That it was agreed to in the cabinet appears in the fact that on the very 27th December, 1775, Lord George Germaine of the admiralty ordered that Allen and his associates be returned to General Howe in Boston. Howe evacuated Boston March 16, 1776, went to Halifax, and thence to New York. Allen followed him round and was ultimately a prisoner on parole until the 6th of May, 1778, when he was exchanged for Col. Archibald Campbell. While he was on parole the "Person of Confidence" was found to make the proposal suggested by Wedderburn, and Allen mentions this in the narrative of his captivity. Who was the British officer of high rank whom Howe employed to buy up Allen we do not know, but the American whom Clinton employed we do know: Beverly Robinson, a Virginian, made wealthy by marriage with Susanna Phillipse, sister of Mary Phillipse, for whom Washington had an attachment. He was the son of a lieutenant-governor, and an early associate of Washington. In 1780 occurred this third attempt to buy Allen. Robinson was the man selected to make the proposition. Ethan Allen was the man selected to be bribed: not Governor Chittenden; not the soldiers Roger Enos or Seth Warner; not the diplomat, the treasurer, the financier of the State, Ira Allen; not the young lawyers Nathaniel Chipman or S. R. Bradley; but the man who had been tempted in England and tempted in New York, the man whose loyalty had not been shaken by the endurance of British brutality for two and one-half years. The time to hope for success would seem to have been December, 1775, on English soil, when he had reasonable grounds to fear being hung for treason, or in New York, in 1777, when Washington had been driven out of Long Island, out of New York City, and chased across New Jersey. This time chosen was in 1780, when Congress had alienated Vermont by ignoring her claims to federation, and had treated her with such contempt that there was almost no hope of her joining the United States. Long Island knew of Ethan's temptation before he did. The air was full of it. The contents of Robinson's letter were known to the tories before Allen received it. The letter written in February was delivered in July. Washington heard in July that Allen was in New York selling himself to the British. Schuyler had spies everywhere. They reported Allen in Canada. General James Clinton suspected Allen. The correspondence and flag for cartel smelt of treason. Washington had tried to effect an exchange of prisoners, and failed. His letter to Haldimand was unanswered. Gooch had applied, in July, to Washington, and Allen wrote to Washington at the request of the governor. Washington replied he could not prefer Warner's men to those who had been prisoners longer, but here the correspondence languished.