while at Deschambault, finally retreated
along the St. Lawrence, until they made a stand at Sorel, with the view
to an "orderly retreat out of Canada."[9] By the 18th of June, the
British General, Burgoyne, was close behind Arnold, who now, with the
whole of the American army, had quitted Canadian soil, and was
proceeding somewhat rapidly up the Richelieu, into Lake Champlain.

[9] Carroll's visit to Canada, p. 27.

In the very year that Arnold retired from Quebec, on the 4th of July,
1776, the thirteen now confederated colonies, on the report of Thomas
Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Phillip
Livingston, dissolved their allegiance to the British Crown, declaring
themselves to be free and independent. The lions, sceptres, crowns, and
other paraphernalia of royalty were now rudely trampled on, in both
Boston and Virginia. Massachusetts, and, shortly afterwards, New York,
were, indeed, in the possession of rebels, commanded by Washington. It
was then that, in 1777, the execution of a plan of attacking the New
Englanders, by way of Canada, was entrusted to General Burgoyne, who,
with some thousands of troops, a powerful train of artillery, and
several tribes of Indians, proceeded down Lake Champlain, to cut
off the northern from the southern colonies of the rebellious
confederation. Burgoyne chased the American General St. Clair out of
Ticonderoga; hunted Schuyler to Saratoga; destroyed the American
flotilla on Lake Champlain; demolished bridges, and reduced forts. He,
nevertheless, met with a severe check at Bennington, Vermont. Being at
Fort Edward, he sent Colonel Baum, with a detachment of the army to
seize a magazine of stores at Bennington. When within a few miles of
that place, however, Baum learned that the Americans were strongly
entrenched. He, therefore, halted, and sent to Burgoyne for a
reinforcement. But the American General Stark, who had a large body of
Vermont Militia under his command, in addition to his ordinary New
Hampshire corps, now determined to be the assailant. With only 500
regulars and 100 Indians, Colonel Baum did not consider it prudent to
fight a body vastly superior in numbers, and he retreated. Assistance
reached him at this critical moment, which seemed to make a battle, if
not expedient, a point of honour. Unfortunately the sense of honour
prevailed, Baum gave battle, and was himself slain and his men
defeated, the British loss being 700 in killed and w