red up, but with profits
barely sufficient to meet his debts. Mount Pleasant, his sole
possession, had already been settled on his wife. His tenure of office
had been ended some time before, and whatever documents were destined
for preservation had been put in order pending the arrival of his
successor.

The plan for his defection had been evolved by him with elaborate
detail. Never had the time been more opportune for the execution of a
piece of business so nefarious. The country was without what could be
called a stable form of government. It was deprived of any recognized
means of exchange because of the total depreciation of the Continental
currency. The British had obtained possession of the great city of New
York and were threatening to overrun the country south of the
Susquehanna. Newport was menaced and the entire British fleet was
prepared to move up the Hudson where, at West Point, one poorly equipped
garrison interposed between them and the forces of General Carleton,
which were coming down from Canada. Washington was attempting to defend
Philadelphia and watch Clinton closely from the heights of Morristown,
while he threatened the position of the enemy in New York from West
Point. In all the American Commander had no more than four thousand men,
many of whom were raw recruits, mere boys, whose services had been
procured for nine months for fifteen hundred dollars each. Georgia and
the Carolinas were entirely reduced and it was only a question of time
before the junction of the two armies might be effected.

Clinton was to attack West Point at once, in order to break down the one
barrier which stood between his own army and the Canadian. Learning,
however, of the rapid progress of events on the American side and more
especially of the proposed defection of General Arnold, he suddenly
changed his plan. He determined to attack Washington as soon as Arnold
had been placed in command of the right wing of the main army. The
latter was to suffer the attack to be made, but at the psychological
moment he was to desert his Commander-in-chief in the field, and so
effect the total destruction of the entire force.

This was the plan which was being turned over in his mind as he sat on
this June afternoon in the great room of his mansion. He was again clad
in his American uniform and looked the warrior of old in his blue and
buff and gold. Care had marked his countenance with her heavy hand,
however, and had left deep