Major AndrS and General Arnold. 31 



America proclaimed in the face of applauding nations the maturity 

 of her strength and the assumption of her independence, Arnold had 

 become attached to a lovely girl, the daughter of a gentleman in 

 Philadelphia, whose family, of high English extraction, regarded the 

 land of their fathers with almost enthusiastic veneration. England 

 was in their eyes unequalled in the arts of peace, and unrivalled in 

 the trade of war. 



It was from the bosom of one of these England- worshipping families 

 that Arnold chose the partner of his future life. Ardently beloved 

 by her husband, Beatrice returned his affection with the full devotion 

 of her woman's heart ; and when, at the commencement of hostilities 

 between England and America, she beheld her husband embrace the 

 cause of freedom with the enthusiasm and self-devotion which dis- 

 tinguished his early career, she did so with poignant but silent 

 regret. She loved him too tenderly, and felt too proud of her young 

 hero's military renown, to damp his spirit by reproaches, or to endea- 

 vour by feminine artifice to turn him aside from the path he had 

 chosen j but the very strength of her attachment to her husband made 

 her the more anxiously desire to see him converted to those political 

 opinions which she had imbibed in her earliest youth, and which she 

 had been taught to believe comprehended every virtuous and honour- 

 able sentiment that man should cherish or defend. 



Another reason also contributed powerfully to make Mrs. Arnold 

 and her sister the secret partizans of the royal cause. A considerable 

 time before the marriage of Beatrice with Arnold, a young English 

 officer named Andre, quartered at Philadelphia, had become intimate 

 at their father's house. With a naturally fine figure and intelligent 

 countenance, there was a calm dignity, softened by the blandest 

 courtesy, in the bearing and disposition of the young Englishman, 

 which at once won his way to the heart of all who knew him ; nor 

 did the reputation he had gained for exploits of chivalric courage 

 and romantic adventure lessen the favourable effect his personal 

 endowments had produced in the minds of the Philadelphian fair 

 ones. But to the charms of the gentle Mary alone was reserved the 

 triumph of bringing the young soldier to her feet. Alas! that tears 

 and misery should be too often the bitter penalty of that short-lived 

 triumph. A mutual passion soon sprung up in the bosoms of Andre" 

 and Mary, but the narrow circumstances of the lovers Mary was 

 portionless, and the fortune of Andre consisted in his captain's com- 

 mission and his good sword forbade their union until Andrews rank 

 would be such as might enable him to maintain a wife. While the 

 attached pair were thus patiently awaiting the tardy accomplishment 

 of their hopes, the gathering storm of civil warfare for such might 

 the contest which was then waged between America and the parent 

 country be called burst forth with uncontrollable violence, severing 

 in its ruthless course the bonds of friendship, and scattering desola- 

 tion and discord in its terrible path. Let us not, in lamenting the 

 horrors of an exterminating intestinal struggle, be understood as 

 endeavouring to stigmatize the brave men who resisted oppression 

 to the death : the crime and the disgrace lie not upon them, but upon 

 the heads of those who forced them to convert the axe and the 



