At this awful crisis the Convention was for adjourning, as many of the members had families residing in the portions likely to be overrun by the enemy and their Indian allies. Indications of a terrible thunder storm among the mountains having put all thoughts of immediately going home out of the question, some of the more thoughtful called attention to their unfinished work. In the midst of the peals of thunder, the incessant flashes of lightning and the tumult of the elements without, the constitution was read, paragraph by paragraph, for the last time; and as the sun broke forth upon a smiling landscape, invigorated with the summer shower, Vermont was in possession of a constitution, and stood pledged to its support. A Council of Safety was instituted to act during the recess, the Convention adjourned, and the members betook themselves to their homes. Three days afterward, this “outlaw” Warner and his proscribed Green Mountain regiment were engaged in deadly conflict, on the soil of Vermont, with the British and Indian foes of America, on the memorable battle field of Hubbardton, in which Warner’s force was decimated to about ninety men. CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. The British were of opinion that the people of the Grants were opposed to the Revolution, and would join the standard of England the moment a force was marched into the territory. This belief was founded on the dissensions with New York, the unsatisfactory resolutions of Congress, and the charges of outlawry brought against the people of the Grants by their neighbors. Bennington was a central place, whither the live stock had been collected, and whence the American army derived its supplies. It was likewise a depot of wheeled vehicles and grain deposits, and was guarded by relieving bodies of militia. Bennington was to be surprised. The country was to be scoured from Rockingham to Otter Creek. All public magazines were to be sacked. All cattle belonging to royalists, and which could be spared by their owners, were to be paid for; and all the rebel herds and flocks were to be driven away. Colonel Skene, the noted royalist after whom Skenesborough (now Whitehall) was named, held a position in the expedition: indeed, it was owing largely to his representations that it was undertaken. Lieut.-Col. Baum was sent in charge of the detachment. He had in his command two hundred dismounted dragoons of the regiment of Riedesel, Captain Frazer’s British marksmen, some Canadian Tories, and Indians, in all amounting to about five hundred men, with two pieces of cannon. It was expected the dragoons would supply themselves with horses in the course of the foray, and a skeleton corps of royalists would be filled up with recruits.