286 Major Andre and General Arnold. 



the waters of the rapid Hudson curling past the polished sides of his 

 vessel, and contrasting- their headlong speed with the slow progress 

 of his bark towards the goal of his hopes. He felt himself within a 

 single step of the summit of his wishes, and, probably exulting in the 

 prospect of the personal dangers he should encounter, and which 

 would give lustre to the exploit, he overlooked the chances and 

 despised the dangers that opposed themselves to his triumph. 



The morning of the 20th September rose with unusual splendour 

 over the dark pine woods that clothed the banks of the Hudson, whose 

 broad waters were in those days rarely disturbed, save by the 

 Indian's arrowy canoe, or the sluggish track of the heavy raft bear- 

 ing its half-savage constructors and their forest spoils to the marts of 

 more civilized regions. Gliding down the noble stream with his 

 little stock of peltry, the sturdy backwoodsman, stretched beneath 

 his pine-bark awning, smoked his pipe and gazed listlessly upon the 

 trackless wilderness that lay upon either shore ; the melancholy note 

 of the whip-poor-will or the shrill cry of the alone broke the 



silence of the deep solitudes by which he was surrounded, and he 

 whispered to himself, like the lonely island dweller in the pride of 

 savage sovereignty 



* r I am monarch of all I survey, 

 My right there is none to dispute." 



How would the presumptuous boast be checked, could he now behold 

 those dusky and silent shores studded with cheerful villages and 

 noble cities, and echoing to the ceaseless hum of busy industry. 



But on the morning we allude to, an object of unusual interest 

 excited the anxious curiosity of a knot of gazers, who had collected 

 on the extremity of a low rocky point of land, on which a small re- 

 doubt had been erected, about five miles below West Point. That 

 object was the Vulture sloop-of-war, which had got aground at low 

 water about a mile distant, abreast of the point. There appeared no 

 hostile demonstration on the part of the sloop, but the broad British 

 ensign at her peak flouted the wanton air with saucy pride, and 

 seemed to wave a scornful defiance of her enemies. 



" This is pretty work, d d extraordinary, I must say," muttered 



an old hard-featured veteran, in the uniform of an American colonel, 

 as he turned angrily away from the galling contemplation of a foe 

 whose insults he had not the power to punish. 



"Why, Colonel Livingston, you seem a little out of sorts, what's 

 wrong now?" cried a young officer who had just joined the group. 



"Wrong! Captain Bloxham, every thing is wrong, Sir; I'm an 

 ass, and General Arnold is a general, Sir. Look there, Sir, do 

 you see that, Sir?" 



" Certainly, Colonel, the English sloop. We have been speculating 

 all the morning as to what her designs may be. Many of us are of 

 opinion that she meditated an attack upon some of the small forts, 

 while others say that she is only the bearer of a flag of truce." 



" No matter, Sir, had I my will we should have known her inten- 

 tions by this time. I would have presented my compliments to her 



