In a few days Colonel Ethan Allen received a flag from Carleton, with an answer to Governor Chittenden’s letter respecting the cartel. With it was enclosed a proposition for a truce with Vermont. Allen agreed to the proposal on condition that the frontiers of Vermont should include the territory to the Hudson River. This truce, however, was not publicly known; the militia were immediately disbanded and allowed to return home. The militia of New York were also on their frontiers; not being in the secret, they were surprised to see the Vermont troops returning home, and still more to learn that the British were retiring to Canada. In February, 1781, Colonel Robinson wrote again to Ethan Allen, enclosing a copy of the former letter. He was induced to make another trial, he said, “especially as I can now write with more authority, and assure you, that you may obtain the terms mentioned in the above letter, provided you and the people of Vermont take a decisive and active part with us.” Allen returned no answer to either of these letters, but enclosed them both in a communication to Congress. In that letter he says: “I am confident that Congress will not dispute my sincere attachment to my country, though I do not hesitate to say I am fully grounded in opinion that Vermont has an indubitable right to agree on terms of a cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, provided the United States persist in rejecting her application for a union with them; for Vermont, of all people, would be most miserable, were she obliged to defend the independence of the United States, and they at the same time at full liberty to overturn and ruin the independence of Vermont. I am as resolutely determined to defend the independence of Vermont, as Congress that of the United States, and rather than fail, will retire with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into the desolate caverns of the mountains, and wage war with the devil, hell, and human nature at large.” This somewhat forcible language was excusable under the circumstances. Early in that year, Vermont, by a vote of her Legislature, adopted the policy of the States of New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, that had been laying claim to the territory of the Grants, and put in her claim of jurisdiction over a large part of each of those States. Thus Vermont was turning the weapons of her antagonists upon themselves. Numbers of representatives from the annexed districts took their seats in the Vermont assembly. At the time of extending her claims, she passed an act of general amnesty; this liberal and wise act of lenity had the desired effect.