The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1933-10-19

emily wished to escape from the web which she
herself had helped to spin Her family and rela-
tions brought tremendous pressure to bear upon
her. as their letters show. Elizabeth Tilghman.
writing to Peggy's sister, Elizabeth, says that
poor Peggy was gurgeyned into marrying Ar
mold.
I'm April, ITO 1.-THE very month and year In
which the unhappy marriage took plaee) Sir
Henry Clinton was sure for the first time that
Arnold had become so deeply epmeshed In the
net OF intrigue that the conspirators had woven
about him that the great climax Of the conspIr-
acy was at hand.'
Arnold. influenced by his wife (according to
some historiansl, sought and, after being re
fused once, obtained command at West Point,
the key to the whole Continental defense sys-
tenn. He correspondent in code with both Andre
and Clinton His wife also continued to write
to Andre and to receive letters from him.
Haines declares that the millinery letters"
which passed between Peggy and Andre, having
to do with the purchase OF various articles of
clothing, code messages relating to the
plans for handing West Point over to the Brit
ish. Randolph Adams. from his researches
among the Clinton papers In the University Of
Michigan library, says of this:
"A son had been born to Arnold and Peggy
Shipper just before the treason. We have actual
evidence Of her desire to buy babys clothing In
like those In lower Manhattan Her list OF de-
mands for pink ribbon and diaper clouting' Is
among the other papers, sent by one Of the Brit
ish spies to New York.
1.-THE spectacle of the rejected sutton Major
Andre, buying these articles for Benedict Ar
nods baby does not usually figure In history.
Yet the number OF times that the wants of the
Arnold baby figure In the correspondence rs Sig
nifcant of some knowledge on Mrs. Arnolds part
that her husband was engaging in rather IA
miar correspondence with the British headquar-
ters"
Adams also declares that IAN examination OF
Andres papers in the Clinton collection serves
only to blacken yet more the character Of Bene-
dict Arnold" But Halnes, who Is convinced OF
Peggy Shippen's guilt, says OF Arnold: Traitor
he was; but he was also betrayed, and by means
of an influence to which many OF the great Of
the earth have been susceptlbe-the lure OF a
beautiful woman"
But whatever Peggy Shippen's part In the con-
spiracy, she paid bitterly for 1t In the end When
series OF blunders resulted In the premature
exposure OF the plot she found herself left be-
hind by her husband when he fed to the Brit
ish; she soon learned that Andre, her lover III
he was her lover), was to die on the scafold and
she went back to Philadelphia. only to be ex-
PEELED from her native city as dangerous to the
public safety" During the remaining years of
the war she lived In New York with British and
Tory friends while her husband fought with the
British against his former comrades.
When the Revolution ended she went with him
to England and there she had brief taste of the
glory she had hoped for. SShe was welcomed as
national heroine, publicly thanked at the court
Of King George and given a pension of 500
pounds year and bonus Of $50 pounds for
"meritorious services But even though the Ar
nolds won the gratitude OF the British officials
the English public would have none OF them
They were sighted and insulted In society and
Peggy's triumph was short-lived. 1.-THE final
chapter is the dead ashes of establishment"
writes Haines. ARNOLD died In poverty. Yet
after his death, as she herself wrote, Peggy paid
off all his debt, within four five hundred
pounds and still had left property and invest
ments OF her own She lived three years longer
than he, dying In 1904 at the early age Of forty
four-too soon, by some decades, to sit to Thack-
cray. as she might well have done, for his por
trait of Becky Sharp"
70 by Western Newspaper uai.n)