Lafayette and Knox, however, preferred to ride on with the General, and the message was sent to the Robinson house by Colonel Hamilton and Major McHenry. Mrs. Arnold, who had lately joined her husband there with her baby, welcomed her guests and entertained them at breakfast. It was a trying situation for her husband, for it happened that that was the very day on which he was to make his final arrangements with the British.
While they sat at the breakfast-table a messenger galloped up to the door with a letter for Arnold. He opened it and read that André had been captured, and the secret papers found upon him had been sent to Washington. Arnold rose from the table and beckoned his wife to follow him to her room. There he told her that he was a ruined man and must fly for his life. Leaving her fainting on the floor, he left the house, mounted the messenger’s horse, and dashed down to the river through a ravine. There he boarded his boat, and was rowed rapidly down the river to the English ship The Vulture.
Almost immediately after Arnold’s hurried departure Washington, Lafayette, and Knox reached the Robinson house. The commander supposed that Arnold had gone to West Point to prepare for his reception, and, having eaten a hasty breakfast, Washington and his companions crossed the river. No salute, however, was fired at their approach, and Colonel Lamb, the officer in command, came and apologized, saying that he had received no information of Washington’s visit.
“Is not General Arnold here?” Washington inquired.
“No, sir,” said Lamb. “He has not been here for two days, nor have I heard from him in that time.”
Somewhat surprised, but still unsuspicious, Washington and the others spent the morning examining the works.
As they rode back to the Robinson house about noon they were met by Colonel Hamilton, who took Washington aside, and handed him the secret papers that had been found on André. At once the whole plot was clear. Washington sent Hamilton immediately to arrest Arnold, but the Colonel found that the man had already flown. Then the commander-in-chief told the news to Lafayette and Knox, and, saying how much he had always trusted General Arnold, added, “Whom can we trust now?”
It was Lafayette who later tried to comfort Mrs. Arnold, when the full realization of her husband’s disgrace almost drove her to despair. And he sat with the other general officers at a court-martial in the headquarters at Tappan on the Hudson when John André, adjutant-general of the British army, after a fair trial, was convicted of being a spy and was sentenced to be hung. But Lafayette was a very generous judge, and wrote of André later, “He was a very interesting man; he conducted himself in a manner so frank, so noble, and so delicate, that I cannot help feeling for him an infinite pity.”
The treason of Benedict Arnold prevented the invasion of Canada, and Lafayette saw no active service for some time. He spent the autumn in camp on the Hudson and in New Jersey, and part of the winter in Philadelphia. A number of French officers had gathered here, and they, used to the gayeties of the most brilliant court in Europe, added much to the amusements of the American capital. Every one liked the French guests, and the foreign officers, on their part, liked and admired their new allies. Sometimes the self-denying seriousness of the Americans, which was an element of their national strength, amused and surprised the gayer Frenchmen. One of the latter, the Marquis de Chastellux, told a story about Philadelphia in his volume of “Travels.” He said that at balls in Philadelphia it was the custom to have a Continental officer as the master of ceremonies, and that at one party he attended that position was held by a Colonel Mitchell, who showed the same devotion to duty in the ballroom that he showed on the field of battle. This Colonel saw a young girl so busily talking that she could pay little attention to the figures of the quadrille, so he marched up to her and said to her severely, “Take care what you are doing; do you suppose you are there for your pleasure?”