y they began to form entrenchments. At the
same time they took measures to distress the beleaguered force by
clearing off the live-stock, hay, and other supplies from the islands in
the harbour. Gage tried in vain to stop them, and there were several
skirmishes in the harbour, in which the British suffered more heavily
than the provincials.

The insurgents were not content with fighting on their own ground. The
command of the line of the Hudson would prevent the British from cutting
off New England from the middle colonies, would secure New York from
attack from the north, and would open a way for an invasion of Canada.
On the north the approaches to the river were dominated by the forts of
Ticonderoga and Crown Point, which had played a conspicuous part in the
great war with France; and in them were laid up some 200 cannon, small
arms, and other military stores. Important as these forts were, no
adequate garrisons were maintained in them. Benedict Arnold, the leader
of a band of volunteers from New Haven, Connecticut, a druggist and West
India trader, was informed of their defenceless condition, and made an
offer to the Massachusetts committee of safety to capture them. His
offer was accepted, and he was authorised to raise a force. The same
plan had been formed in Connecticut; and Ethan Allen, the leader of an
association in Vermont, was sent with his followers to carry it out.
Arnold met him on the march; he refused to yield the command, and Arnold
joined his force, which included a body of Indians. At dawn on May 10
they surprised the garrison of Ticonderoga, consisting of less than
fifty men, and compelled the governor to surrender without striking a
blow. A detachment from the force seized Crown Point, and a few days
later Arnold sailed down Lake Champlain and captured St. John's, which
was recovered by the British in the course of the summer and garrisoned.

[Sidenote: _OPINION IN ENGLAND._]

In England the news of the fighting at Lexington and Concord was
received with astonishment. People were by no means distressed, for they
believed that Gage would soon take his revenge. Military men were
puzzled and provoked at the state of affairs at Boston. "How often,"
said a general at the war office to one who had held command in America,
"have I heard you American colonels boast that with four battalions you
would march through America, and now you think that Gage with 4,000 men
and forty pieces of cannon mayn't vent