Part 28 (1/2)
”There is my sword, sir. I trust that you will allow me to dress.”
”Certainly; report to me in half an hour. Sorry to disturb your sleep, captain, but war, you know, is not always considerate.”
The English flag was borne on the breeze, and floated proudly over the fort.
Allen looked up at it and sighed.
It was a gallant flag, and a brave man does not like to see a flag of a great nation humiliated, even though he is fighting against it.
”Haul down the flag!”
”What shall we run up, colonel?”
The Provincials had no flag, and Allen ordered the English flag to be again run up, but with the Union down.
Across the waters of the lake the men were watching, and when they saw the flag run up, with the Union down, they knew that the fort had been taken, and they set up a cheer that could be heard across the water.
A hundred and twenty cannon and a vast amount of military stores fell into the hands of the Americans.
Great Britain had expended forty million dollars on Fort Ticonderoga from first to last, and a few undisciplined Mountain Boys wrested this proud possession from her.
Boats brought over the rest of the combined forces of Arnold and Allen, and the leader of the mountaineers made good his promise that they should breakfast in the fort on rations paid for by their enemy.
When an inventory had been made and sent in duplicate to the a.s.sembly of Connecticut and of Ma.s.sachusetts by trusty messengers, Allen called together his officers and thrilled them by declaring that their work had only just begun.
”To-day we have captured the strongest fortress in America; in two days more we must be in Crown Point.”
”And again we pledge ourselves to the hero of Ticonderoga, who will lead us to triumph!” exclaimed Baker.
”Ay, and our cry shall be,” echoed Forest, ”Liberty Freedom and Independence!”
CHAPTER XVI.
THE TEMPTATION.
Capt. Delaplace was fretful and soured by his defeat.
”If it had been in open fight,” he said, ”I should not have cared so much; but to be caught in a trap, it is enough to make a man kill himself.”
He was speaking to Benedict Arnold, and that patriot was ready to listen almost gloatingly to the story.
Arnold was a peculiar man; he was kind and sympathetic, yet was ready to rejoice over the sufferings of the fallen.
Allen had asked Arnold to spend a portion of the day with the defeated officer, so that he might be more consoled, for company is always soothing.
Delaplace was a diplomat; he had imbibed the idea that every man had his price; in other words, that every man could be influenced for or against a cause by bribery in some form or other.
Being a quick reader of character, he saw that Arnold was ambitious, and he at once began to wonder whether ambition would lead him to be false to Allen.