In the next chapter we will relate how this timely service of the Green Mountain Boys was requited by Congress. It is not within the range of human wisdom to say what would have been the effect on the American cause, had the demand of New York been complied with, and Stark and Warner been stripped of their commissions before the battle of Bennington. The enemy would have been left to devastate the country at their pleasure, and by diverting the patriot stores in and around Bennington to the use of Burgoyne’s army, thereby rendered his position well-nigh impregnable. CHAPTER XI. PRIVATE NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE BRITISH. Brilliant and signal as had been the feats of these Vermonters with the sword, not less so were their acts of diplomacy. One can but be impressed with the spectacle of a handful of men accomplishing by policy what they could never have done by power--for years keeping at bay an army of British troops 10,000 strong, hovering over and in readiness to swoop down and devastate their exposed and unprotected frontier, at the same time the people were permitted to go on unconcernedly about their harvest. The claims to independence on the part of Vermont were still unacknowledged by Congress, and New York was still importunate and vexatious. The British generals in America endeavored to turn these circumstances to their own account, by detaching Vermont from the cause of the Colonies, and making it a British province. The first intimation that the people of Vermont had of this circumstance was conveyed in a letter from Colonel Beverly Robinson, dated New York, Mar. 30th, 1780, and delivered to Colonel Ethan Allen in the street at Arlington in July. Allen communicated the contents of the letter to Governor Chittenden and some others, but returned no answer. Meantime, the village of Royalton had been sacked and burned by a party of three hundred Indians under a British officer, four of the inhabitants killed, and twenty-five taken prisoners. It was arranged that the Governor should address a communication to General Haldimand, then commanding in Canada, proposing a cartel for the exchange of prisoners,--the letter to be sent under a flag to the enemy’s lines. In October, the British appeared in great force on the lake; such was the alarm that the Legislature, then in session at Bennington, adjourned, many of the members taking arms and hastening to the frontiers.