“I hardly dare to breathe it even to you, with a heart of truth.”
“I will never break your confidence. What is the name?”
“Benedict Arnold!”
It now began to be seen in the army that the Governor was in peril. The Tories plotted a secret warfare against the leading patriots.
One day Governor Trumbull met the Council of Public Safety with the alarming declaration:
“They have put a price upon my head.”
A reward had been secretly offered for his capture.
“I must have a guard,” he said, and a guard was granted him of four sturdy, loyal men—a public guard, who examined all strangers who came by day to Lebanon.
The plots of the Tories filled the country with alarm. One of these plots was to assassinate Washington. Others were to abduct the royal Governors.
These plotters tried to seize Governor Clinton of New York, and William Livingston, the patriotic Governor of New Jersey. They did seize General Stillman at Fairfield and carried him away as a prisoner.