It was the morning of September
4th. General Washington was on his way to West Point, coming across
the country from Connecticut. On arriving, however, at the river,
just above the present station of Garrison, he became interested in
examining some defenses, and sent Alexander Hamilton forward to the
Beverley House, saying that he would come later, requesting the
family to proceed with their breakfast and not to await his arrival.
Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette sat gayly chatting with Mrs.
Arnold and her husband when the letter from Jamison was received.
Arnold glanced at the contents, rose and excused himself from the
table, beckoning to his wife to follow him, bade her good-bye, told
her he was a ruined man and a traitor, kissed his little boy in the
cradle, rode to Beverley Dock, and ordered his men to pull off and
go down the river. The "Vulture," an English man-of-war, was near
Teller's Point, and received a traitor, whose miserable treachery
branded him with eternal infamy on both continents. It is said that
he lived long enough to be hissed in the House of Commons, as he once
took his seat in the gallery, and he died friendless and despised.
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