CHAPTER XXIV
THE GUNS OF OLD TI SPEAK
The fate of more than a brave man hung in the balance at that moment. The ultimate happiness and secure footing of a state was at stake when the sentinel pressed the trigger of his weapon. Had the ball reached its mark, the establishment of Vermont as a free state might have been postponed for many years. Ethan Allen’s diplomacy in later dealing with the British agents who sought to wean Vermont from her federation with the struggling colonies, doubtless saved the Green Mountains from being overrun by a horde of Hessians and Indians who would have brought death and disaster to the patriotic settlers.
But Providence had other work for the leader of the Green Mountain Boys to do. The musket missed fire and flinging down the piece the sentinel turned and ran through the passage into the fort, shrieking that the enemy was at hand. With a cheer the little band of patriots followed, and before the garrison was awake to its situation, the Green Mountain Boys had reached the parade. Instructed by their captains what to do, the men ran hither and thither to seize the guns whose threatening muzzles peered through the embrasures of the walls, and to guard the entrances to the barracks where the garrison slept.
’Siah Bolderwood, seizing an axe, attacked the door of the ammunition cellar; for the American spy who had spent the previous day within the works had explained to the ranger the situation of this important compartment. The ringing blows of the woodman’s axe doubtless awakened many of the sleeping soldiery. In half a minute the stout oak door was down. “There, Nuck Harding!” cried the long ranger, “I leave you to guard that ’ere. If they show fight, fire your rifle into the place. If so be, we’ll all go up together; but Old Ti is ourn and if we’re driven forth we’ll wreck the fortifications as we go.”
Meanwhile Ethan Allen, knowing well the sleeping quarters of Captain De la Place, having received his information from the same source as Bolderwood, leaped up the stairway to the apartment of the commander of the fort. His shoulder burst in the door without the loss of an instant, and he found the astounded captain sitting up in bed. “What is this, sir? Who are you?” cried the British officer.
“I call on ye to surrender, Captain De la Place!” cried the Green Mountain leader.
“In whose name do ye make this demand, sir?”
“In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!” replied Allen, sternly. Then, describing a circle about his head with his sword, he added in a tone not to be mistaken: “I demand the surrender of your fort and all the stores and goods it may contain; and, sir, unless you comply with my demand and parade your men without arms at once, I’ll send your head, sir, spinning across this floor!” and the whistling steel blade was advanced until the British officer shrank in fear.
“I surrender! I surrender!” he cried, and word was passed at once to both the garrison and the Americans on the parade below. And thus the strongest British fortress within the borders of the disaffected colonies, capitulated to the American arms without a gun being fired. What if, when the news of the remarkable feat reached Philadelphia where the Continental Congress was in session, the act of Ethan Allen and his brave Green Mountain Boys was deplored, and a considerable party was for returning the stronghold to the king, while others wished to withdraw the American garrison, believing that the Champlain forts were too far on the frontier to be held successfully against the enemy? These suggestions were but the result of over-cautiousness on the part of some members of Congress. Happily their wishes were overborne and Ticonderoga remained an American fort until the cowardly St. Clair abandoned it before the advance of Burgoyne.