University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.

A few miles to the southward of the encampment
of the Green Mountain Boys before described, stood
the tenement of a settler whose improvements were
somewhat in advance of the rough beginnings of
those who resided in the immediate vicinity. And
the owner and occupant, having gained that point of
comparative thrift from which he could look down
upon his less fortunate neighbors, had lately begun
to manifest an ambition to outshine them also in the
civil distinctions to which he beleived himself now
entitled. But his solicitude for preferment not allowing
him to await the tardy honors which his fellow
settlers of the New Hampshire party might be inclined
to bestow, he had lately turned his longing
eye to other dispensers of these coveted favors. And
the prayer of his heart, being secretly made known
in the right quarter, was soon answered in the shape
of an offer of the office of justice of the peace
from the government of New York. Though aware
of the dangerous nature of such an honor to an inhabitant
of the Grants, yet the temptation, which
was now set before him, and which, indeed, he had
indirectly sought, was altogether too great to be resisted;
and, in an evil hour, he privately accepted
the office, in defiance of a decree of the Convention

of his countrymen, which had placed the acceptance
of such an office, from such a source, by a settler,
high in the calender of punishable offences.

To the tenement of this aspiring dignitary we will
now take the reader in anticipation of other visitors.
It was the next morning after the adventure of Warrington
and his friend, the stout stranger, at Captain
Hendee's; and the dawning light was just beginning
to appear in the dapple east. The freshly made
squire was already awake, reflecting with peculiar
inward satisfaction on the honors of his new station
as he lay beside his loving rib in a small bed-room
adjoining the kitchen. He had only the night before
received his commission, and his heart was full
of the pleasing subject. He not only dwelt on the
present consequence which the office would confer,
but his expanding thoughts began to stretch forward
to the future; and he counted over the probabilities
of his advancing, on a stepping stone like this, to
much higher distinctions under a government, which,
he was now ready to believe—nay, secretly to wish
—would soon exercise the entire control in the settlement.

`They will call me squire now,' he soliloquized
half aloud, `and once squire, always squire: so I
shall get the title, let what will come of it.'

`Come of what, Mr. Prouty?' asked his help
meet with a yawn, awakening just in time to catch
the last part of the sentence.

`Why! why, I thought you was asleep, Polly.—
Come of what, did you say? O, nothing in particular;
only I have been thinking over things a little.
And I'll tell you what it is;—there will shortly be a
great overturn in this settlement. There will, you
may depend on't.'

`What, the Yorkers get the upper hand?'

`Sartain as you live, Polly!'

`Then where will go the title to our farm? That
was what you was talking to yourself about, wa'nt it,
now?'

`No it wa'nt. And that an't a thing, neither, that
troubles me a might:'

`Why not?'

`Because the office I have just got under the York
government I consider amounts to a security against
that. And if the Green Mountain Boys will let me
alone—but I don't intend they shall know about my
office yet awhile.'

`Yes, but what good will it do you to be a justice,
if you can't be squire?'

`Why, what does the woman mean?'

`I mean if you darsent let folks know, so as to
call you squire.'

`O, I can do some business, even now, among the
York party, without much danger. And it won't be
long before all that trouble will be over: For, as I
told you, there is about to be a complete overturn
here. The Yorkers are preparing to come on with
a strong, armed force. Now don't say any thing to
the neighbors about this, Polly, as I had it in confidence
from Mr. Sherwood.'

`O, did you? Well that Mr. Sherwood is a complete
gentleman—how perlite he is! Don't you think
so, Mr. Prouty?'

`Yes, perlite enough, forzino. Well, as I was
going to say, if they come on, Ethan Allen, Warrington
and Member Baker, with all they can raise,
will stand no fag at all with a regular York army. And
all who stand out then will be indicted and informationed
against. There will be plenty of warrants

called for about those days, you may depend on't.
And I, being the only government justice in this
part of the Grants, shall have the making of them.
It will be money in my pocket, I tell you, Polly!
And then, when'—

`Well I hope you will then feel like getting me a
new silk gownd. You know, Mr. Prouty, that my
white dimoty is now the only dress that I have fit to
see company in.'

`O fudge!'

`I say there is no fudge about it, now! The
neighbors call us rich, and still it is a solemn fact,
Mr. Prouty, and I don't care who knows it, that you
dress your wife a great deal worse than'—

`Well, well, don't bother me now; but hear what
I was coming at: When the York government gets
well established here, as it will be, they will want
two or three judges in this quarter, I guess. And I,
being the only one in all this section that had courage
to accept the office of justice of peace, should n't
you think, Polly, they would kind o' naturally hit on
me for one of them?'

`Why, bless me! will they? So they will, wont
they? And then, certainly, Mr. Prouty'—

`Hush! hush! I hear some body coming up to the
door. Who on earth can they be, I wonder, that's
started out so early?'

A smart rapping being now heard at the door,
Justice Prouty leaped from his bed, seized his—inexpressibles,
modern dandyism would term them,
we suppose, but finding no authority for believing
our fathers made use of any garment, the appropriate
appellation of which they considered it indecent
to express, we will venture to call things by their
right names—seized his breeches, hurried them on,

together with the other parts of his outward equipment,
and emerged into the kitchen, after having
twice gone back, at his wife's hasty and imperious
call, to close, and more tightly close, the door behind
him. After the customary `walk in,' distinctly pronounced
by the squire, the door was opened, and
two men entered, both unknown to the former,
though not so to those, who have followed us through
all the different scenes of the preceding pages: for,
in the striking attitude of one of the visitants, which
compelled the civility of bowing, nolens volens, as he
entered the door, like a boy coming into a country
school, and in the comical leer of his countenance,
as with one eye he seemed to be measuring the
affectedly dignified person of his host, while the other
was busily employed in taking an inventory of the
various articles about the room, the reader will find
no difficulty in recognizing our jovial friend, Pete
Jones. The other, whose dress, and gentlemanly
bearing, formed a striking contrast with that of his
rustic companion, was no other than Selden, who,
as before intimated, having arrived the previous evening,
had volunteered with the former to make this
early call on the justice to procure his immediate
attendance at their encampment in the woods.

`Be seated, gentlemen, pray be seated,' said the
squire, bustling about, and setting chairs for his
guests with one hand, and finishing the buttoning up
of his vest with the other, `make yourselves comfortable—no
ceremony here—just turned out, you
see. Called on business, I take it, gentlemen?' he
added, meaning official business, on which his mind
was still running, and `the wish,' in this case, as
often happens, `proving father to the thought.'

`We have, Sir,' answered Selden, bowing with

well assumed respect. `You are a justice of the
peace we are told?'

`Why, as to that, Sir,' replied Prouty hesitating,
and glancing, with a doubtful air, alternately at Selden
and his companion, `perhaps I may have heard
—that is, I can't sartainly say but I have heard, that
I was appointed to the office; though as to accepting
—You are of the right party, I trust, gentlemen?'

`We certainly think we are, at least, sir,' rejoined
the former gravely.

`That's as true as preaching, squire,' said Pete;
`for if we ain't on the right side, I would give my
old jack-knife to know who are.'

`All right, I presume, gentlemen; but rather ticklish
times, you know—thought it no hurt to be a little
particular. But what business did you want done?
No harm in asking that, I spose, gentlemen?' said
the squire, adding the last question by way of opening
a door for a retreat, should one be necessary.

`O, no,' replied Selden, `but I know not that I
can state precisely the nature of the business which
those, who sent us for you, wish done, but it is something,
I believe, that they think requires your presence.'

`O, ho, not to be done here, then, gentlemen?'
observed the squire, a little doubtingly, again.

`No, sir, the place is several miles from here, I
should think,' responded Selden with an air of indifference.

`Is Mr. Sherwood there?' asked the squire rather
anxiously.

`I believe not, squire,' answered Selden, with the
same indifference, `but they are anxious he should
be, and hope he will come before closing the business.'

`I'll swear to that, squire,' said Jones, with a ludicrous
effort to keep mischief from showing itself
in his countenance.

`Aye, all right, then, gentlemen,' rejoined the
squire, still stupidly determined to understand the
indefinite and evasive language of his visitors, in the
way that his wishes pointed. `But I thought I would
make sure. You, sir,' he continued, addressing Selden,
`I thought from the first glance, must belong
to the right party. This other gentleman, here, I
didn't know so well about, but it makes no difference
what I thought, as I see you agree. I will attend
you, gentlemen. But hadn't we better stop and
get some breakfast first?'

`O no,' replied Selden, `they expressly told us
to come on immediately, and the folks would have
a good breakfast prepared for us all, by the time we
could arrive there.'

Esquire Prouty, after notifying his wife of his intended
absence, now signified his readines to depart;
when all three set forward towards the encampment
of the Green Mountain Boys, the former without
further question, or any apparent distrust, putting
himself under the guidance of his attendants. And
wrapt up in self consequence, and dreaming only of
the important figure he was shortly to make in the
first exercise of his new vocation, he unhesitatingly
followed his guides, as with rapid steps they silently
led the way, sometimes proceeding in the road, sometimes
through a piece of woods, and sometimes
through open fields. At length they reached the
border of the dark, continuous forest, within which,
at the distance of about a half mile, was the encampment
to which they were destined; when the
squire, now for the first time hesitating, or seeming

to entertain any suspicion that they were taking him
to a less agreeable destination than he had anticipated,
paused in his steps, and threw a doubtful and
apprehensive glance around him.

`Never mind, squire,' cried Jones, who, having
with difficulty restrained himself from giving vent,
in some shape or other, to the secret merriment he
had been indulging on the way at the squire's credulity
in suffering himself to be so foolishly lured from
home, thought it would now do to begin to banter
the obtuse justice a little, `never mind, squire! You
needn't look so streaked—we belong to the right
party, you know.'

`Yes, but if you would but jest inform me, gentlemen'—said
the other imploringly, and with visible
purturbation—`only jest inform me'—

`O push ahead man!' interrupted Jones, who
purposely dropping in the rear, now urged on the
reluctant squire with a show of pettish impatience,
as if detained by excuses too frivolous to merit a reply,
`push ahead!' My stomach is getting fairly wolfish
for that breakfast. I'll be blest, if I don't almost
think I begin to smell it at this distance!'

Somewhat assured by the other's manner of treating
his scruples, and, though not quite satisfied, yet
feeling a little ashamed of his fears, the squire now
passively suffered himself to be conducted forward
till, reaching the foot of the mountain, and turning
closely round a projecting ledge of rocks, he suddenly,
and to his utter dismay, found himself in the
midst of a group of sturdy men, whom from their
appearance, he at once knew to be a band of Green
Mountain Boys. Instantly comprehending the nature
of their business with him, he stopped short,
and stood confused, and trembling in mute alarm

before them. Nor were his fears at all diminished
by the array of well known names, which his conductor
the next moment announced by way of introduction,
the ceremonies of which the latter now
commenced performing very formally with these
nearest at hand.

`Esquire Prouty, allow to present you to Captain
Remember Baker,' began Selden, pompously waving
his hand towards a keen-eyed, determined looking
man, who stood in front of the others.

The confused squire nodded his head mechanically,
but his tongue refused to do its office, except by
a half articulated `How'd do, sir,' as he heard the
name of one of that famous trio, who had so long
been the terror of the New York authorities.

`Again, Esquire Prouty, will you permit the pleasure
of presenting you to Captain Charles Warrington,'
proceeded Selden, as the latter advanced to
favor the introduction.

`Warrington!' gasped the squire with increasing
trepidation, `Warrington too'!

`And yet once more,' continued the imperturbable
lieutenant, beckoning to our Herculean hero of
the shag coat, who figured so conspicuously at Captain
Hendee's in his adventure with the soldiers the
night previous, and who was now here and came forward
at the intimation, `once more, Esquire Prouty,
shall I have the very great honor of introducing to
Colonel Ethan Allen?'

`God have mercy on me!' involuntarily burst from
the lips of the affrighted justice, as the announcement
of the last name capped the climax of his terror
and despair, `O, God, have mercy! I am a lost
man!'

`Pooh! you cowardly fool!' exclaimed Allen with

a look of mingled pity and contempt, `rouse up, and
bear it like a man, and if you promise no more to
betray your injured and bleeding country by becoming
the tool of tyrants, it shall go the lighter with
you. At all events, you need not fear that you will
be punished to the extent of half your deserts. But
come, boys, set on the breakfast. It might be hazzardous
to our prisoners, the squire and surveyor here,
to proceed with them, with the inward man in so ravenous
a flight: for Hunger and Mercy never got
near enough to each other to shake hands, since the
fall of Adam. And even the awards of Justice, herself,
might be of questionable rectitude, if made under
the irritations of an empty stomach.'

The breakfast, which consisted of a plentiful supply
of roasted venison, partriges, and other small
game, with such trimmings as the settlers living near,
and in the secret of the encampment, had sent in,
was served up on a rude kind of platform, composed
of smooth white pieces cleft from the freely rifting
bass-wood, and supported on cross pieces laid
upon forked stakes, or crotches, as they are usually
denominated in the woodman's phrase. Around this
temporary table, benches of an equally rude construction
were placed sufficient for the accommodation
of all the company including the prisoners, now
consisting of the squire, the surveyor, and his assistant,
all of whom were respectfully shown places at
the table. The meal was generally partaken in silence,
the officers seeming to fear that too much sociability
might have a tendency to unnerve them for
the task on hand, and the men respectfully following
the example of their superiors, with the exception of
Pete Jones, who could not forbear occasionally throwing
a sly joke at the chop-fallen squire.

`Now, gentlemen, for business,' said Allen, rising
from the table the moment their meal was finished,
as ominously knitting his dark heavy brows, he pulled
from his pocket, and, in a loud, commanding
voice, commenced reading a decree of the Convention,
forbidding “Each, and all, of the inhabitants of
the New Hampshire Grants, to hold, take, or accept,
any office of honor or profit under the colony of New
York”—and requiring “All officers, and others, acting
under the Governor or legislature of that province,
to suspend their functions on pain of being viewed.”
He then produced a letter from a secret agent of the
settlers at Albany, giving the date of Prouty's commission,
and enclosing a letter from the squire himself,
accepting the office in question. He also presented
a copy of a notice sent some weeks previous to the
surveyor, warning him to quit the Grants without delay.

`And now what have ye to say,' sternly demanded
Allen, turning to the prisoners as soon as he had
finished reading the documents: `what have ye to
say, ye minions of York, why ye should not be viewed,
to the full extent and meaning of the decree, made
and provided for the like of ye?'

Quailing under the withering gaze of Allen, the
justice could not muster courage to lift his head, or
utter a single word in reply. But the surveyor, who
was a man of more firmness, and bore himself quite
collectedly on the occasion, attempted an argument
with the leader of the Green Mountain Boys, denying
all right of the settlers to arrest him, protesting
against being tried by any but a court acting under
the authority of New York, and appealing to that
authority for his justification.

`The authority of New York!' scornfully exclaimed

the other, `appeal to the authority of New
York! Why not appeal, at once, to the chancery of
hell, the fountain head of that stream of corruption,
which comes to us under the name of New York
law and justice? We, sir, we, the poor, and insufferably
abused settlers of these Grants, have often
appealed to that source of justice—appealed for protection
against the lawless aggressions of your cormorant
speculators, who have attempted to wrest
from us our rightful possessions, to seize, with the
grasp of plunderers, our hard earned pittances, and
turn us out houseless and destitute into the wilderness.
But we have appealed in vain, and only to
learn our own folly in expecting that sin would ever
be rebuked by Satan. No, sir, we will suffer no
such appeal, but will ourselves give you a conclusive
judgment in the premises; and such an one, too, as
shall give you the wages of your iniquities. What
say you, my merry mountaineers?'

As soon as the hearty, but variously expressed responses,
by which the men testified their approbation
of the remarks of their leader, were over, Baker,
Warrington and Selden, who, during the discussion,
had been engaged in a low conversation
apart from the rest, beckoned Allen to approach
them. The latter, obeying the intimation, advanced,
and, after listening attentively awhile to some proposal
or plan, which the others appeared to be imparting
to him, snapped his fingers with delight, and exclaimed,

`Capital! Capital, by Jupiter!' he repeated, bringing
down his huge palm upon the snugly fitting buckskin,
covering his broad thigh, with a slap that echoed
through the woods like the report of a pistol.

`'Member, you shall announce it to them, and I will
see that it is carried into execution.'

Baker, accordingly stepping forward and addressing
the surveyor, gravely informed him, that it had
been determined to accede to the wish he had expressed
of being tried, if he was to be tried at all,
by a court of his own colony. And that Justice
Prouty, who had lately been commissioned by the
government of New York, would therefore now immediately
proceed with the trial.

`O gentlemen, O sir!' began Prouty beseechingly,
as Allen now came forward to attend to the part
he had proposed to assume in the business.

`Now don't, Justice Prouty,' interrupted Selden
with provoking irony, `don't, I beg of you, suffer
your diffidence to deprive us of the aid of your acknowledged
abilities in this important case. Having
had the honor of introducing you to this company,
I am very anxious that you should acquit
yourself creditably on the occasion.'

`Yes, sir, but then my situation'—again began to
expostulate the troubled justice.

`Come, your worship,' interrupted Allen, with a
spice of the comic mingled with the determined expression
of his countenance, `You are to try, and to
sentence this York interloper, and no two ways about
it, neither, I will swear to you. There!' he continued,
seizing the reluctant and trembling squire, with
one hand grasping the seat of his breeches, and the
other his collar, and lifting and placing him on the
side of the platform, with the apparent ease of one
handling an infant: `There! sit on the edge of this
table, for a King's Bench. You did not think to arrive
to that honor so soon, did you Squire?'

`Now, Squire,' said Peter Jones, with one of his

mischievous looks, `May I be eternally happy, if I
don't think you a considerable dabster of a prophet!
Don't you see how cute it is all coming to pass what
you told your old woman this morning about your
getting to be a judge soon? Though I must axe
your pardon, Squire, for listening under your bed-room
window a little, before we rapped to come in.'

`Well, is the court ready to proceed?' said Allen:
`now for my opening, as the lawyers say—I am
for the prosecution, recollect.'

`Now I do protest,—I beseech you, sir'—once
more began to stammer the confused and dreadfully
perplexed Justice.

`Shut up, Sir!' fiercely exclaimed Allen. `Hell
and Furies! who ever heard of a court before so
despotic as to refuse to hear the statements of counsel?
No, no, Mr. Court, that will never do; so
now hear me.'

The Squire, thus awed into silence, hung his
head, and sat as still as his agitation would permit,
while the other produced, and again read the documents
by which he had first introduced the subject;
and, after briefly summing up the evidence, demanded
that a sentence be imposed upon the surveyor
of forty lashes of the beach rod.

`I dispute the authority of your pretended Convention,
and I protest against the whole of these
proceedings as illegal and riotous,' exclaimed the
surveyor with considerable spirit.

`Well, very well, sir,' said Allen, with the utmost
composure: `you have had your say, and made your
defence, as you had an undoubted right to do. I
am always for liberty of speech when a man has really
any thing to say, and also for allowing a fair
hearing in all cases, though that is more than your

infernal York tribunals will permit, in nine cases out
of ten. But let us now attend to the decision of
the court. Boys, you may as well be getting a brace
of genteel beech-sealers; for I feel very confident
of a decision in my favor. Now, Mr. Justice, proceed
with your sentence. Forty stripes, with a green
beech rod, is all I claim, recollect—quite moderate,
certainly; but it is always best to loan towards the
side of mercy. Proceed, sir!'

`Any thing else, gentlemen,' groaned the distressed
Squire, `I will do any thing else you say. But
this, now, I cannot, and dare not do.'

`Hark'ee, Mr. Court,' rejoined the other, placing
his arms akimbo, and looking at the Justice with the
air of one resolved to have no more words on the
subject, `A sentence out of you, I will have, as sure
as the devil delays his coming for your soul long
enough for you to pronounce it. Will you proceed,
sir? No answer, oh? Well, we will soon see
whether Ethan Allen has got to eat his own words,
or not. Jones, bring me that sarveyor's chain in the
camp there.'

Allen, taking out his pocket handkerchief, very
deliberately made a slip noose, and adjusted it round
the neck of the trembling squire. He next carefully
tied the tail of this noose to one end of the chain,
throwing the other end, at the same time, over the
large limb of a tree, which projected directly over
their heads, at the height of twelve or fifteen feet
from the ground.

`There, Jones, catch that end, and just straighten
her out a little,' he observed, with a cool, businesslike
air, `I have heard say that hanging was intended
to bring about justice. Let us see if a little of
it won't have that effect in the present instance.'

Obeying with mischievous alacrity, Pete, now running
the chain rapidly over the limb, brought it up
just `taut enough,' to use a sea phrase, to make the
noose sensibly felt by the Squire; upon which the
latter, starting and glaring wildly around, as a slight
sense of suffocation came over him, leaped upon
his feet, and stood upright. This shift, however,
afforded him but a momentary relief: For Jones,
quickly following up the movement, straightened the
chain with a jerk that brought the victim on to his
toes; in which position, grappling the chain above
his head with both hands, and begging, like a half
whipped school boy, for mercy, he was suffered to
remain a moment to give him one more opportunity
of complying with the requisition which had been
made upon him.

`Your last chance of salvation'! exclaimed the
leader in a tone that testified his growing impatience
at the man's obstinacy. `You will comply in one
moment more, or, by the horned Lucifer, the next
shall find you dangling within a yard of yonder limb!'

`Now I would, gentlemen, sartainly would, if'—
again began to sputter the struggling, though yet unconquered
Squire.

`String him up, Jones!' cried Allen with startling
energy.

The next instant the body of the poor justice was
spinning round on one toe, with the tip of which he
was barely able to touch the platform.

`Oh! I'm choking!' screeched the now really
suffering wretch, `Oh! ugh! ugh! ugh! I will—
will—I'll do it!'

`Ease away there, Jones!' said Allen, `he has come
to his senses, at last, and I think there will be no
further trouble; so you may give him full play now.'

After being again questioned as to the reality of
his intentions to proceed with the required task, the
subdued squire was let fully down, and permitted to
stand at ease on the platform; when, as soon as he
had recovered his breath and composure sufficiently
to allow him to speak, he mumbled off the sentence,
which he had run such risks to avoid pronouncing.

`Now, Mr. Court,' said Allen, with a slightly roguish
curl of the lip, `as you have been brought to
a sense of your duty, and given the sentence which
justice required of you, it is no doubt incumbent on
you, sir, to see it executed. And, as all my men
here stand sworn never to execute any sentence of a
York magistrate, it follows, of course, that you must
be the executioner yourself, in the present case: so
now dismount, sir, if you please, take this rod, and,
after I have un-noosed you of this marvelous prompter
of justice,' he continued, taking off the noose
and placing a beechen rod in the hands of the other,
`you will proceed to apply it in a way that shall show
the sincerity of what you have just said and done.
Boys, you may now take off the surveyor's coat, and
then form a ring, with a few switches in your hands,
if you will, to see that justice is duly administered
on the occasion. There! that will do. Well, squire,
we are now ready to proceed—what! hesitating
again! Jones, seize the end of that chain, there,
and be ready while I replace the noose.'

But Prouty, having had quite as many of such
promptings as he felt willing to receive, did not wait
to be noosed again, but lifting the rod, moved forward,
as if ready to perform the required task without
further resistance. Allen then advanced and
threw another rod down at the feet of the surveyor,
gravely observing—

`There, Mr. Surveyor, supposing from what you
have thrown out here, that you think the court have
sentenced you unjustly, we have concluded that,
while he is executing the sentence on you, we will
give you a chance to avenge the injury. You have
therefore our free and full permission to return blow
for blow through the whole of it. Indeed, Sir, I
should rather advise you to do it; for our boys here,
who are great sticklers for fair play, may take it into
their heads, perhaps, to say that it would be unjust
for one Yorker to receive all the honors of the day,
without imparting an equitable share to his fellow.
And in case you should neglect to do what they
think is about right, I know not what may happen
to you. And now, Mr. Justice,' he continued, turning
sternly to Prouty, `Now, Mr. Justice, be lively,
and, with the fear of God and Ethan Allen before
your eyes, lay on, sir!'

It would be very difficult to conceive any thing
more strangely ludierous than the scene that followed.
The reluctant Squire, daring no longer to delay,
now gave two or three faint and harmless blows
across the legs of the Surveyor; when he was admonished
by Allen, in a tone which experience had
taught him pretty well how to interpret, to lay on
more seriously. Spurred up by his fears, the Justice
then began to administer the applications of his rod
with about that medium degree of violence which,
producing all the smart of heavier blows without the
benumbing antidote of bruising, is always far more
irritating, and is generally, perhaps, even more intensely
painful to the victim than blows of double
the severity. At all events, the Squire's applications
soon produced a very visible effect on the surveyor,
who, till this stage of the business, had stood eying

the proceedings in dogged silence. But now leaping
about, and being no longer able to stand the pain
which the squire's applications began to impart, he
hastily caught up the rod at his feet, and, swearing
with spiteful bitterness, that he would put it on, to
punish the other for suffering himself to become the
tool of a mob, gave back the blows with so much interest
that it soon roused in turn the ire of the Justice,
who, now beginning to dance to the same tune,
and from the same cause which had put his opponent
in motion, fell to, and laid on in good earnest.
Becoming thus mutually incensed, and the anger of
each rapidly kindling at the increased pain of his
adversary's applications, every blow of the one was
followed by a heavier blow from the other. And,
the blows falling heavier and thicker every instant,
it soon grew into one of the most severe and furious
flagellations ever witnessed in the settlement, and
one that was amply satisfactory to our band of Green
Mountain Boys, who stood by, sending forth shout
after shout, and peal after peal of laughter, that fairly
shook the slumbering wilderness with the deafening
reverberations. And so deeply engaged had become
these antagonist dignitaries in administering to
each other this whimsically conceived, and queerly
conducted punishment, that it was not till they had
exceeded the prescribed number of stripes by nearly
a dozen, that either of them thought of yielding.
Prouty, however, being of a less obstinate disposition,
and possessing less nerve than the other, at
length gave over, and cried lustily for quarter, which,
even then, so implacable had the surveyor become,
was only granted him on the interposition of the
Green Mountain Boys.

`Well, Squire,' said Jones, the only man who

seemed disposed to make any comments at the close
of this curious scene, `don't you think these Yorkers
most cruel bloody fellows? Ah! jest as I told
you, Squire, we belong to the right party.'

The business of the morning having been thus
brought to a close, Justice Prouty, with an admonition
to go and learn wisdom from folly, was released
and sent home. The surveyor's instruments were
next broken to pieces by Allen, and the fragments
hurled into the bushes. The Surveyor himself, with
his assistant, who had not been considered of public
consequence enough to be punished, was then put in
charge of Jones and Brown, who were ordered to escort
them to the New York line, and there leave
them.

Within half an hour from the departure of the
prisoners, the encampment of the Green Mountain
Boys under Snake Mountain was broken up, and
the place deserted, the different individuals composing
the band, after a brief consultation, having been
dispatched by their enterprising and impetuous leader,
in various directions on secret business connected
with the important events which were in train,
and the new and untried scenes which were now
soon to follow.