for unconditional surrender . Hamilton refused , and fighting was fiercely resumed from behind rude breastworks meantime erected . Every loop-hole and opening of whatever sort was the focus into which the unerring backwoods rifles sent their deadly bullets .