A year had elapsed since his accusation, and he expected a full acquittal) But for nine months the rank weeds of treason had been growing luxuriantly in his heart. (He saw no way to extricate himself from debt, and retain his position in the army. Por nine months he had been in secret correspondence with British officers in !N"ew YorkJ His pride was now wounded, his vindictive spirit was aroused, and he resolved to sell his country for gold and military rank. [JLe opened a correspondence in a disguised hand, and in commercial phrase, with Major John Andre, the young and highly accomplished adjutant-general of the British army.j ^How far Mrs. Arnold (who had been quite intimate with Major Andre in Philadelphia, and had kept up an epistolary correspondence with him after the British army had left that city) was implicated in these treasonable communications we shall never know.} Justice compels us to say that there is no evidence of her having had any knowledge of the transaction until the explosion of the plot at Beverly already mentioned.

Arnold's deportment now suddenly changed. For a long time he had been sullen and indifferent ; now his patriotism glowed with all the apparent ardour of his earlier career. Hitherto he had pleaded the bad state of his wounds as an excuse for inaction ; now they healed rapidly. He appeared anxious to join his old companions in arms; and to General Schuyler, and other influential men, then in Congress, he expressed an ai'dent desire to be in the camp or in the field. They believed him to be sincere, and rejoiced. They wrote cheering letters to "Washington on the subject ; and, pursuant to Arnold's intim"ation, they suggested the pro-