to the shore
marked by a boat house. This is Beverley Dock, and directly up the
river bank about an eighth of a mile stood the old Beverley House,
where Benedict Arnold had his headquarters when in command of
West Point. The old house, a good specimen of colonial times, was
unfortunately burned in 1892, and with it went the most picturesque
landmark of the most dramatic incident of the Revolution. It will
be remembered that Arnold returned to the Beverley House after his
midnight interview with Andre at Haverstraw, and immediately upon the
capture of Andre the following day, that Colonel Jamison sent a letter
to Arnold, advising him of the fact. It was the morning of September
4th. General Washington was on his way to West Point, coming across
the country from Connecticut. On arriving, however, at the river,
just above the present station of Garrison, he became interested in
examining some defenses, and sent Alexander Hamilton forward to the
Beverley House, saying that he would come later, requesting the
family to proceed with their breakfast and not to await his arrival.
Alexander Hamilton and General Lafayette sat gayly chatting with Mrs.
Arnold and her husband when the letter from Jamison was received.
Arnold glanced at the contents, rose and excused himself from the
table, beckoning to his wife to follow him, bade her good-bye, told
her he was a ruined man and a traitor, kissed his little boy in the
cradle, rode to Beverley Dock, and ordered his men to pull off and
go down the river. The "Vulture," an English man-of-war, was near
Teller's Point, and received a traitor, whose miserable treachery
branded him with eternal infamy on both continents. It is said that
he lived long enough to be hissed in the House of Commons, as he once
took his seat in the gallery, and he died friendless and despised. It
is also said, when Talleyrand arrived in Havre on foot from Paris, in
the darkest hour of the French Revolution, pursued by the bloodhounds
of the reign of terror, and was about to secure a passage to the
United States, he asked the landlord of the hotel whether any
Americans were staying at his house, as he was going across the water,
and would like a letter to a person of influence in the New World.
"There is a gentleman up-stairs from Britain or America," was the
response. He pointed the way, and Talleyrand ascended the stairs. In a
dimly lighted room sat a man of whom the great minister of France was
to ask a favor. H