The Story of the Thirteen ColoniesGuerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
History
The Story of the Thirteen Colonies
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
Campe intended, with the help of two other patriots, to seize and
gag Arnold when he was walking alone in his garden, as he did every
night. Thence they meant to convey him to a boat, row him secretly
across the river, and hand him over to one of Washington's most
devoted officers, Henry Lee, who was called "Light-Horse Harry," to
distinguish him from the Lee who disgraced himself at Monmouth.
Unfortunately, on the very night when Campe's plan was to have been
carried out, Arnold took his regiment on board a vessel in the bay,
and sailed south to fight for the British in Virginia. There poor
Campe had to wait for months before he got a chance to desert Arnold
and rejoin his countrymen. Until then all his fellow-soldiers had
believed him a real deserter; but after welcoming him cordially,
Washington and Lee publicly told the others how nobly Campe had
tried to serve his country, and how nearly he had secured the
traitor.
While fighting in the South, we are told, Arnold once asked one of
his prisoners, "What do you suppose my fate would be if my misguided
countrymen were to take me prisoner?" The man, who was a good
American, promptly answered: "They would cut off the leg that was
wounded at Quebec and Saratoga, and bury it with the honors of war;
but the rest of you they would hang on a gibbet."
LXXX. A TRAITOR'S DEATH.
Before continuing the story of the Revolutionary War, it is well to
finish this painful story of a traitor. After fighting against his
country in Virginia, and burning many houses and villages there,
Arnold was sent into Connecticut, where he set fire to New London,
watching the flames from the church tower. But soon after this
Arnold went to London, where he spent most of the rest of his life,
with few friends.
We are told that no one respected him there, and once, when he went
into Parliament to hear the speeches, a member pointed right at him,
saying: "Mr. Speaker, I will not speak while that man is in the
house." Another time Arnold was introduced to a British officer who
had fought against him at Saratoga. But, while this man had then
admired him for his courage, and would have been proud to know him,
he now refused to shake hands with him, curtly saying that he could
not endure traitors.
A gentleman who did not know Arnold's story once asked him for
letters of introduction to his friends, saying he was about to sail
for America. But the traitor sadly answered: "I was born in America;
I lived there to the prime of my life; but, alas! I can call no man
in America my friend." In fact, even his children were so ashamed of
what he had done that two of his sons changed their name as soon as
they grew up.
After living thus twenty years, bereft of his own as well as
public respect, Arnold on his deathbed begged for the epaulets and
sword-knot which Washington had once given him, and cried: "Let me
die in my old American uniform, in which I fought my battles. God
forgive me for ever having put on any other!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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