disease, from which he never recovered. He should have
chosen a more peaceful life, such as the hen-traffic, or the growth of
asparagus for the market.

Benedict Arnold has been severely reproached in history, but he was a
brave soldier, and possibly serving under Gates, who jealously kept him
in the background, had a good deal to do with the little European dicker
which so darkened his brilliant career as a soldier.

[Illustration: ARNOLD'S RECEPTION IN ENGLAND.]

Unhappy man! He was not well received in England, and, though a
brilliant man, was forced to sit in a corner evening after evening and
hear the English tell his humorous stories as their own.

The Carolinas were full of Tories, and opposition to English rule was
practically abandoned in the South for the time, with the exception of
that made in a desultory swamp-warfare by the partisan bands with such
leaders as Marion, Sumter, and Pickens.

Two hundred thousand dollars of Continental money was the sum now out.
Forty dollars of it would buy one dollar's worth of groceries; but the
grocer had to know the customer pretty well, and even then it was more
to accommodate than anything else that he sold at that price.

The British flooded the country with a counterfeit that was rather
better-looking than the genuine: so that by the time a man had paid six
hundred dollars for a pair of boots, and the crooked bills had been
picked out and others substituted, it made him feel that starting a
republic was a mighty unpopular job.

General Arnold had married a Tory lady, and lived in Philadelphia while
recovering from his wounds received at Quebec and Saratoga. He was
rather a high roller, and ran behind, so that it is estimated that his
bills there per month required a peach-basket-full of currency with
which to pay them, as the currency was then quoted. Besides, Gates had
worried him, and made him think that patriotism was mostly politics. He
was also overbearing, and the people of Philadelphia mobbed him once. He
was reprimanded gently by Washington, but Arnold was haughty and yet
humiliated. He got command of West Point, a very important place indeed,
and then arranged with Clinton to swap it for six thousand three hundred
and fifteen pounds and a colonelcy in the English army.

Major Andre was appointed to confer with Arnold, and got off the ship
Vulture to make his way to the appointed place, but it was daylight by
that time, and the Vulture, having been fir