George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[184] Canadians, and Indians, in all about five hun-

Chap. LII.} 1775. Sept.

dred men, and after a defence of an hour and three quarters, he, with thirty eight men, was obliged to surrender; the rest fled to the woods. At the barrack yard in Montreal, Prescott, a British brigadier, asked the prisoner: ‘Are you that Allen who took Ticonderoga?’ ‘I am the very man,’ quoth Allen. Then Prescott, in a great rage, called him a rebel and other hard names, and raised his cane. At this Allen shook his fist, telling him: ‘This is the beetle of mortality for you, if you offer to strike.’ ‘Youshall grace a halter at Tyburn,’ cried Prescott, with an oath.

The wounded, seven in number, entered the hospital; the rest were shackled together in pairs, and distributed among different transports in the river. But Allen, as the chief offender, was chained with leg irons weighing about thirty pounds; their heavy substantial bar was eight feet long; the shackles, which encompassed his ancles, were so very tight and close that he could not lie down exeept on his back; and in this plight, thrust into the lowest part of a vessel, the captor of Ticonderoga was dragged to England, where imprisonment in Pendennis Castle could not abate his courage or his hope.

The issue of this rash adventure daunted the

Oct.

Canadians for a moment, but difficulties only brought out the resources of Montgomery. He was obliged to act entirely from his own mind; for there was no one about him competent to give advice. Of the field officers, he esteemed Brown alone for his ability; though McPherson, his aide-de-camp, a very young man, universally beloved, of good sense, and rare endowments, gave promise of high capacity for war.