[Footnote 51: It so happened that when André was taken to Tappaan he was delivered to the custody of Wayne. The latter was not a member of the board of inquiry. Frank Moore says that, under André's signature to a MS. copy of the "Cow-Chase," some one wrote: "When the epic strain was sung, The poet by the neck was hung, And to his cost he finds, too late, The 'dung-born tribe' decides his fate."] CHAPTER VI. Washington lodged at Fishkill, eighteen miles from West Point, on the night of September 24th, and early the next morning (the day appointed for Clinton to ascend the river and receive the surrender of the post in the Highlands) he and his companions reached the vicinity of Arnold's quarters, where they intended to breakfast. He and two or three officers turned aside to inspect a redoubt, while Lafayette, Hamilton, and other young officers, rode forward with a message from their chief to Mrs. Arnold, bidding her not to delay breakfast on his account. While these officers were at table with Arnold and his wife, a courier arrived with a letter to the general. It was Jameson's letter, brought by Allen, telling Arnold of the arrest of "John Anderson," and the sending of the papers found in his boots to Washington. Arnold glanced at the letter, sat a few minutes in general conversation, and then asked to be excused. His wife perceived anxiety in his countenance, and, leaving the table, followed him out of the room. He commanded Allen not to mention that he had brought a letter from Jameson; ordered a horse to be saddled and brought to the door immediately, and ascending to his wife's chamber, to which she had retired, he told her in a few hurried words of his perilous situation, and that his life depended upon his instant flight and reaching the British lines in safety. This awful message smote the young wife and mother fearfully. She screamed and fell at his feet in a swoon. He had not a moment to lose. Leaving her in the care of her maid, he kissed their sleeping babe and hurried to the breakfast-room. Telling the guests that his wife had been taken ill suddenly, and that he was called in haste over to West Point and would return presently, he mounted the horse at the door, dashed down the bridle-path to the river half a mile distant, snatched his pistols from the holsters as he dismounted, and, summoning the crew of his barge, he entered it and ordered them to pull into the middle of the stream and row swiftly down the river, for he bore a flag to the _Vulture_, and must return soon to meet General Washington.