In the Days of Poor Richard

  2

  Jack spent a bad night in the effort to be as great as his problem. Inthe morning he sent Solomon and three other able scouts to look theground over east, west and south of the army. One of them was to takethe road to Hartford and deliver a message to Washington.

  After the noon mess, Arnold mounted his horse and rode away alone. Theyoung 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 alittle worried about him. He ought not to be traveling alone. Myhorse is in front of the door. Jump on his back and keep in sight ofthe General, but don't let him know what you are doing."

  A little later Mrs. Arnold entered the office of the new Brigadier in amost 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 shipunder a flag of truce to confer with General Arnold. I sent a letterto Margaret Hare on my own responsibility with the General's officialcommunication. I invited her to come with the party and promised hersafe 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 joywas extinguished by apprehension before it could show itself. I didnot speak, being for a moment confused and blinded by lightning flashesof 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 thetwenty-eighth, General Washington will have returned. He has agreed todine with us that evening."

  "I think that she must have observed the shadow on my face for, whileshe spoke, a great fear had come upon me," he testified in the Court ofInquiry. "It seemed clear to me that, if there was a plot, the captureof Washington himself was to be a part of it and my sweetheart ahelpful accessory."

  "'Are you not pleased?' Mrs. Arnold asked.

  "I shook off my fear and answered: 'Forgive me. It is all sounexpected and so astonishing and so very good of you! It has put myhead in a whirl.'

  "Gentlemen, I could see no sinister motive in this romantic enterpriseof Mrs. Arnold," the testimony proceeds. "I have understood that hersympathies were British but, if so, she had been discreet enough incamp to keep them to herself. Whatever they may have been, I felt assure then, as I do now, that she was a good woman. Her kindly interestin my little romance was just a bit of honest, human nature. Itpleased me and when I think of her look of innocent, unguarded, womanlyfrankness, I can not believe that she had had the least part in thedark 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 shallneed time for friendly action and well chosen words. Do you think thatMargaret will fall in with your plans?'

  "She answered:

  "'How can she help it? She is a woman. Have you not both been waitingthese many years for the chance to marry? I think that I know awoman's heart.'

  "'You know much that I am eager to know,' I said. 'The General has nottold 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 toldme only a little. It is some negotiation regarding an exchange ofprisoners. I am much more interested in Margaret and the wedding. Iwish you would tell me about her. I have heard that she has becomevery beautiful.'

  "I showed Mrs. Arnold the miniature portrait which Margaret had givenme the day of our little ride and talk in London and then an orderlycame with a message and that gave me an excuse to put an end to thisuntimely babbling for which I had no heart. The message was fromSolomon. He had got word that the British war-ship had come back upthe river and was two miles above Stony Point with a white flag at hermasthead.

  "My nerves were as taut as a fiddle string. A cloud of mysteryenveloped the camp and I was unable to see my way. Was the whole greatissue for which so many of us had perished and fought and endured allmanner of hardships, being bartered away in the absence of our belovedCommander? I have suffered much but never was my spirit so dragged andtorn as when I had my trial in the thorny way of distrust. I have hadmy days of conceit when I felt equal to the work of Washington, butthere 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 ofhis masterful strength.

  "I went out-of-doors. Soon I met Merriwether coming into camp. Arnoldhad returned. He had ridden at a walk toward the headquarters of theSecond Brigade and turned about and come back without speaking to anyone. Arnold was looking down as if absorbed in his own thoughts whenMerriwether passed him in the road. He did not return the latter'ssalute. It was evident that the General had ridden away for the solepurpose of being alone.

  "I went back to my hut and sat down to try to find my way when suddenlythe General appeared at my door on his bay mare and asked me to take alittle ride with him. I mounted my horse and we rode out on the eastroad 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 flagwith a proposal regarding an exchange of prisoners. In my answer totheir request for a conference, some time ago, I enclosed a letter fromMrs. Arnold to Miss Margaret Hare inviting her to come to our homewhere she would find a hearty welcome and her lover--now an able andmost valued officer of the staff. A note received yesterday says thatMiss Hare is one of the party. We are glad to be able to do you thislittle favor.'

  "I thanked him.

  "'I wish that you could go with me down the river to meet her in themorning,' he said. 'But in my absence it will, of course, be necessaryfor you to be on duty. Mrs. Arnold will go with me and we shall, Ihope, bring the young lady safely to head-quarters.'

  "He was preoccupied. His face wore a serious look. There was amelancholy note in his tone--I had observed that in other talks withhim--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 thesouth and the scattering of his army in utter rout is not anencouraging event.'

  "'I think that we shall get along better now that the Gates bubble hasburst,' I answered."

  This ends the testimony of "the able and most valued officer," JackIrons, Jr.