Allen addressed it to his brother at Bennington, in the Green Mountains, and it duly reached its destination, but the brother was away with the patriot army, the letter was kept, however, and read over and over again by the old friends of the hero of Ticonderoga. In that letter he says: "I have seen American patriot prisoners begging for food and being laughed at for their request. They have bitten pieces of wood to get little chips to eat and so satisfy their hunger. I was imprisoned for a time in a church, watched over by Hessians who would not let us leave to satisfy the wants of nature, and mid excrements the poor wretches, who only loved their country, died in horrible tortures." It was a wonder that the letter ever reached Bennington, but the jailer who passed it out was a warm-hearted man, a son of the soil from Ireland. It was in the early spring of 1778 that Allen heard his name called as he sat in the hold of a war ship lying off New York. He dragged his legs wearily up the steps to the deck. He had aged much during those two years, and his friends would scarcely have known him. As he reached the deck he heard a voice, which seemed very familiar, say: "Colonel, don't you know me?" A tall, bearded young man stood before him with extended hand. "Eben!" "Ah! then I have not changed so much." It was Eben Pike, dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant of the American army. "What brings you here? You are not a prisoner?" "No; at this moment I am a guest of His Majesty the King of England, and am acting on behalf of the United States of America, and more especially the commander-in-chief, Gen. Washington, and----" "I am so glad to see you, Eben, that I do not know what you have been saying. I feared you were dead." "No, colonel, I had a work to do, and I have done it. You see, we, that is, the American army, took a certain English colonel prisoner, and England wanted him very badly, so Gen. Washington said: 'You shall have him in exchange for Col. Ethan Allen,' and at last the order for the exchange was made and you are free." What did it mean? Allen heard the word "free," but it seemed like an echo of fairyland, having nothing in common with this matter-of-fact, cruel world. "Yes, Col. Allen, you are free." This time the word was spoken by an English officer. Allen staggered like a drunken man, and would have fallen had not Eben caught him. "Come, colonel, we must not trespass on the hospitality of the King of England any longer; I have promised to escort you with all due diligence to the headquarters of the commander-in-chief." Allen stood still, looking, with glassy eyes, at the speaker. In a few moments he asked; "Am I dreaming?" "It looked very like it, colonel, for you acted as though you were asleep; but come now, we must be going." "Do you mean it? Are you really Eben Pike?"