Custis relates that one day, when a coffin was brought in which proved too short for the dead comrade, and it was proposed to cut off his head in order to adapt the body to the receptacle, Lingan "sprang from his couch of pain, and, laying his hand upon the lifeless corpse of the departed soldier, swore he would destroy the first man who should thus mutilate the body of his friend." XXII. CLOSE OF THE WAR. The treason of Arnold in 1780 contributed, on the whole, to the fidelity of the army in 1781. The poorest soldier in the ranks scorned "to become an Arnold." Washington placed Arnold in command at West Point in 1780. Arnold had long been interceding for the position, and it was found subsequently that he had been in treasonable correspondence with the British commander fifteen months when he assumed command of that post. The correspondence was commenced voluntarily by Arnold, and was conducted on the part of Sir Henry Clinton by his aid, Major John André, under the signature of John Anderson. General Arnold was harassed by burdensome debts. He was a gambler, too, and, of course, devoid of moral principle. His object was to pay his debts with British gold. His correspondence ripened into a plan by Arnold to deliver West Point into the hands of the British, for which purpose a midnight meeting was arranged between him and Major André. The meeting occurred at Dobb's Ferry, when Arnold delivered to André a plan of the works at West Point, together with a plan of attack by the British, when the post would be surrendered on the ground that the American troops were too few to hold it. The papers were concealed in André's stockings. On his return, even after he had passed the American lines, three patriotic representatives of the New York yeomanry, John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart, and David Williams, stopped him, the first aiming his musket at his head. "Gentlemen, I hope you belong to our party," said André with as much composure as he could command. "What party?" responded Paulding. "The lower party," replied André. "We do," they said. "I am a British officer, and have been up the country on particular business," continued André, now feeling that he was among friends. He was deceived by the dress which Paulding wore,--that of a refugee. Paulding had been a prisoner in the hands of the British, confined in that terrible prison known as the "Sugar House." He was released only four days before. In that place his citizen's suit was taken from him, and replaced by the refugee garb, so that the barbarity of André's countrymen became the cause of his detection. "I must not be detained for a moment," continued André, taking out his gold watch, the sight of which showed to his captors that he was a man of consequence. "We are Americans, and you are our prisoner!" exclaimed Paulding. André was astounded by this revelation, and he was ready to pay any amount of money to his captors if they would let him go.