Lee sent instantly for Champe, communicated to him the wishes of Washington, and depicted, with all the earnestness and eloquence of which he was master, the glory that awaited him, if successful. Champe listened with the deepest attention, his countenance evincing the greatest excitement of feeling. He expressed himself charmed with the plan, and its proposed beneficial results; declared that he was ready to embark in any enterprise for his country's good, however perilous, which did not involve his honor; but the idea of desertion to the enemy, and hypocritically espousing the cause of the king, were obstacles in his way too grave to be disregarded, and he prayed to be excused. Lee combated these scruples with every argument calculated to impress the heart of a brave soldier. He spoke of the personal honor which success promised; the honor of the corps to which he belonged; the great service which he would perform for his beloved eommander-in-ehief, and the plaudits of his countrymen. He told him that desertion, by request of his general, for a laudable purpose, earned with it no dishonor, and that the stain upon his character would remain only until prudence should allow the publication of the facts. After long persuasion, the sergeant major consented to undertake the mission, and preparations were immediately made.
Washington had already drawn up instructions. These were read to Champe, and he carefully noted their import in such a way that their true meaning could not be understood by another. He was to deliver letters to two individuals in New York, unknown to each other, who had long been in the confidence of the general. He was to procure such aid in bringing Arnold away as his judgment should dictate; and he was strictly enjoined to forbear killing the traitor under any circumstances. ** These preliminaries being settled, the difficulties that lay in his way between the camp and the enemy's outposts at Paulus's Hook, were next considered. There were many pickets and patrols in the way, and straggling parties of American irregulars often ventured almost to Bergen Point in search of booty or an adventure. Major Lee could offer the sergeant no aid against these dangers, lest he should be involved in the charge of favoring his desertion, and Champe was left to his own resources. All that Lee could do was to delay pursuit as long as possible, after it should be ascertained that the sergeant major had deserted.
At eleven o'clock at night, Champe took his cloak, valise, and orderly-book, October 20, 1780 mounted his horse secretly, and with three guineas in his pocket, which were given him by Lee, "put himself on fortune." Lee immediately went to bed, but not to sleep. Within half an hour, Captain Carnes, the officer of the day, came to him in haste, and informed him that one of the patrols had fallen in with a dragoon, who, on being challenged, put spurs to his horse and escaped. Lee complained of fatigue and drowsiness, pretended to be half asleep, and thus detained the captain some minutes before he seemed fairly to understand the object of that officer's visit. He ridiculed the idea that one of his own dragoons had deserted, for such an event had occurred but once during the whole war. The captain was not to be convinced by such arguments, but immediately mustering the whole squadron of horse, by Lee's reluctant order, satisfied both himself and his commander that one had deserted, and that he was no less a personage than Champe, the sergeant major, who had decamped with his arms, baggage, and orderly-book. Captain Carnes ordered an
* John Champe was a Virginian. "He was-a native of Loudon county," says Lee, in his Memoirs, "and at this time twenty-three or twenty-four years of age; enlisted in 1776; rather above the common size; full of bone and muscle; with a saturnine countenance, grave, thoughtful, and taciturn, of tried courage and inflexible perseverance, and as likely to reject an overture, coupled with ignominy, as any officer in the corps."—Memoirs, p. 272.
** Lee made an arrangement with Mr. Baldwin, of Newark, to aid Champe. With him the sergeant was to have daily intercourse, as if by accident, and through him Lee was to receive communications from his sergeant major. He agreed to pay Baldwin, if successful, one hundred guineas, five hundred acres of land, and three negroes.
Pursuit of Champe.—His Skill in eluding his Pursuers.—He Escapes to a British Galley.—Sir Henry Clinton deceived
immediate pursuit. Lee made as much delay in the preparation as possible, and when all was ready, he ordered a change in the command, giving it to Lieutenant Middleton, a young man whose tenderness of disposition would cause him to treat Champe leniently, if he should be overtaken. By parleying and other delays, Champe got an hour the start of his pursuers.
It was a bright starry night, and past twelve o'clock, when Middleton and his party took the saddle and spurred after the deserter. A fall of rain at sunset had effaced all tracks in the road, and thus favored the pursuit, for the single foot-prints of the dragoon's horse were easily traced and recognized. * Often, before dawn, when coming to a fork or a cross-road, a trooper would dismount to examine the track. Ascending an eminence at sunrise near the "Three Pigeons," ** a tavern a few miles north of the village of Bergen, they descried from its summit the deserting sergeant, not more than half a mile in advance. The pursuers were discovered by Champe at the same moment, and both parties spurred onward with all their might. They were all well acquainted with the roads in the vicinity. There was a short cut through the woods to the bridge below Bergen, which left the great road a little below the Three Pigeons. There Middleton divided his party, sending a detachment by the short road to secure the bridge, while himself and the others pursued Champe to Bergen. He now felt sure of capturing the deserter, for he could not reach Paulus's Hook without crossing the bridge in question. The two divisions met at the bridge, but, to their great astonishment, Champe had eluded their vigilance, and was not to be found. He, too, was acquainted with the short cut, and shrewdly considered that his pursuers would avail themselves of it. He therefore wisely determined to abandon his design of going to the British post at Paulus's Hook, and seek refuge on board one of two of the king's galleys which were lying in the bay in front of the little settlement of Communipaw, about a mile from Bergen.
Middleton retired hastily from the bridge to Bergen, and inquired if a dragoon had been seen there that morning. He was answered in the affirmative, but no one knew which way he went from the village. The beaten track no longer gave a legible imprint of his horse's shoes, and for a moment his pursuers were foiled. The trail was soon discovered on the road leading to Bergen. The pursuit was vigorously renewed, and in a few moments Champe was discovered near the water's edge, making signals to the British galleys. He had lashed his valise, containing his clothes and orderly-book, upon his back. When Middleton was within a few hundred yards of him, Champe leaped from his horse, cast away the scabbard of his sword, and with the naked blade in his hand, he sped across the marsh, plunged into the deep waters of the bay, and called to the galleys for help. A boat filled with strong oarsmen responded to his call, and he was soon on board the galley, with all the evidences of the sincerity of his desertion in his possession. The captain of the galley gave him a letter to Sir Henry Clinton, in which the scene just mentioned was described, and before night the sergeant was safely quartered in New York.
Middleton recovered the horse, cloak, and scabbard belonging to Champe, and returned to Tappan. Lee was grieved when he saw the supposed evidence that poor Champe was slain; but equally great was his joy when he learned from Middleton that the sergeant had escaped safely on board one of the enemy's galleys. Four days afterward Lee received a letter from Champe, in a disguised hand, and without signature, informing him of the occurrence just narrated.