Treacherous Beauty by Stephen Case

Author:Stephen Case
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2012-07-02T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

A Capture and an Escape

The weekend arrived at Robinson House with a Saturday warm and fair.390 Joshua Hett Smith arrived there, too, and was both warmly received and fairly despised. Smith brought encouraging news for Arnold: He had escorted Mr. Anderson past hundreds of rebel soldiers and delivered him to the doorstep of British-held territory.

Peggy and her husband knew their conspiracy was coming to a head. General Washington, who was expected at Robinson House shortly, sent word that he was delayed a few days but still planned to stop by to inspect West Point. The timing of the attack on West Point was undoubtedly discussed by Arnold and André in their middle-of-the-night meeting, but the details have been lost to the ages.

Smith’s visit posed a problem for Peggy, who had led Franks and Varick to believe that the general would have nothing further to do with the “scoundrel.” The tension culminated at a dinner featuring all the antagonists, plus some of the same officers who had witnessed the mealtime fracas a week earlier between Varick and Smith over whether Britain had offered an honorable peace.391

This time, the point of argument was more petty. There was a shortage of butter on the table, and Peggy asked a servant to bring more. The servant told her they were out, but Arnold offered a solution. “Bless me,” he said, “I had forgot the oil I bought in Philadelphia. It will do very well with salt fish.” Arnold remarked that it cost eighty dollars. “Eighty pence,” quipped Smith, suggesting that a Continental dollar was worth no more than a penny. Varick told him he was wrong, and said it in as insulting a manner as he could summon. He later testified that he had been looking for an opportunity to be “cavalier with Smith.”

The two began arguing bitterly, and Franks jumped in on Varick’s side. Seeing Arnold become increasingly angry, Peggy “begged that the dispute might be dropped, as it gave her great pain,” a witness recalled. A truce was declared. But after Smith left, Arnold argued furiously with his aides. “He declared that if he asked the devil to dine with him, the gentlemen of his family should be civil to him,” Varick recalled. The fiery Franks declared that if Smith had been at a table other than Arnold’s, Franks would have thrown a bottle at his head. Franks challenged Arnold to fire him, and he stormed out of the house, saying he was off to a nearby town on business.

Varick, who was more judicious, warned Arnold that associating with Smith would hurt his reputation. “Arnold then told me that he was always willing to be advised by the gentleman of his family, but, by God, would not be dictated to by them,” Varick said. Later that night, Varick and Arnold talked further and seemed to make peace. “He gave me assurances of his full confidence in me,” Varick said, “of a conviction of the rectitude of my conduct, of Smith’s being

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