nds. Simon Halpen could do the cause afoot much harm by returning
swiftly to the lake and warning the commander of Fort Ticonderoga. Enoch
believed Colonel Allen should know of Halpen's presence as soon as
possible; and he was determined to return at once, although he certainly
deserved rest and refreshment after his arduous journey through the
wilderness. Therefore he urged the hurried departure of these three
pioneers and before dawn the quartette started for Castleton.

Meanwhile, at the camp of the Green Mountain Boys much was transpiring
of importance to the expedition. The honor of capturing Ticonderoga
history gives unconditionally to Ethan Allen and his handful of
followers; but the suggestion and preparations for the momentous task
was divided between the Colonies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the
Hampshire Grants, or Vermont, as it was now beginning to be called. In
April the authorities of Connecticut raised three hundred pounds for the
expense of this expedition and Samuel H. Parsons, Silas Deane (afterward
one of America's representatives in Paris, but an arch enemy of
Washington) and Benedict Arnold, raised a handful of troops to send
north as a nucleus of that army which was expected to fall upon one of
the strongest British forts in the country.

At Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, Colonel Easton had recruited a
larger band of earnest patriots, and these, joined with the company from
the more southern colony, made a very respectable force to march through
the country to Bennington, where they arrived on May third. In the
meantime at Albany Messrs. Halsey and Stephens had been pleading with
the New York Congress to grant permission for troops to be raised for,
and money devoted to, the capture of the same fortresses as the New
England leaders had in mind. But, as we have seen, New York was at that
time lukewarm in the uprising of the colonies. Beside, the Continental
Congress was to meet in seven days and it was judged better by the
cautious Yorkers to wait and see what that body of representatives would
do before any direct act of war was indulged in. Therefore New York lost
her opportunity of joining in one of the most glorious campaigns of the
entire Revolutionary period.

The Committee of Safety in Massachusetts, on the other hand, had decided
to act against Old Ti. Benedict Arnold, after stirring up the people to
fever pitch in his own colony, Connecticut, went post-haste to Cambridge
and