Colonel Ethan Allen was once on a visit to his brother Heman, who was residing at Salisbury, Conn. A plot was laid by some Yorkers to capture and convey him to the Poughkeepsie jail, and so obtain Tryon’s promised premium. Robert M’Cormick, who was on intimate terms with the family, had been engaged to act as decoy. He was to spend the night with the family as their guest, and at a convenient hour, open the door and conduct the gang to the apartment where the Colonel slept. A sleigh was to be in readiness outside, in which their prisoner could be driven with all speed out of Connecticut. M’Cormick parted from his companions at some distance from Heman Allen’s house. He was kindly received, and offered a bed for the night. It was noticed he was unusually reticent, and quite reserved in his participation in the hospitalities tendered him. He made some indirect inquiries after Colonel Allen, who had ridden out that afternoon, but who was momentarily expected to return. From these circumstances Heman was led to suspect some plot was on foot against his brother, and so expressed himself on that gentleman’s return. The Colonel thereupon taxed M’Cormick at his unusual concern, and so pressed the poor fellow that he confessed there was a plot to capture him, and that he had come for the purpose of privately informing him of it. M’Cormick departed soon after, and told the gang of what he had done. Preparations were made for defense by the household, but they remained through the night unmolested. [Illustration: Old Catamount Tavern.] The scene of this adventure was the birthplace of Ethan and Ira Allen, from which, at an early age, they removed with their parents to the Hampshire Grants. Ethan was remarkable for the boldness with which he declared his opinions, and a self confidence that was abashed by no consciousness of ignorance. He acquired a wide notoriety as a pamphleteer during the Vermont troubles, there being no paper published there at that time. His enemies tried to fix on him the stigma of an outlaw; and even so careful a historian as Irving is led to make the observation that he was “a kind of Robin Hood among the mountains.” The late T. S. Arthur once wrote of him as being a “guerilla chief,” forgetting that he acted under the direction of a committee of safety--an authority universally adopted by the other colonies during the Revolution. Ira Allen was still further traduced. The _Western Star_, a paper published at Stockbridge, Mass., in 1797, styles him the “Vermont Land Jobber;” and states he was at the time under arrest for treasonable designs against the government of Great Britain, concluding with the observation--“All humane men should shudder at the idea of a halter; and many honest men will rejoice if Allen’s liberation puts an end to his restless career in future.” Allen, it seems, had been charged with supplying the Irish, then in rebellion against England, with arms: after eight years of litigation he was acquitted.