[977] Percy Greg, in his History of the United States (London, 1887), vol. i. p. 304, thinks Joshua Smith was in the pay of Washington, and persuaded André to put on a disguise in order that he might be condemned as a spy if caught! This opinion is of the character of most of the speculations in the book; of course it condemns the execution.
[978] Sargent's André, p. 306.
[979] These papers, having been used in André's trial, were passed over to Governor Clinton to be used in the civil trial of Smith, and from Clinton's descendant Sparks procured them when he was writing his Life and Treason of Arnold. Lossing also got them from the same source, and collated them with Sparks's copies before he printed them in his Field-Book, ii. 153. They were subsequently bought by the State of New York, and are now in the State library at Albany. They have since been printed by McCoy in his edition of the Proceedings of André's examination; by Boynton in his West Point, ch. 7; by Dawson in his Papers ("Gazette series"), 51; in the Appendix of his edition of Smith's trial, and in Revolutionary Relics or Clinton Correspondence, comprising the celebrated papers found in André's boots, etc., published originally in the N. Y. Herald, N. Y., 1842 (Menzies, no. 1,687); and in Cent. Celeb. of the State of N. Y. (1879).
[980] There is a view of his quarters in Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 188.
[981] View of the breakfast room in Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 158.
[982] Some memoranda of his aide, Colonel Varick (Mag. of Amer. Hist., viii. 727) show that Arnold's movements were hastened by the arrival of Washington's servant at this moment, announcing the near approach of his master.
[983] They were subsequently released in New York. Dr. William Eustis's account of this flight to the "Vulture", written May 8, 1815, is in the Mass. Hist. Soc. cabinet (Letters and Papers, 1777-1824, vol. ii. 206), and is printed in their Collections, xiv. 52. Its purport is to emphasize the patriotic resistance of the boatmen to Arnold's offers for their desertion. He says some of them were sent ashore in an inferior boat, Arnold keeping the barge. Cf. Heath's Memoirs.
[984] The Varick memoranda (Mag. of Amer. Hist., viii.) would seem to indicate that Varick, Franks, and Dr. Eustis had already begun to be suspicious, and Arnold's barge had been observed by some one to go down stream and not to West Point.
[985] Arnold had, before leaving, cautioned this messenger to keep quiet, and this also becoming known increased the suspicion of his aides (Mag. of Amer. Hist., viii.).
[986] These aides were Colonel Richard Varick and Major David S. Franks. Henry P. Johnston, in a paper, "Colonel Varick and Arnold's Treason", printed in the Mag. of Amer. Hist., Nov., 1882 (viii. p. 717), has thrown some new light, from papers of Colonel Varick, on the life at Robinson's house previous to the flight of Arnold, and on the evidence, both of Varick, Franks, and Dr. Eustis, brought out before a board of inquiry, Nov. 2, which acquitted these officers of any complicity in the plot. On the night when Smith had been dragged from his bed and put in confinement, Arnold's aides had been put under arrest. This paper also shows, from a deposition of General Knox, that Varick had found in one of Arnold's trunks, after his desertion, some plans and profiles of the West Point works.