Chapter 19

NEWS FROM BOSTON.

Benedict Arnold had found his master.

This man, whose ambition was colossal, had imagined that the Green Mountain farmer would quail before him and surrender the command.

Arnold's ambition was plausible. What could a farmer know of military affairs? True, Arnold had been a merchant, but then he had studied at Yale and had made military subjects his special forte, and he had been complimented by soldiers of high repute.

Then, had not the English Capt. Delaplace told him he should be a general, and if he remained with the colonies he should have the command of all the forces the young nation could put into the field?

All this had made him believe himself a great man.

But he had encountered a greater.

Ethan Allen, mountaineer, farmer, amateur soldier, as Arnold had called him, proved to be the superior of the polished Yale graduate.

Arnold retired to his quarters, feeling very glum.

Allen sent for Seth Warner. He wanted some one on whom he could rely.

He told Warner what had happened, and the honest Vermonter suggested that Arnold should be placed under arrest and tried by court-martial.

But such a course Allen would not countenance. He felt that Arnold was not dangerous, and that he could afford to leave him to his own conscience.

"I hear that cannon and ammunition was about to be shipped to New Haven?"

"Yes, colonel; most of the spoil was to be sent there. We all thought that it was by your order."

"Zounds, man! I never heard of it until young Eben told me just now."

"We all thought that he was obeying your instructions, and, therefore, why should we come and tell you?"

"That is so. Do not allow one gun to leave the fort."

Eben entered the room, and was out of breath.

"What is it, Eben?"

"If you please--I--have--news----"

"What is it?"

"I--have been--across--the lake. I----"

"Sit down and get your breath; you will be able to talk plainer. No danger threatens us?"

"No--I--don't think so."

Eben fanned himself and gradually became calmer. But he was so eager to tell his news that he could not wait long enough to be quite coherent.

"News from Boston," he jerked out; and at once Ethan Allen was as much excited as Eben.

"What news? Who brought it? Quick, Eben; don't you see how anxious I am to hear all about it?"

"All the English army has landed at Boston, and they have hanged the men we loved. At least, I think so; I was in so great a hurry that I did not wait to hear all."

"Who brought the news?"

"No one yet. They are riding like the mischief, but I jumped in my boat and paddled across, and then ran like the wind to be first. They are here now."

Two men were admitted into the presence of Ethan Allen and Seth Warner.

After the usual salutes and the presentation of a short letter from Sam Adams, telling Allen that he could believe all the men told him, they were asked to tell their story.

"On the twenty-fifth we saw the great gunboats and the men-of-war in the harbor getting ready for some move. We wondered what they could be doing, but only for a few minutes, for we saw other vessels moving into the harbor, and then the cannon belched forth in salute. The noise deafened us, and the jarring broke lots of windows. We soon knew that ten thousand men had arrived in the harbor, and that England was going to crush us----"

"You mean to try and crush us."

"Yes. Three generals had come over with reinforcements; they were Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne. Gage was like a mad creature. He danced and shouted like a boy getting an unexpected vacation. Then he said he would hang Adams and Hancock with his own hands on Boston Common, but Burgoyne stopped him and suggested trying an offer of pardon----"

"Of pardon?"

"Yes. There is a proclamation signed by Gage, offering pardon to all who will surrender and acknowledge that they have done wrong, except Samuel Adams and John Hancock, and these are said to be guilty of treason and must die; that is, when Gage catches them."

"Well, what say the people?"

"That we will fight it out."

"Good!"

"And that if Adams and Hancock are traitors, so are they all."

"Well?"

"Gage heard of the defiance, and at once gave notice that he should sally out of Boston and burn all the neighboring towns and devastate the country."

"He did, eh?"

"Yes, and the people say they will give him a warm reception."

"Warner, shall we join the men at Boston?"

"You are commissioned to hold Ticonderoga," said the messenger, "and so prevent the British using it against us."

"That we will do. Warner, give orders that all the cannon and the ammunition we can spare be sent as rapidly as possible to the patriots. We must help them all we can."

"That is the right way to talk, colonel; I feel ever so much better now; there is a rope ready for my neck if I fail."

The messengers who brought the news from the patriots of Massachusetts were entertained right royally, and took back with them a good impression of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys.

But it was not an opinion only that they took back with them, for they had an escort of fifty men, and with them were twenty heavy cannon, with good ammunition, and a promise of as many more heavy guns as soon as horses could be procured to haul them.

"Tell Gen. Gage, if you see him," said Allen, "that the rope which he has for Sam Adams must be long enough and strong enough for Ethan Allen and his Mountain Boys, for they will never surrender as long as they have strength to shoulder a musket or draw a sword."

The day after the men left for Boston a letter from the governor of New Hampshire was received by Allen, ordering him to return home and lay down his sword.

To this letter Allen replied:

"I will gladly lay down my sword, for I hate fighting, but cannot do so until England recognizes the independence of the colonies or until the people themselves have concluded an honorable peace with Great Britain."

Arnold contrived to send a letter to New Hampshire and one to New Haven, in which he reported the "treachery and tyranny of the man Ethan Allen."

There is no proof that either of the recipients did anything save throw the letters into the fire.

On the following day Baker and Forest returned from New Haven, bearing with them the thanks of the colony to Col. Ethan Allen and Col. Benedict Arnold. The latter containing the thanks of the assembly, engrossed on parchment and sealed with the seal of the colony, placed Allen in the first place, and only mentioned Arnold as a coadjutor.

The two emissaries were escorted to Ticonderoga by Col. Hinman and a regiment of Connecticut soldiers.

Hinman was commissioned to aid Allen in any way that he could, and to act under his direction.

Allen, however, determined on a wider field for himself and men than merely remaining as a garrison of a fort, with the mild excitement of an occasional scrimmage with the enemy when out on a foraging expedition, so he handed over the forts to Col. Hinman, taking a receipt for the same.

That curious old document is perhaps the only one in existence of the kind, for it is a receipt for the delivery of the forts of Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Skenesburgh, and is made out much in the same way as a receipt for a few dollars would be.

Arnold was to remain with Hinman for a time, but with the lower rank of major.

With only a small number of followers, including Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Eben Pike and twenty trusty mountaineers, Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga, left the fort and proceeded to Albany.