y
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.

CHAPTER XX.

A ROADSIDE ADVENTURE.

It was a daring thing to do, but Ethan Allen thought only of his
country, and how to benefit the national cause.

The proclamation offering a large reward for him, dead or alive, was
still to be seen on the public buildings of the towns and villages
through which he passed.

Though every one knew him, for his identity could not b