In the name of the great Jehovah, and the Continental Congress!
His reply as to by what authority he demanded the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, as recounted in A Narrative of Colonel Ethan Allen's Captivity (1779). Other reports indicate that he initially declared: "Come out of there you sons of British whores, or I'll smoke you out!" According to historian and folklorist B.A.Botkin, one Israel Harris was present at the time, and later told his grandson (the late Professor James D. Butler of Madison, Wisconsin) that Allen's actual words were "Come out of there, you goddam old rat!" See Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 4.