Arnold entered without opposition, and immediately commenced to destroy the public stores, as well as many public and private buildings, after which he retired to Portsmouth, which he fortified and made his head-quarters. A plan in the meantime was formed by Washington to capture him and his army. La Fayette was sent down into Virginia, and at the earnest request of Washington, the French fleet stationed at Rhode Island, with a number of French troops on board, sailed to co-operate with him. The British, however, being apprised of this project, Admiral Arbuthnot sailed from Gardiner’s Bay in Long Island, where he had lain with his squadron all the winter, attacked the French fleet off the capes of Chesapeake, and compelled it to return to Rhode Island. The British squadron entered the Chesapeake, and shortly after, a reinforcement of 2,000 men being sent from New York to Portsmouth, Arnold, happily for himself, was delivered from the imminent peril which had threatened him of falling into the hands of his countrymen. The British frigates ascending the rivers of Virginia, levied contributions upon all the tide-water counties. One of these vessels entering the Potomac, reached Mount Vernon, the home and plantation of Washington, whose manager, to save the buildings from destruction, supplied a quantity of provisions, greatly to the displeasure of the American commander-in-chief when he heard of the fact.[39] CHAPTER XI. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR (_continued_), 1781.