[CHAPTER XIV.]
Detection of Arnold's Treason.—André removed to West Point and thence to Tappan.—His Examination by a Board of Officers.
While the party were on their way from the river to the house, Hamilton was seen walking towards them with a quick step and anxious countenance. He came directly to Washington, and spoke to him in a low voice, and they retired together into the house.
During the absence of Washington at West Point, the express had arrived with the letter and papers from Jameson, and also with André's letter written the day before at Salem. This express had followed the route towards Hartford, till he ascertained that General Washington was returning by the upper road. He then turned back, and took the shortest way to West Point, which passed through Lower Salem; and he thus became the bearer of Andre's letter. When the despatches came to Robinson's House, as they were represented to be of the utmost importance, Hamilton opened them and discovered their contents. These papers he now laid before Washington, without hinting the facts they contained to any other person.
The mystery was here solved, and the whole extent of the plot was made manifest. No uncertainty now existed as to the course Arnold had taken. It was clear that he had gone to the enemy. Hamilton was immediately ordered to mount a horse and ride to Verplanck's Point, that preparation might be made for stopping him, should he not already have passed that post. Washington called Lafayette and Knox, to whom he told what had happened, and showed the papers. He was perfectly calm, and only said to Lafayette, "Whom can we trust now?" For a considerable time no other persons were acquainted with the secret, nor did Washington betray in his actions or countenance any symptoms of anxiety or excitement. When dinner was announced, he said to those around him, "Come, Gentlemen; since Mrs. Arnold is unwell, and the General is absent, let us sit down without ceremony." The same self-possession and apparent unconcern continued through the dinner.
In the mean time his feelings had been severely tried by the afflicting situation of Mrs. Arnold. She was frantic with distress, and seemed on the verge of distraction. The scene was vividly described by Hamilton, in a letter written the next day. "She, for a considerable time, entirely lost herself. The General went up to see her, and 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 for ever. She instantly fell into convulsions and he left her in that situation." It may here be added, that Mrs. Arnold had been only the last ten days at West Point, during her husband's command at the post, and that nothing was afterwards brought to light, from which it could be inferred that she had any knowledge of his traitorous designs.
Colonel Hamilton's mission to Verplanck's Point proved much too late. It could hardly have been otherwise, for Arnold had got the start by six hours. He left his house about ten o'clock in the morning, and his treachery was not known to Washington till nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. When Hamilton arrived at Verplanck's Point, a flag of truce was coming or had come from the Vulture to that post with a letter from Arnold to Washington. This was immediately forwarded, with a note from Hamilton, stating that his pursuit had not been successful, and that he should write to General Greene advising him to be in readiness to march, and make some other arrangements as precautionary measures, although he did not believe the project would go on. Nor in truth did it; for the capture of André had kept the enemy in ignorance and suspense, till Arnold himself carried the news on board the Vulture. Sir Henry Clinton probably knew nothing of the matter before the next morning, when the Vulture arrived in New York. Hence the plan of an attack was totally frustrated, although every thing was prepared for carrying it instantly into effect.