"Do you refuse to surrender?" "A Green Mountain Boy only surrenders to superiors." "Then we shall have to make you, unless you acknowledge us as your superiors." "Men of the mountains!" shouted Allen, "ride through these fellows--ride over them if they will not get out of the way." Edwards ordered his men to resist and to fire upon the mountaineers. "So you want to play the part of highwaymen, do you? Boys, return the fire." One volley was fired by each party, and then the two opposing bodies became mixed up in inextricable confusion. Muskets were clubbed and heads were cracked as the heavy butts descended on them. Horses reared, and plunged, and knocked down those men who had become unhorsed. The fight was furious for a few minutes. Ethan and his brother, Ira, were in the thick of the struggle all the time, while Seth Warner seemed a very Trojan in valor. Both sides fought well, and had the contest been a short one it would have been impossible to say which would have been the victor, but it was prolonged, and the mountaineers had the physical stamina which the men of the valleys lacked, and the longer the fight lasted the greater was the victory of the brave followers of Ethan Allen. Edwards was taken prisoner, and on the understanding that he would reveal all he knew of the plot against the men of the grants, Allen allowed all the others to go free. Two Yorkers were killed, while Allen's ranks had lost only one, and he only wounded, though severely. In triumph the boys returned to the green hills of Vermont, and were received with many congratulations. CHAPTER VIII. THE CONVENTION. Edwards was brought to trial on the charge of leading an armed invasion of New Hampshire. He declared that he alone was responsible for the foray, and doubtless his statement was a true one, though Allen did not believe it. The district court condemned Edwards to death by hanging, for his act was one of high treason, and the sentence was sure to be confirmed by the king, to whom it had to be sent. When Gov. Tryon heard of the fight and the capture of Edwards, and his subsequent trial and sentence, he resolved on two things. He would bring all the pressure to bear on the king that he could to prevent the sentence being confirmed, and he would capture Allen and his friends, no matter what the consequences might be. A proclamation was printed and sent through all the grants, in which the governor of New York offered a reward of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the capture of Ethan Allen, dead or alive, and a further sum of fifty pounds each for the bodies, dead or alive, of Seth Warner, Remember Baker, Sylvanus Brown, Robert Cochrane, Peleg Sunderland, James Breakenridge and John Smith. When the proclamation had been well discussed the people got another sensation in a counter proclamation, signed by Ethan Allen on behalf of the mountaineers, offering two hundred pounds for the capture of the attorney-general of New York.