The Atlantic States [his letter ran] expect this fleet to protect them from the British, and evidently they think we can do it by shouting “Boh!” and making faces. Where in God’s name is the powder we should have? Where are the blankets? My men are sleeping on bare decks and the nights are bitter. Where are the woolen stockings and breeches? My men are bare-legged and bare-footed. I could make warmer clothes for them out of a lace curtain! We’re expected to fight, but given nothing to fight with.… Is it possible my countrymen can be callous to their wrongs, or hesitate one moment between slavery or death?… I have received your letter about Major Brown’s charges against me, presented by Colonel Easton. I am at a loss to know where these tales originated. You know the falsity of them, and so do the Commissioners of Congress, but I will take it as a favor if you will continue to deny them at every opportunity.

Arnold tapped the page. “It’s this last I want you to see. Did you hear any of these slanders in Skenesboro? Did you hear I robbed the citizens of Montreal of their belongings?”

“Yes sir,” I admitted. “Those stories were going around as far back as July.”

“July! They’ve been calling me a thief since July!”

“That’s an overstatement,” I said. “Some damned fool starts a rumor, but nobody believes it—nobody with sense.”

The look in Arnold’s eyes was worse than distressing. “I suppose,” he said, “you never had occasion to suspect the source of these rumors.”

“Well, sir, I heard Brown and Easton mentioned, just as in your letter.”

Arnold waved a contemptuous hand. “No, no! I mean where Brown got his crazy notions. Somebody supplied him with them. He never thought ’em up himself! He’s dull—a thick-witted ass! I know him! He went to Yale when I was in New Haven. Twenty-seven years old, he was, when he graduated from college—a noisy oaf, all muscle and no brain! A great man in college, because he could kick a football over the college buildings; but he can’t think for himself, and never could! Indignant, he was, at those who threw overboard the tea in Boston Harbor! He called it contrary to law and order, and above all a great waste of tea. It wasn’t till he heard other people talk that he decided it was a patriotic act. No, Brown never thought up those charges! My God, man! Listen to them!”