to Arnold at West Point before the report of his capture should go abroad, it might be practicable for them both to get within the British lines, or to take such other steps for securing themselves, as the extremity of their affairs should make necessary. It has been represented, that Andre's magnanimity was the principal motive by which he was actuated in concealing the agency of Arnold. His subsequent conduct gives him every claim to the praise of honor and nobleness of mind ; yet, on the present occasion, it is obvious that his own personal safety was as much consulted, to say the least, as his sentiments of generosity towards his associate.

Jameson penned a hasty line to Arnold, saying merely that he sent forward, under the charge of Lieutenant Allen and a guard, a certain John Anderson, who had been taken while going towards New York. He had a passport, said Jameson, signed in your name; and a parcel of papers taken from under his stockings, which I think of a very dangerous tendency. He then described these papers, and added that he had sent them to General Washington.

There appears to have been some misgiving in the mind of Jameson, although he was not prepared to suspect the patriotism and political fidelity of his commanding general. Washington said afterwards that, either on account of his " egregious folly, or bewildered conception, he seemed lost in astonishment, and not to know what he was doing." This is as lenient a judgment, perhaps, as can be passed on his conduct. No one ever doubted the purity of his intentions. Perceiving the mischievous tendency of the papers, and knowing them to have been copied by Arnold, at the same moment that he sent Andre under guard to West Point, he dispatched an express with the papers to meet General Washington, then supposed to be on the road returning from his interview with the French commanders at Hartford.