All was in readiness for the completion of the work, when an officer, attended by a single servant, came suddenly from the woods and hurried to the camp.  It was Benedict Arnold, who had heard of what was afoot, and had hastened forward to claim command of the mountaineers.

It was near nightfall.  The advance party of Allen’s men was at Hand’s Cove, on the eastern side of the lake, preparing to cross.  Arnold joined them and crossed with them, but on reaching the other side of the lake claimed the command.  Allen angrily refused.  The debate waxed hot; Arnold had the commission; Allen had the men:  the best of the situation lay with the latter.  He was about to settle the difficulty by ordering Arnold under guard, when one of his friends, fearing danger to the enterprise from the controversy, suggested that the two men should march side by side.  This compromise was accepted and the dispute ended.

By this time day was about to break.  Eighty-three men had landed, and the boats had returned for the rest.  But there was evidently no time to lose if the fort was to be surprised.  They must move at once, without waiting for the remainder of the party.  A farmer’s boy of the vicinity, who was familiar with the fort, offered to act as guide, and in a few minutes more the advance was begun, the two leaders at the head, Allen in command, Arnold as a volunteer.

The stockade was reached.  A wicket stood open.  Through this Allen charged followed by his men.  A sentry posted there took aim, but his piece missed fire, and he ran back shouting the alarm.  At his heels came the two leaders, at full speed, their men crowding after, till, before a man of the garrison appeared, the fort was fairly won.

Allen at once arranged his men so as to face each of the barracks.  It was so early that most of those within were still asleep, and the fort was captured without the commander becoming aware that any thing unusual was going on.  His whole command was less than fifty men, and resistance would have been useless with double their number of stalwart mountaineers on the parade-ground.

Allen forced one of the sentries who had been captured to show him the way to the quarters of Captain Delaplace, the commander.  Reaching the chamber of the latter, the militia leader called on him in a stentorian voice to surrender.  Delaplace sprang out of bed, and, half dressed, appeared with an alarmed and surprised face at the door.

“By whose authority?” he demanded, not yet alive to the situation.

“In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” roared out the Green Mountaineer.

Here was a demand which backed as it was by a drawn sword and the sound of shouts of triumph outside, it would have been madness to resist.  The fort was surrendered with scarcely a shot fired or a blow exchanged, and its large stores of cannon and ammunition, then sorely needed by the colonists besieging Boston, fell into American hands.  The stores and military material captured included a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, with a considerable number of small arms and other munitions of high value to the patriot cause.