Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General WashingtonMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
History
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General Washington
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Quakers -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
Meanwhile I walked up and down in a state of such agitation and distress
as never before nor since have I known. When I had seen Major Tallmadge,
he knew but little of those details of Arnold’s treason which
later became the property of all men; but he did tell me that the
correspondence had been carried on for Sir Henry by Andre in the name of
Anderson, and this brought to my mind the letter which the Quaker farmer
declined to surrender to me at the time I was serving as Arnold’s aide.
I went back at last to Jack’s hut in the valley near the river and
waited. I leave Jack to say how I felt and acted that day and evening,
as I lay and thought of Andre and of poor Margaret Shippen, Arnold’s
wife:
“Never have I seen my dear Hugh in such trouble. Here was a
broken-hearted woman, the companion of his childhood; and Andre, who,
at a moment which must have called upon his every instinct as a soldier,
held back and saved my friend from a fate but too likely to be his own.
Hugh all that evening lay in our hut, and now and then would break out
declaring he must do something; but what he knew not, nor did I. He
was even so mad as to think he might plan some way to assist Andre to
escape. I listened, but said nothing, being assured from long knowledge
that his judgment would correct the influence of the emotion which did
at first seem to disturb it.
“Now all this miserable business is over, I ask myself if our chief
would have tried to buy an English general, or if so, would I or Hugh
have gone on such an errand as Andres. To be a spy is but a simple duty,
and no shame in it; but as to the shape this other matter took, I do not
feel able to decide.”
Still later he adds:
“Nor is my mind more fully settled as to it to-day; some think one way,
some another. I had rather Andre had not gone on this errand with the
promise of a great reward. Yet I think he did believe he was only doing
his duty.”
Alter an hour or more of fruitless thinking, not hearing from Mr.
Hamilton, I walked back to headquarters. Neither in the joy and pride
of glad news, nor when disaster on disaster fell on us, have I ever seen
anything like the intensity of expectation and of anxiety which at this
time reigned in our camps. The capture of the adjutant-general was grave
enough; his fate hung in no doubtful balance; but the feeling aroused
by the fall of a great soldier, the dishonour of one greatly esteemed
in the ranks, the fear of what else might come, all served to foster
uneasiness and to feed suspicion. As the great chief had said, whom now
could he trust, or could we? The men talked in half-whispers about the
camp-fires; an hundred wild rumours were afloat; and now and again eager
eyes looked toward the low brick church where twelve general officers
were holding the court-martial which was to decide the fate of my
friend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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