[Illustration:  Ethan Allen’s entrance, Ticonderoga.]

Prompt as they had been, they were none too soon.  Others of the patriots had their eyes on the same tempting prize.  Other leaders were eagerly preparing to obtain commissions and raise men for the expedition.  One of the first of these was Benedict Arnold, who had been made colonel for the purpose by the governor of Massachusetts, and hastened to the western part of the colony to raise men and take command of the enterprise.

He found men ready for the work, Green Mountain men, with the stalwart Ethan Allen at their head, but men by no means disposed to put themselves under any other commander than the sturdy leader of their choice.

Only a year or two before Allen, as their colonel, had led these hardy mountaineers against the settlers from New York who had attempted to seize their claims, and driven out the interlopers at sword’s point.  The courts at Albany had decided that the Green Mountain region was part of the colony of New York.  Against this decision Allen had stirred the settlers to armed resistance, thundering out against the fulminations of the lawyers the opposite quotation from Scripture, “The Lord is the God of the hills, but He is not the God of the valleys,” and rousing the men of the hills to fight what he affirmed to be God’s battle for the right.  In 1774, Governor Tryon, of New York, offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds for the capture of Allen.  The insurgent mountaineers retorted by offering an equal reward for the capture of Governor Tryon.  Neither reward had been earned, a year more had elapsed, and Ethan Allen, at the head of his Green Mountain boys, was in motion in a greater cause, to defend, not Vermont against New York, but America against England.

But, before proceeding, we must go back and bring up events to the point we have reached.  The means for the expedition of the Green Mountain boys came from Connecticut, whence a sum of three hundred pounds had been sent in the hands of trusty agents to Allen and his followers.  They were found to be more than ready, and the Connecticut agents started in advance towards the fort, leaving the armed band to follow.  One of them, Noah Phelps by name, volunteered to enter the fort and obtain exact information as to its condition.  He disguised himself and entered the fort as a countryman, pretending that he wanted to be shaved.  While hunting for the barber he kept his eyes open and used his tongue freely, asking questions like an innocent rustic, until he had learned the exact condition of affairs, and came out with a clean face and a full mind.

Allen was now rapidly approaching, and, lest news of his movement should reach the fort, men were sent out on all the roads leading thither, to intercept passers.  On the 8th of May all was ready.  Allen, with one hundred and forty men, was to go to the lake by way of Shoreham, opposite the fort.  Thirty men, under Captain Herrick, were to advance to Skenesborough, capture Major Skene, seize boats, and drop down the lake to join Allen.