“And Cambridge, Cambridge, what would she?” Cried Mott[3] and Phelps, “Nay, Nay!— ’Twas Hartford sent us forth, and we Bade Allen lead the way.” “And we,” cried those Vermonters true, “We came with Allen here; And all agree that none but he Shall lead the mountaineer.” The other hush’d when this he heard; And give them honor all: They faced the traitor Arnold[8] thus, Who thus began his fall. Give honor due to Allen too; High compliment it is, That, when the traitor train’d with him, He was no friend of his. Three days they tramp’d, then Allen said: “We near the lake I see. Let some go north and some go south, And some straight on with me.[9] “Let those that push for north and south Row off with all that floats, And make for Shoreham, where we all Will cross when come the boats.[9] “And let the others fall in line Behind my lantern’s glare. Beyond, Ticonderoga waits; At morn, we breakfast there.” Then, down the hunter’s trail, our line Wound on as winds a snake, And, late at night, prepared to spring, Lay coil’d beside the lake. “Now off,” said Allen, “north and south, And hail each coming oar.” Alas, to think that Heaven above Should favor man no more! To north and south we scatter’d far, We listened o’er and o’er, But not a sound, from north or south, The empty breezes bore. A few there were could cross at last,— Alas, but all too few! Night sped, and Allen, by the fort Could count scarce eighty-two.[10] “My men,” he mutter’d,[11] “look—the dawn!— Before can cross the lake One boat again for other men, The day in full will break. “Yet note the wall. You know it well; Ten times our force, if seen, Though clad in mail, could never scale Those cannon thick between. “And here the boats.—What vote you all?— Your guns lift up,—no breath.[11] The lake cross here?—or weapons there? Face cowardice?—or death? “Your guns all up?[12] your hearts all true? How well! Had one turn’d back,[13] Yon mounts were his no longer save To hedge and hide his track. “He easier might have faced, at home, When snows were all aflame, The sun! than wives and little ones Whose cheeks would fire with shame. “How oft have you, when driven off The land you once had bought,[14] Too poor to buy again a home For those for whom you wrought; “How oft, when all was torn from you,[14] And you had urged in vain Your chartered rights, the common law, And all that God makes plain; “How oft then have you pray’d aloud That Heaven would send you down A chance from off your country’s brow To hurl the hated crown!