Arnold sails for England.--Anecdotes.--His Residence at St. John's, and
in the West Indies.--His Death.
The capitulation at York town having virtually put an end to the war,
and Arnold finding himself neither respected by the British officers,
nor likely to be further employed in the service, obtained permission
from Sir Henry Clinton to go to England. He sailed from New York
with his family in December, 1781. Sir Henry gave him a letter of
introduction to Lord George Germain, mentioning his "spirited and
meritorious conduct since he had joined the British army," and
commending him to his "Lordship's countenance and protection"; but,
forbearing to recount the instances of his worthy deeds, he referred the
minister on that head to the tenor of his previous correspondence.
Although Arnold lived twenty years after this date, yet so entirely did
he sink out of notice, that hardly an incident respecting him has been
related or remembered. Happily no one will regret the blank. All that
can be ascertained, in regard to his subsequent history, may be gathered
from half a dozen anecdotes. Some of these are characteristic; others
show in what utter disgrace he was held by the whole world.
At the time he was about to sail from New York, two Scotch officers,
wishing to return to England, requested a passage in the same vessel.
The captain told them, that General Arnold had taken the whole cabin for
himself and family, and that there was no more room for passengers;
but, if they could make an arrangement with him, there would be no other
obstacle. They accordingly consulted Arnold, who agreed to receive them
into the cabin. Nothing further was said on the subject, till the vessel
arrived in London. The Scotch gentlemen then went to the captain, and
offered to pay for their passage, but he declined taking the money, and
referred them to Arnold. He did not see them again, till they departed
for Scotland. When Arnold came to pay his bill, he insisted that the
proportion for their passage should be deducted. To this the captain
would not consent, alleging that he had no claim upon the officers, and
requiring a fulfilment of his contract. As this could not be evaded,
Arnold was obliged to pay the demand, but he persuaded the captain to
draw on the two officers, in favor of Arnold, and in his own name
as captain of the ship, for their passage money. The draft came back
protested. Arnold prosecuted the captain, and recovered the amount. It
had also been paid to him by the officers before they left London.
It has been seen in the preceding narrative, that the horse on which
Arnold rode in the second battle of Behmus's Heights was shot under him,
just as he was entering the Hessian redoubt. The animal was a beautiful
Spanish horse, which had formerly belonged to Governor Skene, but
was now the property of Colonel Lewis, and borrowed by Arnold for the
occasion. A short time after the action, Colonel Lewis called on him,
and requested a certificate of the horse having been killed, that he
might obtain the value of him, according to usage, from the public
treasury. Arnold declined giving the certificate, saying it would have
an ill appearance for a major-general to sign a certificate for a horse,
that had been shot under him in battle. Lewis said no more, till Arnold
was about to leave the camp, when he again went to him, and insisted on
being allowed a proper compensation for the loss of his horse. Arnold
still assigned motives of delicacy for refusing a certificate, but told
Lewis that he had a fine Narraganset mare in the public stables, which
he would give him in the place of his horse, and immediately wrote an
order to the keeper of the stables, directing him to deliver the mare
into the hands of Colonel Lewis. Meantime Arnold went off, and two or
three days afterwards the order was presented. The keeper said there was
no mare belonging to General Arnold in the stables; that there had been
one of that description some time before, but she was sold to another
officer, who had taken her away. It was subsequently ascertained, that
Arnold sent in a certificate, and received pay from the government for
the horse that had been shot.
Nor was this the end of the affair. When he was on the point of sailing
for England, he borrowed two hundred dollars from a Captain Campbell
in the British service, for which he gave an order on Colonel Lewis,
telling Campbell that Lewis owed him for a mare purchased three years
before, and that, as he was about to leave the country, and should not
have an opportunity to collect the debt, it would be a convenience to
him if Campbell would undertake that small service. Captain Campbell,
having been acquainted with Colonel Lewis before the war and expecting
to see him again, took the order as an equivalent for his two hundred
dollars. When the news of peace arrived in New York, a passport was
obtained from General Washington by the British commander, for a person
to proceed through the country with the intelligence to the Governor of
Canada. Captain Campbell was the bearer of the message, and on the way
he visited his friend Lewis in Albany, and presented Arnold's order.
Their mutual surprise may be imagined, both having been equal sufferers
by this refinement of knavery.
Although the King, and a few persons in authority, were obliged from
policy to take some notice of Arnold, after he went to England, yet he
was shunned and despised by every body else. It is said, that when the
petition for a bill authorizing a negotiation of peace was presented to
the King in the usual form by Parliament, Arnold was standing near the
throne, apparently in high favor with the sovereign. Lord Lauderdale
is reported to have declared, on returning to the House, "that however
gracious might be the language he had heard from the throne, his
indignation could not but be highly excited at beholding his Majesty
supported by a traitor." At another time, when Lord Surry had risen to
speak, seeing Arnold in the gallery, he sat down quickly, pointing to
him and exclaiming, "I will not speak while that man is in the House."
He occasionally by accident met his countrymen, who uniformly treated
him in the most slighting and contemptuous manner. An officer of rank
in the American army, who had known him in early life, was in London.
Arnold called at the door of his lodgings, and sent in his name. "Tell
the gentleman I am not at home," said the officer to the servant, "and
never shall be for General Arnold."
Not long after the war, he took up his residence at St. John's, in
New Brunswick, and resumed his old profession of a merchant, engaging
principally in the West India trade. It is believed that the government
granted him facilities, in the way of contracts for supplying the troops
in Jamaica with provisions. At any rate he carried on a thriving and
extensive business at St. John's, building ships on his own account and
sending them to the West Indies.
His style of living was ostentatious and profuse, exhibiting more
splendor than was usual in provincial towns, and thus enabling him to
associate on terms of intimacy with the higher classes; but he
contrived to make himself odious to the people, not less by his
haughty deportment, than by his habits of dishonesty in business. The
inhabitants of St. John's were principally refugees from the United
States, who had settled there at the close of the war.
An incident happened, which had a tendency to increase the strong
feeling of distrust and aversion, with which he had from the first been
regarded. He had in use two warehouses. Upon one of these, which was
supposed to be filled with goods, he procured an insurance for a large
amount. It took fire in the night, and was burnt to the ground with all
its contents. Arnold was himself absent on a voyage to England. Two of
his sons slept in the warehouse, and were there when the flames broke
out, but could give no account of the manner in which the fire was
communicated. The circumstances of the case induced a suspicion, that
the goods had been insured much above their value, and that the building
was intentionally set on fire.
So many particulars favored this construction, that the insurers refused
to pay their bonds. Arnold prosecuted them on his return from England,
and a trial ensued, in which many witnesses were examined; but no proof
was produced to establish the charge of design in setting the fire, and
he recovered the full value for which the goods had been insured.
The judicial decision did not accord, however, with public sentiment,
and the populace resolved to express their sense of the transaction in a
manner, that could not be misunderstood. They made an effigy, which they
called The Traitor, and hung it in a conspicuous place, so that it could
be seen from Arnold's windows. A concourse of people was gathered around
it, when a magistrate appeared among them and read the riot act. This
dispersed or quieted them for the moment, but they soon reassembled, and
exposed the effigy anew. The military at last interfered, and put an end
to the proceedings, but not till the people had effected their object,
and committed to the flames the symbol of their indignation; and indeed
it may be supposed, that neither the magistrates nor the military were
over-earnest to suppress the popular feeling on this occasion.
How long Arnold continued at St. John's is uncertain. He went back to
England, where he resided the rest of his life, though he was sometimes
absent on business in the West Indies. When the war with France
commenced, he petitioned for employment in the army; but, as no officers
would serve or associate with him, the petition could not be granted. A
single adventure will include all that remains to be told of him.
He was at Point Petre, in Guadaloupe, engaged in commercial pursuits,
when that Island, which had fallen under the power of the English, was
retaken by the French. Having acted as an agent to furnish provisions
for the British troops in the West Indies, chiefly obtained through a
circuitous channel from the United States, he had accumulated a good
deal of money, which was then in his possession. Fearful that it might
be taken from him, or at least doubtful what treatment he would meet
with if discovered, he assumed the name of Anderson. With other persons
he was put on board a French prison-ship in the harbor. A sentinel told
him, that he was known and exposed to great hazard.
Alarmed at this intelligence, he immediately formed a plan to escape.
His ingenuity and resource had seldom failed him in cases requiring
promptness of decision, and they proved equally true to him at the
present critical juncture. He enclosed his treasure in an empty cask,
which he let down into the sea as soon as it was dark, and the waves
carried it ashore near the place where the English were encamped. He
likewise took the precaution to put a letter into the cask, stating that
the property belonged to him, and was to be given up when demanded. In
the middle of the night he silently descended the side of the ship,
and placed himself upon a raft of planks prepared for the purpose,
with which he had the good fortune to reach a small boat moored at some
distance. He then rowed towards the English fleet, guided by the lights
on board. Although hailed by a French guard-boat, he escaped under the
cover of darkness, and at four o'clock in the morning was safe on the
deck of a British vessel.
Shortly after this adventure, Arnold returned again to England. He died
in London, June 14th, 1801, aged sixty-one years.