kull and a
scion from the tree was carried to England and planted in the garden
adjoining Windsor Palace. It is a still more curious fact that the
tree beneath which Andre was captured was struck by lightning on the
day of Benedict Arnold's death in London. Further reference will be
made to Andre in our description of Tarrytown, and also of Haverstraw,
where Arnold and Andre met at the house of Joshua Hett Smith.

=Tarrytown=, 26 miles from New York. It was here on the Old Post Road,
now called Broadway, a little north of the village, that Andre was
captured and Arnold's treachery exposed. A monument erected on the
spot by the people of Westchester County, October 7, 1853, bears the
inscription:

ON THIS SPOT, THE 23D DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1780, THE SPY,
MAJOR JOHN ANDRE,
Adjutant-General of the British Army, was captured by
JOHN PAULDING, DAVID WILLIAMS, AND ISAAC VAN WART.
ALL NATIVES OF THIS COUNTY.
History has told the rest.

The following quaint ballad-verses on the young hero give a realistic
touch to one of the most providential occurrences in our history:

He with a scouting party
Went down to Tarrytown,
Where he met a British officer,
A man of high renown,
Who says unto these gentlemen,
"You're of the British cheer,
I trust that you can tell me
If there's any danger near?"

Then up stept this young hero,
John Paulding was his name,
"Sir, tell us where you're going
And also whence you came?"
"I bear the British flag, sir;
I've a pass to go this way,
I'm on an expedition,
And have no time to stay."

Young Paulding, however, thought that he had plenty of time to linger
until he examined his boots, wherein he found the papers, and, when
offered ten guineas by Andre, if he would allow him to pursue his
journey, replied: "If it were ten thousand guineas you could not stir
one step."

The centennial anniversary of the event was commemorated in 1880 by
placing, through the generosity of John Anderson, on the original
obelisk of 1853, a large statue representing John Paulding as a minute
man.

* * *

That overruling Providence which has so often and so
remarkably interposed in our favor, never manifested
itself more conspicuously than in the timely discovery
of Arnold's treachery.

_George Washington._

* * *

Tarrytown was the very heart of the debatable ground o