Vindication of French miscreant (7)

I believe the answer is:

defence

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'vindication' is the definition.
(I know that vindication can be written as defence)

'of french miscreant' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'miscreant' becomes 'fence' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'de'+'fence'='DEFENCE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for defence that I've seen before include "The D in MoD" , "A means of protecting from attack" , "Act of keeping safe from danger" , "Protection; justification" , "One ministry" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.