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It is in the mountains that freemen are born, and, as Ethan Allen oftentold the people of the valleys, the men of the hills were a race offree men, who could never be enslaved.
Talbot thought over the difficulty and resolved to try diplomacy.
"You hold your farm under a grant from Gov. Wentworth?"
"I do?"
"You owe allegiance to him?"
"Certainly."
"You ought to obey his commands."
"Stay! I am a freeborn man. I willingly give service where service isneeded, I willingly obey laws which are for the good of all, but Inever yet agreed to obey any one man, whether he be governor or evenking."
"And yet you have no right to the farm, save such as you received fromthe governor."
"You mistake the position. The original grant was for a tract ofmountain land. That land is now mine because I have improved it, madeit of value, and all I owe to the governor is the value of theunreclaimed lands.
"Will you not go to Concord and obey the governor's mandate?"
"Not until the governor himself asks me. When he invites me I will go;when he only commands I refuse to obey. Return and tell him so."
"I dare not."
"Then stay here and you will learn what freemen think, and see how theyact."
"I dare not stay."
"What a sorry specimen of a man you are. You dare not, forsooth! isthat the expression of a free man?"
"You taunt me."
"Taunt you? No, I only say that I dare do aught that does become aman."
Seth Warner entered the house and was welcomed by Ethan.
The colonel told the farmer of the order received.
"Will you go?"
"No."
"I should say not, indeed. Let the governor come here if he wants totalk with you."
Talbot could make no headway, so he left the house in disgust.
He went to Faithful Quincy, the town crier, and bade him summon the mento assemble at the courthouse at once.
Quincy looked at the attorney and waited until the order was given.
"In whose name am I to give the notice?"
"That of the governor."
"Then, please your honor, you must go to the sheriff and get his order."
"Is that necessary?"
