"When the epic strain was sung,
The poet by the neck was hung,
And to his cost he finds, too late,
The 'dung-born tribe' decides his fate."
Fac-simile of the last Stanza of the Cow-Chase.
CHAPTER V.
We have seen that Arnold, at his own earnest solicitation, had been appointed to the command of West Point in August, 1780. It was then known to Sir Henry Clinton that "Gustavus" was no other than General Arnold. Everything was ripe for the consummation of the plot; both parties were anxious for the end.
It was a gloomy hour in the history of the great struggle, aside from the contemplated act of foul treason. Charleston had fallen in May, and an American army there had been made prisoners. Gates had been defeated near Camden in August, and another American army dispersed. The South was in possession of the enemy; New Jersey was in nearly the same condition, and on Manhattan Island lay a strong army of veteran British soldiers. This was the moment sagaciously chosen by Arnold to strike a fatal blow at the liberties of his country.
At the close of August Arnold wrote to André, in the usual disguise of commercial phrases, demanding a personal interview at an American outpost in Westchester County, the latter to come in the disguise of "John Anderson," a bearer of intelligence from New York. But André was not disposed to enter the American lines in disguise. A meeting of André and Beverly Robinson with General Arnold, at Dobb's Ferry, on the neutral ground, on September 11th, was arranged; but the interview was prevented by providential interposition—an interposition in favor of the American cause so conspicuously manifested in every stage of this conspiracy.
Washington had made arrangements for a conference, at Hartford, on the 20th of September, with the Count de Rochambeau, the commander of the French forces, then at Newport, Rhode Island, who had come to assist the Americans in their struggle. It was arranged between Arnold and André that the surrender of West Point should take place during Washington's absence. A personal interview for the purpose of settling everything concerning the great transaction was absolutely necessary, and a meeting of the complotters was appointed to take place on the night of the 21st of September, on the west side of the Hudson, in a lonely spot not far from the hamlet of Haverstraw.