Lafitte had decided to play the double agent, offering the Americans fair warning of the British plan. His third letter of the morning was addressed to Governor William Claiborne. “I tender my services to defend [Louisiana],” he told Claiborne. “I am the stray sheep, wishing to return to the sheepfold.”13 Whether General Jackson wanted the help of the piratical banditti or not, Lafitte had just declared himself at his service in the fight to save New Orleans.
