n had been formally
chosen. Arnold was forced to yield; but he sent a statement of the
matter to the Massachusetts Assembly. That body confirmed Allen's
appointment and directed Arnold not to interfere. On the day of the
capture of Ticonderoga, Colonel Seth Warner, with a small body of our
men, was sent to take possession of Crown Point. But a tremendous storm
arose, and Warner was compelled to put back and pass the night with us.
But the next day, he started and captured Crown Point without firing a
shot. You see the garrison only amounted to a serjeant and eleven men,
and they didn't expect an attack; so that Warner had only to come
suddenly upon them, and make a bold show, and they surrendered. More
than one hundred cannon were taken at that place, and thus, you see, we
had something to begin the war with. Colonel Arnold gave up the idea of
commanding at Ticonderoga, but he would command somewhere, and so he
soon after undertook an expedition against St. John's. It appears to me,
Arnold was very wrong in attempting to remove such a man as Allen from
the command. But I believe he was always thinking of himself alone."

"I can't agree with you, Ransom," said Jonas Davenport. "I think he was
a selfish man in general; but I know he could be generous sometimes. In
that expedition to Canada, he helped his men whenever he could in the
smallest matters, when many other commanders would have minded their own
comfort alone. Let us have justice done to every man. I never liked
Arnold as a man; but I think he was as good a soldier and general as I
ever knew."

"Certainly as good a soldier," said Kinnison.

"His generalship," said Pitts, "never had much play. As far as he had
the chance, he proved that he had the skill and knowledge for planning
military enterprises."

"I preferred old Putnam to Arnold," said John Warner. "He was quite as
daring, and a much better-hearted man."

"Ay, a braver man than General Putnam never drew a blade," said
Kinnison. "That man's adventures would make as interestin' a book as
you'd wish to read."

"I should like to hear some of them," said Hand.

"You've heard of his great feat at Horseneck, I suppose," said Jonas
Davenport.

"Yes," replied Hand, "and often wondered at it."

PUTNAM'S ESCAPE.

"I happened to be on the spot and see that affair," said old John
Warner. "I was on a visit to a friend at a farm near Horseneck, when the
news of Governor Tryon's approach, with a large