10th of May.  Then Arnold turned up with his colonel’s commission, but without the four hundred men it authorized him to raise.  Allen, however, had made himself a colonel too, with Warner as his second-in-command.  So there were no less than three colonels for two hundred and thirty men.  Arnold claimed the command by virtue of his Massachusetts commission.  But the Green Mountain Boys declared they would follow no colonels but their own; and so Arnold, after being threatened with arrest, was appointed something like chief of the staff, on the understanding that he would make himself generally useful with the boats.  This appointment was made at dawn on the 10th of May, just as the first eighty men were advancing to the attack after crossing over under cover of night.  The British sentry’s musket missed fire; whereupon he and the guard were rushed, while the rest of the garrison were surprised in their beds.  Ethan Allen, who knew the fort thoroughly, hammered on the commandant’s door and summoned him to surrender ’In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!’ The astonished commandant, seeing that resistance was impossible, put on his dressing-gown and paraded his disarmed garrison as prisoners of war.  Seth Warner presently arrived with the rest of Allen’s men and soon became the hero of Crown Point, which he took with the whole of its thirteen men and a hundred and thirteen cannon.  Then Arnold had his own turn, in command of an expedition against the sergeant’s guard, cannon, stores, fort, and sloop at St Johns on the Richelieu, all of which he captured in the same absurdly simple way.  When he came sailing back the three victorious commanders paraded all their men and fired off many straggling fusillades of joy.  In the meantime the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, with a delightful touch of unconscious humour, was gravely debating the following resolution, which was passed on the 1st of June:  That no Expedition or Incursion ought to be undertaken or made, by any Colony or body of Colonists, against or into Canada.

The same Congress, however, found reasons enough for changing its mind before the month of May was out.  The British forces in Canada had already begun to move towards the threatened frontier.  They had occupied and strengthened St Johns.  And the Americans were beginning to fear lest the command of Lake Champlain might again fall into British hands.  On the 27th of May the Congress closed the phase of individual raids and inaugurated the phase of regular invasion by commissioning General Schuyler to ’pursue any measures in Canada that may have a tendency to promote the peace and security of these Colonies.’  Philip Schuyler was a distinguished member of the family whose head had formulated the ‘Glorious Enterprize’ of conquering New France in 1689. [Footnote:  See, in this Series, The Fighting Governor.] So it was quite in line with the family tradition for him to be under orders to ’take possession of St Johns, Montreal, and any other parts of the country,’ provided always, adds the cautious Congress, that ’General Schuyler finds it practicable, and that it will not be disagreeable to the Canadians.’