AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Nothing, and never want to have anything to do with that colony."
"You are right, Seth Warner; so I tell you what we will do with thispiece of parchment."
The people looked at the speaker, and wondered what he was about topropose.
When they saw him take a knife from his pocket and slit the parchmentthrough the middle, they dare not speak, they were so astonished.
In four pieces he cut the proclamation, and then handed it back to thesheriff, who dropped it as though it had been plague infected.
Ethan Allen picked up the four pieces.
"You did well not to receive it. I have a better use for it."
He took out his tinder box, and after a little effort, for the snowmade the tinder damp, he got a light.
This he applied to the parchment, which sputtered and crinkled up inall sorts of strange shapes, until the great red seal, the token ofauthority, melted, and the wax ran on the ground.
"Now, let the sheriff acquaint the governor of New Hampshire with whatI have done."
Ethan Allen stepped down, and walked through th
e crowd.
Not one person spoke to him, his act had so taken them by surprise.
It was a boldness that perhaps was criminal, they thought.
"What think you?" asked one.
"It was awful. I wonder the fire from Heaven did not consume him, forthe king is the Lord's anointed, and it was in the king's name."
"I wonder if they will hang him?"
"Who, the king?"
"No, Ethan; most like they will."
"I guess he knew what he was doing."
"Ay, and he did right. We want men of pluck like him."
"Take care, Seth Warner; Ethan may get into trouble----"
"And I will stand by him."
"So will I," said Peleg Sunderland.
"And here is another," spoke up Remember Baker. "The lad hath theright spunk. I like him."
There was nothing done that day but talk over Ethan Allen's strange anddaring conduct.
For days the people spoke of it in bated breath, for they had neverheard of such opposition to authority in the district, and they wereafraid of the consequences.
Gov. Wentworth, of New Hampshire, issued a counter proclamation, inwhich he said that King Charles had never given the land to New York.
The governor of New York appealed to King George, and he decided infavor of New York, and so, at the end of six years, the battle oftitles stood just where it did when Ethan Allen tore up theproclamation.
CHAPTER II.
