LOVE AND TREASON
When Jack and Solomon returned to headquarters, Arnold and his wife
were settled in a comfortable house overlooking the river. Colonel
Irons made his report. The Commander-in-Chief complimented him and
invited the young man to make a tour of the camp in his company. They
mounted their horses and rode away together.
"I learn that General Arnold is to be in command here," Jack remarked
soon after the ride began.
"I have not yet announced my intention," said Washington. "Who told
you?"
"A man of the name of Henry Thornhill."
"I do not know him but he is curiously well informed. Arnold is an
able officer. We have not many like him. He is needed here for I have
to go on a long trip to eastern Connecticut to confer with Rochambeau.
In the event of some unforeseen crisis Arnold would know what to do."
Then Jack spoke out: "General, I ought to have reported to you the
exact words of Governor Reed. They were severe, perhaps, even, unjust.
I have not repeated them to any one. But now I think you should know
their full content and Judge of them in your own way. The Governor
insists that Arnold is bad at heart--that he would sell his master for
thirty pieces of silver."
Washington made no reply, for a moment, and then his words seemed to
have no necessary relation to those of Jack Irons.
"General Arnold has been badly cut up in many battles," said he. "I
wish him to be relieved of all trying details. You are an able and
prudent man. I shall make you his chief aide with the rank of
Brigadier-General. He needs rest and will concern himself little with
the daily routine. In my absence, you will be the superintendent of
the camp, and subject to orders I shall leave with you. Colonel Binkus
will be your helper. I hope that you may be able to keep yourself on
friendly terms with the General."
Jack reported to the Commander-in-Chief the warning of Thornhill, but
the former made light of it.
"The air is full of evil gossip," he said. "You may hear it of me."
When they rode up to headquarters Arnold was there. To Jack's surprise
the Major-General greeted him with friendly words, saying:
"I hope to know you better for I have heard much of your courage and
fighting quality."
"There are good soldiers here," said Jack. "If I am one of them it is
partly because I have seen you fight. You have given all of us the
inspiration of a great example."
It was a sincere and deserved tribute.
On the third of August--the precise date named by Henry
Thornhill--Arnold took command of the camp and Irons assumed his new
duties. The Major-General rode with Washington every day until, on the
fourteenth of September, the latter set out with three aides and
Colonel Binkus on his trip to Connecticut. Solomon rode with the party
for two days and then returned. Thereafter Arnold left the work of his
office to Jack and gave his time to the enjoyment of the company of his
wife and a leisure that suffered little interruption. For him, grim
visaged war had smoothed his wrinkled front. Like Richard he had hung
up his bruised arms. The day of Washington's departure, Mrs. Arnold
invited Jack to dinner. The young man felt bound to accept this
opportunity for more friendly relations.
Mrs. Arnold was a handsome, vivacious, blonde young woman of thirty.
The officer speaks in a letter of her lively talk and winning smiles
and splendid figure, well fitted with a costume that reminded him of
the court ladies in France.
"What a contrast to the worn, patched uniforms to be seen in that
camp!" he added.
Soon after the dinner began, Mrs. Arnold said to the young man, "We
have heard of your romance. Colonel and Mrs. Hare and their young
daughter spent a week in our home in Philadelphia on their first trip
to the colonies. Later Mrs. Hare wrote to my mother of their terrible
adventure in the great north bush and spoke of Margaret's attachment
for the handsome boy who had helped to rescue them, so I have some
right to my interest in you."
"And therefor I thank you and congratulate myself," said the young man.
"It is a little world after all."
"And your story has been big enough to fill it," she went on. "The
ladies in Philadelphia seem to know all its details. We knew only how
it began. They have told us of the thrilling duel and how the young
lovers were separated by the war and how you were sent out of England."
"You astonish me," said the officer. "I did not imagine that my humble
affairs would interest any one but myself and my family. I suppose
that Doctor Franklin must have been talking about them. The dear old
soul is the only outsider who knows the facts."
"And if he had kept them to himself he would have been the most inhuman
wretch in the world," said Mrs. Arnold. "Women have their rights.
They need something better to talk about than Acts of Parliament and
taxes and war campaigns. I thank God that no man can keep such a story
to himself. He has to have some one to help him enjoy it. A good
love-story is like murder. It will out."
"It has caused me a lot of misery and a lot of happiness," said the
young man.
"I long to see the end of it," the woman went on. "I happen to know a
detail in your story which may be new to you. Miss Hare is now in New
York."
"In New York!"
"Oddso! In New York! We heard in Philadelphia that she and her mother
had sailed with Sir Roger Waite in March. How jolly it would be if the
General and I could bring you together and have a wedding at
headquarters!"
"I could think of no greater happiness save that of seeing the end of
the war," Jack answered.
"The war! That is a little matter. I want to see a proper end to this
love-story."
She laughed and ran to the spinnet and sang _Shepherds, I Have Lost My
Love_.
The General would seem to have been in bad spirits. He had spoken not
half a dozen words. To him the talk of the others had been as spilled
water. Jack has described him as a man of "unstable temperament."
The young man's visit was interrupted by Solomon who came to tell him
that he was needed in the matter of a quarrel between some of the new
recruits.
Jack and Solomon exercised unusual care in guarding the camp and
organizing for defense in case of attack. It was soon after
Washington's departure that Arnold went away on the road to the south.
Solomon followed keeping out of his field of vision. The General
returned two days later. Solomon came into Jack's hut about midnight
of the day of Arnold's return with important news.
Jack was at his desk studying a map of the Highlands. The camp was at
rest. The candle in Jack's hut was the only sign of life around
headquarters when Solomon, having put out his horse, came to talk with
his young friend. He stepped close to the desk, swallowed nervously
and began his whispered report.
"Suthin' neevarious be goin' on," he began. "A British ship were lyin'
nigh the mouth o' the Croton River. Arnold went aboard. An' officer
got into his boat with him an' they pulled over to the west shore and
went into the bush. Stayed thar till mos' night. If 'twere honest
business, why did they go off in the bush alone fer a talk?"
Jack shook his head.
"Soon as I seen that I went to one o' our batteries an' tol' the Cap'n
what were on my mind.
"'Damn the ol' British tub. We'll make 'er back up a little,' sez he.
'She's too clus anyhow.'
"Then he let go a shot that ripped the water front o' her bow. Say,
Jack, they were some hoppin' eround on the deck o' the big British war
sloop. They h'isted her sails an' she fell away down the river a mile
'er so. The sun were set when Arnold an' the officer come out o' the
bush. I were in a boat with a fish rod an' could jes' see 'em with my
spy-glass, the light were so dim. They stood thar lookin' fer the
ship. They couldn't see her. They went back into the bush. It come
to me what they was goin' to do. Arnold were a-goin' to take the
Britisher over to the house o' that ol' Tory, Reub Smith. I got thar
fust an' hid in the bushes front o' the house. Sure 'nough!--that's
what were done. Arnold an' t' other feller come erlong an' went into
the house. 'Twere so dark I couldn't see 'em but I knowed 'twere them."
"How?" the young man asked.
"'Cause they didn't light no candle. They sot in the dark an' they
didn't talk out loud like honest men would. I come erway. I couldn't
do no more."
"I think you've done well," said Jack. "Now go and get some rest.
To-morrow may be a hard day."
2
Jack spent a bad night in the effort to be as great as his problem. In
the morning he sent Solomon and three other able scouts to look the
ground over east, west and south of the army. One of them was to take
the road to Hartford and deliver a message to Washington.
After the noon mess, Arnold mounted his horse and rode away alone. The
young Brigadier sent for his trusted friend, Captain Merriwether.
"Captain, the General has set out on the east road alone," said Jack.
"He is not well. There's something wrong with his heart. I am a
little worried about him. He ought not to be traveling alone. My
horse is in front of the door. Jump on his back and keep in sight of
the General, but don't let him know what you are doing."
A little later Mrs. Arnold entered the office of the new Brigadier in a
most cheerful mood.
"I have good news for you," she announced.
"What is it?"
"Soon I hope to make a happy ending of your love-story."
"God prosper you," said the young man.
She went on with great animation: "A British officer has come in a ship
under a flag of truce to confer with General Arnold. I sent a letter
to Margaret Hare on my own responsibility with the General's official
communication. I invited her to come with the party and promised her
safe conduct to our house. I expect her. For the rest we look to you."
The young man wrote: "This announcement almost took my breath. My joy
was extinguished by apprehension before it could show itself. I did
not speak, being for a moment confused and blinded by lightning flashes
of emotion."
"It is your chance to bring the story to a pretty end," she went on.
"Let us have a wedding at headquarters. On the night of the
twenty-eighth, General Washington will have returned. He has agreed to
dine with us that evening."
"I think that she must have observed the shadow on my face for, while
she spoke, a great fear had come upon me," he testified in the Court of
Inquiry. "It seemed clear to me that, if there was a plot, the capture
of Washington himself was to be a part of it and my sweetheart a
helpful accessory."
"'Are you not pleased?' Mrs. Arnold asked.
"I shook off my fear and answered: 'Forgive me. It is all so
unexpected and so astonishing and so very good of you! It has put my
head in a whirl.'
"Gentlemen, I could see no sinister motive in this romantic enterprise
of Mrs. Arnold," the testimony proceeds. "I have understood that her
sympathies were British but, if so, she had been discreet enough in
camp to keep them to herself. Whatever they may have been, I felt as
sure then, as I do now, that she was a good woman. Her kindly interest
in my little romance was just a bit of honest, human nature. It
pleased me and when I think of her look of innocent, unguarded, womanly
frankness, I can not believe that she had had the least part in the
dark intrigue of her husband.
"I arose and kissed her hand and I remember well the words I spoke:
'Madame,' I said, 'let me not try now to express my thanks. I shall
need time for friendly action and well chosen words. Do you think that
Margaret will fall in with your plans?'
"She answered:
"'How can she help it? She is a woman. Have you not both been waiting
these many years for the chance to marry? I think that I know a
woman's heart.'
"'You know much that I am eager to know,' I said. 'The General has not
told me that he is to meet the British. May I know all the good news?'
"'Of course he will tell you about that,' she assured me. 'He has told
me only a little. It is some negotiation regarding an exchange of
prisoners. I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding. I
wish you would tell me about her. I have heard that she has become
very beautiful.'
"I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had given
me the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderly
came with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to this
untimely babbling for which I had no heart. The message was from
Solomon. He had got word that the British war-ship had come back up
the river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at her
masthead.
"My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string. A cloud of mystery
enveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way. Was the whole great
issue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured all
manner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our beloved
Commander? I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged and
torn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust. I have had
my days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, but
there was no conceit in me then. Face to face with the looming peril,
of which warning had come to me, I felt my own weakness and the need of
his masterful strength.
"I went out-of-doors. Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp. Arnold
had returned. He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of the
Second Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to any
one. Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts when
Merriwether passed him in the road. He did not return the latter's
salute. It was evident that the General had ridden away for the sole
purpose of being alone.
"I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenly
the General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take a
little ride with him. I mounted my horse and we rode out on the east
road together for half a mile or so.
"'I believe that my wife had some talk with you this morning,' he began.
"'Yes,' I answered.
"'A British officer has come up the river in a ship under a white flag
with a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners. In my answer to
their request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter from
Mrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our home
where she would find a hearty welcome and her lover--now an able and
most valued officer of the staff. A note received yesterday says that
Miss Hare is one of the party. We are glad to be able to do you this
little favor.'
"I thanked him.
"'I wish that you could go with me down the river to meet her in the
morning,' he said. 'But in my absence it will, of course, be necessary
for you to be on duty. Mrs. Arnold will go with me and we shall, I
hope, bring the young lady safely to head-quarters.'
"He was preoccupied. His face wore a serious look. There was a
melancholy note in his tone--I had observed that in other talks with
him--but it was a friendly tone. It tended to put my fears at rest.
"I asked the General what he thought of the prospects of our cause.
"'They are not promising,' he answered. 'The defeat of Gates in the
south and the scattering of his army in utter rout is not an
encouraging event.'
"'I think that we shall get along better now that the Gates bubble has
burst,' I answered."
This ends the testimony of "the able and most valued officer," Jack
Irons, Jr.