“No!” Arnold’s eyes grew bright, and he spoke to me, though he looked at Ellen. “Captain Merrill, take your brother home and stay with him till he’s in health again, body and soul.” He put out his hand to Ellen; she took it, and, bending low, touched it lightly with her forehead.

“Tut, tut!” he said, and remembered the paper he’d written, which was beneath his other hand upon the coverlet. He gave it to her. “There. That’s for your brother, ma’am—I mean the brother of the gentleman of whom you’ve formed so singular an opinion. I told him once I’d try to do something for him if I had the chance. I’m sorry it isn’t more, but it seems to be what he wants.”

“General Arnold,” Ellen said breathlessly, and tears were quick in her eyes, “will you let us thank you—will you let us try to express our gratitude—will you—–”

Instantly he seemed incensed. “Be off with you!” he cried angrily. “My leg’s playing the devil with me! Do you think all this talking’s improving it, or my temper, or the state of the country? Be off with you, all of you! Be off with you, confound you! Good-bye, confound you! And send my damned orderly in to me as you go! Off with you! Good-bye! Good-bye!”

On the veranda outside we stood and heard him storming at the orderly. Ellen unfolded the paper the general had given her, and she and Nathaniel and I, standing close, read it together, though I think that perhaps the eyes of both Ellen and Nathaniel were too blurred to read it as quickly as I did.

It was dated “Valcour Island, October 11th, 1776”—the date on which our little fleet had first gone into action—and it read, “Nathaniel Merrill, scout, Captain Nason’s company of scouts, is ordered on detached duty until this order is rescinded. B. Arnold, Brig. Gen., Commander of the Fleet.”

Diagonally across the original order was written: “Order rescinded October 18th, 1777. B. Arnold, Maj. Gen.”

LXVIII

IT HAS not been my purpose, in this book, to tell the story of Benedict Arnold. My purpose has been to make clear what happened to my brother Nathaniel, and to tell truthfully what I saw and thought and felt during the two tumultuous campaigns through which we struggled to turn back Burgoyne. But Arnold was an inseparable part of those campaigns: without him our labors and our sacrifices would have been in vain: he was as much a part of my experience as were the British themselves. Therefore I must have my say on the subjct of Arnold.