Washington called in Knox and La Fayette for counsel. "Whom can we trust now?" said the chief, with calmness, while the deepest feeling of sorrow was evidently at work in his bosom. The condition of Mrs. Arnold, who was quite frantic with grief and distress in another room, awakened his liveliest sympathies. He believed her innocent of all previous knowledge of her husband's treasonable designs, and this gave keenness to the pang which her sorrows created." Yet he maintained his self-possession, and calmly said, when dinner was announced, "Come, gentlemen, since Mrs. Arnold is unwell, and the general is absent, let us sit down without ceremony."
As soon as the contents of the papers were made known, Washington dispatched Hamilton on horseback to Verplanck's Point, that preparations might be made there to stop the traitor. But Arnold had got nearly six hours' the start of him, the tide was ebbing, and the six strong oarsmen, prompted by expected reward, had pulled with vigor. When Hamilton arrived at the Point, a flag of truce was approaching from the Vulture to that post. The bearer brought a letter from Arnold to Washington, which Hamilton forwarded to the commander-in-chief, and then wrote to General Greene at Tappan, advising him to take precautionary measures to prevent any movement of the enemy in carrying out the traitor's projects. The failure of the plot was not known to Sir Henry Clinton until the arrival of the Vulture at New York the next morning, and then he had no disposition to venture an attack upon the Americans in the Highlands, now thoroughly awake to the danger that had threatened.
Arnold's letter to Washington was written to secure protection for his wife and child. "I have no favor to ask for myself," he said; "I have too often experienced the ingratitude of my country to attempt it; but, from the known humanity of your excellency, I am induced to ask your protection for Mrs. Arnold from every insult and injury that a mistaken vengeance of my countrymen may expose her to. It ought to fall only on me. She is as good and innocent as an angel, and is incapable of doing wrong." In this letter Arnold avowed his love for his country, and declared that that sentiment actuated him in his present
* This letter of Andre's is a model of frankness, and exhibits the highest regard for truth and honor. After revealing his name and character, and relating the circumstances under which he was lured within the American lines without his knowledge or consent, and mentioning his capture, he says, "Thus, as I have had the honor to relate, was I betrayed (being adjutant general of the British army) into the vile condition of an enemy in disguise within your posts." He disavowed any intention of being a spy, and asked, as a favor, that he should not be branded as such, he "being involuntarily an impostor." He further requested the privilege of sending an open letter to Sir Henry Clinton, and another to a friend, for linen; and concluded by intimating that there were several American prisoners who were taken at Charleston for whom he might be exchanged.
** "She, for a considerable time," says Hamilton, in a vivid description of the scene, "entirely lost herself. The general went up to see her. She upbraided him with being in a plot to murder her child. One moment she raved; another, she melted into tears. Sometimes she pressed her infant to her bosom, and lamented its fate, occasioned by the imprudence of its father, in a manner that would have pierced insensibility itself. All the sweetness of beauty, all the loveliness of innocence, all the tenderness of a wife, and all the fondness of a mother, showed themselves in her appearance and conduct. We have every reason to believe that she was entirely unacquainted with the plan, and that the first knowledge of it was when Arnold went to tell her he must banish himself from his country and from her forever. She instantly fell into convulsions, and he left her in that situation." Mr. Leake, the biographer of Colonel John Lamb, basing his opinion upon information received from Arnold's sister Hannah, in 1801, regards this scene as only a trick to deceive, and believes that Arnold's wife was the chief instrument in bringing about the defection of her husband. Hannah Arnold averred that the traitor's wife received a pension from the Queen of England during her life.—See Life of John Lamb, by Isaac Q. Leake, p. 270. I can not but regard the inference of Mr. Leake as untenable. It was certainly consoling to the feelings of Hannah Arnold to believe that the influence of another, and not his own base principles, was the source of the defection and disgrace of her brother.
Beverly Robinson's Letter to Washington.—The Army at Tappan put in Motion.—André ordered to West Point
conduct. "In short," says Sparks, "the malignant spirit, impudence, and blunted moral feeling shown in this letter were consistent with his character. Attachment to his wife was the only redeeming quality which seemed not to be extinguished." *
