THE WIFE OF BENEDICT ARNOLD. 203 an end to the war through the defection of Arnold and the capture of West Point. Immense supplies had been gathered in and about that post, which had been fortified by three years' constant labor of a large force of men, and an expenditure of three millions of dollars. The post was not only of infinite value as keeping open com- munication between the various posts of the country, but it was relied upon as a last resort for the army in case a series of disasters should render an impregnable refuge necessary. It was Andrews belief that the patriot cause could not survive the two-fold calamity of the defection of so important an officer, and the loss of so important a place. At the ancient mansion of Jacobus Kip, which stood at what we now call the corner of Second avenue and Thirty-fourth street, Major Andre" dined, for the last time, with Sir Henry Clinton and his staff, before leaving New York for his fatal interview with Arnold. After dinner, when he was called upon, as usual, for a song, he gave the one attributed to General Wolfe, who sang it the evening before he climbed the heights of Quebec : ' ' Why, soldiers, why Should we be melancholy, boys? Why, soldiers, why, Whose business 'tis to die ! For should the next campaign Send us to Him who made us, boys, We're free from pain ; But should we remain, A bottle and kind landlady Makes all well again." Thus sang the light-hearted soldier of twenty-nine, with his comrades around him, and his general at the head of the table. Early the next morning he started on his mission. Four days after, he was a prisoner. Nine days after, he swung from a gibbet. 13
