His own confessions were conclusive, and no witness was examined against him. The court were unanimous that he must suffer death. When the sentence was communicated to the unhappy man, he entreated that he might not be compelled to expire on a gibbet, like a common felon, but that he might be permitted to close his life by that law generally prescribed by military usage; and to effect this, he dictated a letter to General Washington, containing one of the most affecting and pathetic appeals that ever fell from mortal pen. The commander-in-chief referred the subject to his general officers, who, with the exception of Greene, decided that Andre should be shot. The following remarks from the president of the council show his firmness; that no circumstance whatever could move him where the honor of his country was involved. “Andre,” said he, “is either a spy or an innocent man. If the latter, to execute him in any way will be murder; if the former, the mode of his death is prescribed by law, and you have no right to alter it; and at this alarming crisis of our affairs, the public safety demands a solemn and impressive example. Nothing can satisfy it short of the execution of the prisoner as a common spy; a character of which his own confession has clearly convicted him.” This reasoning was considered conclusive by the council, and the prisoner suffered as a common spy. The post at West Point, now vacated by the treachery of Arnold, was confided to Greene, and by the 8th of October he was already at his new station on the banks of the Hudson. He had hardly entered upon his duties, when General Washington appointed him to the command of the army in the South. We now behold an entire change in the situation of General Greene, and follow him through a southern campaign, virtually invested with the supreme command of a large section of the United States. On his arrival at Charlotte, North Carolina, the head-quarters of General Gates, and on entering on the duties of his command, he found himself in a situation fearfully embarrassing.