“This is extraordinary,” continued Washington. “We were told that he crossed the river and that we should find him here. However, our visit must not be in vain. Since we have come, although unexpectedly, we must look around a little and see in what shape things are with you.” When the forts and redoubts had been visited and the garrison inspected, Washington and his party returned to the barge and recrossed to the Robinson House. The letters and papers that had been forwarded by Lieutenant-Colonel Jameson to General Washington had followed the Commander-in-Chief on the road to Hartford until it was learned that the General had returned to West Point by the upper road. Then the express retraced his steps to Robinson House. Colonel Hamilton was alone at Arnold’s headquarters when the incriminating papers arrived and immediately opened the despatches in the absence of his chief at West Point. Here were the papers found in Andre’s stockings and a letter from Andre to Washington disclosing his true character as Adjutant-General of the British army and relating his entry within the American lines, his departure therefrom in disguise and his capture. Upon the landing of General Washington and his staff at the Robinson House from West Point, Colonel Hamilton was seen to walk briskly toward them, and when he spoke to Washington in an undertone, they retired quickly together into the house. Here lay the exposure of the whole plot when the papers were perused by Washington, but too late to entrap the traitor. Arnold had gone over to the enemy and had made his escape to the Vulture. Andre was a prisoner at Salem and had written a confession of the part that he had played. Mrs. Arnold had been left ignominiously by the traitor, her husband, and in her distraction she wept and raved alternately and accused General Washington and Colonel Hamilton, when they sought to console her, with a plot to murder her child. Her lamentations were pitiable and heart-rending in the agony of her despair. She clasped her child to her breast as she stood in the doorway of her chamber, hair dishevelled, as she hurled the bitterness of a woman’s tongue against those who, history tells us, held nothing but the deepest sympathy for her misfortune. At last Mrs. Arnold returned to her father’s home in Philadelphia and remained there until the Council of Philadelphia passed a resolution, October 29th, as follows: “Resolved:--that the said Margaret Arnold depart this state within fourteen days from the date hereof, and that she do not return again during the continuance of the present war.” Major Andre was conducted under guard, to the vicinity of the Continental Army at Tappan. He was there tried by a Court of Enquiry composed of six Major-Generals and eight Brigadiers, found guilty as a spy and condemned to be executed.