nderoga as a trader, had spent parts of two days in the
fort, learning much that encouraged Allen in this desperate game he was
playing. Although expecting additions to the garrison, Captain De la
Place had not yet received the reinforcements. The buttresses of the
fort, too, were in a sad state of repair. Indeed, since the British had
swept the French from the lake, and with them driven the Hurons and
Algonquins into the northern wilderness, few if any repairs had been
made upon Ticonderoga. The British had simply held it as a storehouse
and the garrison was small. If the American troops now gathering upon
the eastern shore of Lake Champlain could once cross the water and
approach the fort unperceived, there was hope in the hearts of all that
the stronghold would be captured and the garrison overcome without any
great loss of life.

"The God of Battles has been with ye!" exclaimed Allen, when the man had
finished his report. "And if He is with us, as I believe, yonder fort
and all it contains shall be ours before sunrise.... But hasten! Tell
Baker to bring up his troops. Bolderwood, you and your scouts must go
over first with us. Colonel Arnold, you will come in my boat if you
wish. Major Warner, I leave you to assist our good friend Easton. The
boats shall return as soon as we have landed. Count the men who enter
these boats, gentlemen. The lake is calm; but do not overload the craft.
We desire no accident to delay our landing on the other side."

Enoch Harding kept close to his friend, the old ranger, and was
therefore in one of the foremost boats. He was near Colonel Allen when
word was passed to that brave leader that those in the boats numbered
but eighty-three. "Eighty-three!" exclaimed the Green Mountain hero.
"And every man worth three red-coats. Once we get within those walls and
I'll answer for them. Yet, sirs, I would that we had not been so long
delayed on the road, or that there were more bateaus to our hand."

"Shall the attack be given up--postponed till a more fitting
occasion--if we cannot get more across?" asked Arnold.

"Postponed!" cried Allen, his face darkening. "And pray tell me, sir,
how can it be postponed? With the dawn our troops will be observed upon
both sides of the lake by those in the fort, or by Tories who will
gladly run with warning to the red-coats. A blind kitten could see what
we are about. Nay, Colonel Arnold; we have put our hands to the plough
and we'll cut a deep furrow or n