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Read Ebook: The Hero of Ticonderoga; or Ethan Allen and His Green Mountain Boys by De Morgan John
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Ebook has 2845 lines and 53733 words, and 57 pages
"It is."
"Then we have nothing to do with the Colony of New York."
"Nothing, and never want to have anything to do with that colony."
"You are right, Seth Warner; so I tell you what we will do with this piece of parchment."
The people looked at the speaker, and wondered what he was about to propose.
In four pieces he cut the proclamation, and then handed it back to the sheriff, who dropped it as though it had been plague infected.
Ethan Allen picked up the four pieces.
"You did well not to receive it. I have a better use for it."
He took out his tinder box, and after a little effort, for the snow made the tinder damp, he got a light.
This he applied to the parchment, which sputtered and crinkled up in all sorts of strange shapes, until the great red seal, the token of authority, melted, and the wax ran on the ground.
"Now, let the sheriff acquaint the governor of New Hampshire with what I have done."
Ethan Allen stepped down, and walked through the crowd.
Not one person spoke to him, his act had so taken them by surprise.
It was a boldness that perhaps was criminal, they thought.
"What think you?" asked one.
"It was awful. I wonder the fire from Heaven did not consume him, for the king is the Lord's anointed, and it was in the king's name."
"I wonder if they will hang him?"
"Who, the king?"
"No, Ethan; most like they will."
"I guess he knew what he was doing."
"Ay, and he did right. We want men of pluck like him."
"And I will stand by him."
"So will I," said Peleg Sunderland.
"And here is another," spoke up Remember Baker. "The lad hath the right spunk. I like him."
There was nothing done that day but talk over Ethan Allen's strange and daring conduct.
For days the people spoke of it in bated breath, for they had never heard of such opposition to authority in the district, and they were afraid of the consequences.
Gov. Wentworth, of New Hampshire, issued a counter proclamation, in which he said that King Charles had never given the land to New York.
The governor of New York appealed to King George, and he decided in favor of New York, and so, at the end of six years, the battle of titles stood just where it did when Ethan Allen tore up the proclamation.
THE GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS.
"What news?"
"Welcome back, Ethan. Is it good news?"
"Ay, man, tell us; what say the men in Albany?"
Ethan Allen jumped from his horse, and stood among his countrymen, the most honored man among them.
He had been sent to Albany to represent the farmers who held the lands from the governor of New Hampshire.
New York had commenced a suit against New Hampshire, and the trial was in Albany.
"Men, I know not whether you call the news good or bad, but it is just as I tell you; New York has won."
"And all our titles are upset?"
"Ay, that is just what it means."
"What are we to do?"
"I know not what you will do; I know what I shall do."
"What will you do, Ethan?"
"When the sheriff comes to dispossess me I shall be there with my musket, and if I fall Ira will be there, and if he falls Ebenezer will have a musket, and if he, too, falls, then John will try what he can do. That is what I shall do."
"But the decision says that New York is in the right."
"Courts have made mistakes before, and the strong right arm of good mountaineers have set them right."
"What said they in Albany?"
Allen told them of the trial, and then, with a glow on his face, he added:
"They told me that the gods were against me, and I retorted that the gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills."
"Bravo, Ethan! you are a brave chap."
"If I had a score of men I would tell the New Yorkers to stay at home, and, if they did not, I would send them home."
"A score, did you say?"
"Ay, a score would do."
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