I charge you, be not found within their lines; Remember still to keep on neutral ground, Unless a flag of truce be sent from Arnold That will secure your person and the plot. But if by chance you should be questioned By any scouting parties of militia,
A purse of shillings scattered to the wretches
Will soon procure a passage unmolested.
I long to hear the upshot of this meeting, The Vulture man-of-war is at your service, And shall to-morrow take you up the river As far as she with safety may adventure.
Maj. Andre. Then for the sake of Britain and of you
Will I to Arnold haste away, Sir Harry.
If things succeed, as I expect they shall, Within three days will I be back to tell you The means we fall upon to gain the fort. Act II.
Scene I.--Enter an aide-de-camp from General Washington to Arnold. Scene, West Point Fort. Time, midnight.
Aide D. C. Sir, I am sent by our renowned general
To let you know that in his best opinion
Five hundred men in reason are too few
To man the works of this important post.[Pg 49] Three thousand, he informs, are at your service, Lying at camp, with stores and baggage ready, Whene'er you send a requisition for them.
Arnold. Five hundred are too few! Why, sir, what means he? I do assert, and do insist upon it,
That with the aid of scant two hundred men I could defend this fort and all its outworks (Its strength is so prodigious in defence) Against ten legions of the boldest Britons, With Clinton at the head to lead them on, Whether he choose to come by sea or land.
Aide D. C. Well be it so. I have discharged my duty
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In bringing you our noble general's message.
Pray, sir, have you commands to send from hence? My time to stay is short; I must be going.
Arnold. Tho' I am steady to my sentiment, That these five hundred men are full sufficient, Yet, to comply with the spirit of his meaning, You may inform the general, two hours' warning Will bring me in four thousand of militia.
They are as rugged and as hardy fellows,
As bold and desperate in the works of war, As skilled to hit the mark or push the bagnet, As any of the choicest continentals.
Pray tell the general this, and I am sure,
I'm satisfied, he'll be of my opinion. [Exit Aide D. C.
Arnold (solus). This is the time for dark and dangerous action; This is the time that thieves and murderers choose
To execute their desperate designs.
But art thou, Arnold, less than murderer,
Who thus prepare to stab thy bleeding country?[Pg 50] And can I then descend to be a traitor!
By honest toils a name have I acquired, Great and unequalled in the rolls of fame; And shall that name to infamy be doomed By one base act that mars and cankers all? For this have I in winter's joyless reign
Explored the naked wilds of northern clime,
When mid the snows and frosts and chilling winds
Cold earth has been my bed. Ambition, rise
And fire my soul to nobler purposes.
To-morrow Major Andre comes to meet me, And I am to consult on ways and means
To give this fort up to my country's foes. Shall I repent of my unjust proceedings, Admit this daring Briton to my portal, And say I did thus to entrap the man Who is grand vizar to Sir Henry Clinton?
Whose scheming head doth hurt our country more
Than all their host beside?
But that would be ungenerous--more than that, Ten thousand guineas are the offered price
Of my desertion--more than that, perhaps I shall henceforward be caressed by kings And bear a generalship that may reduce These states revolted back to Britain's sway.
* For now I do imagine
They have no rights, no claims to independence. Born were we all, subjected to a king,
And that subjection must return again. The people are not dull republicans,
By nature they incline to monarchy.
How glorious should I be to have a share
In bringing back my country to allegiance.
Can France uphold them in their proud demand,[Pg 51]
That race of puny, base, perfidious dogs? Sooner shall all the house of Bourbon sink Their Rochambault, D'Estang and La Fayette, And Spain confederate cease to be a nation, And all their allies dwindle into atoms,
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Ere Britain will withdraw her righteous claim
Or yield a jot of her dominion here
To any people living. Then, Andre, come, The sooner Britain gains this fort the better. Scene II.--Major Andre, Lucinda. Parlor.
Maj. Andre. I cannot leave this city, sweet Lucinda, without imparting to you that I am going a little way toward the American lines,
at the request of his Excellency, upon some business of importance. I am come to chat a little with you ere I go. It may be some days before you see me again.
Lucinda. If it be not too great a presumption in me, my dear Major, I would beg to know whether you depart on a peaceable or hostile errand. You must pardon a woman's curiosity. I had a frightful dream about you a few nights ago, which I cannot banish from my mind ever since.
Maj. Andre. I am happy, madam, in being the subject of your dreams. But dreams are delusions of the mind, mere vagaries and whimsies not to be attended to. You may remember that, prior to our Charlestown expedition, you discouraged me a good deal with a vision you had of a vessel shipwrecked, and myself with the other passengers drowned, and yet little or nothing was intimated thereby. We made our passage safe, conquered the place, and returned with victory and honor.[Pg 52]
Lucinda. True. But your fleet endured a terrible hurricane, in which many perished.
Maj. Andre. O Lucinda, thou art a dreamer of dreams, thou thinkest, love.
Lucinda. This last was represented to my mind in quite a different manner, in such lively colours that I cannot help thinking some evil is foreboded to you.
Maj. Andre. Poh! Let's hear the extraordinary dream, then, that we may laugh a little at it.
Lucinda. I imagined myself in a country where the skies were forever cloudy and gloomy, with frequent bursts of thunder and flashes of lightning. Among many other objects, all of which seemed disconsolate and melancholy, I saw you endeavouring to reach the summit of a sharp, craggy precipice. You leaped with surprising agility over dark gulfs and apertures therein, which no other man would have thought of passing. The spectators admired your activity and daring spirit. The continual obstacles in your way seemed nothing to you, and at length you bid fair to gain the summit, when, catching hold of a shrub, which was but slightly rooted in one
of the crevices of the rock, it instantly gave way, and you tumbled to the bottom, dashed to pieces on the pointed crags and torn in a shocking manner. I shrieked out and waked.
Maj. Andre. Your dream was frightful indeed; but still it was nothing but a dream. Why, I have imagined before now in my sleep that I have tumbled down ten thousand fathoms in a perpendicular line; but all this was owing to mere mechanical causes, the motion of the animal spirits or the veins being rather too replete with blood.
Lucinda. Well, be it so. I hope my dream may be the forerunner of no mischief. But are you going[Pg 53] out on a fighting expedition, sir, if I may be so bold to ask the question?
Maj. Andre. My dearest love, I will conceal nothing from you. I know you are the girl of a thousand for