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.