"No circumstance whatever shall obtain my consent to his being put to death. The idea which would accompany such an event, would be that ruffians had been hired to assassinate him. My aim is to make a public example of him; and this should be strongly impressed upon those who are employed to bring him off. The Sergeant must be very circumspect--too much zeal may create suspicion, and too much precipitency may defeat the project. The most inviolable secrecy must be observed on all hands. I send you five guineas; but I am not satisfied of the propriety of the Sergeant's appearing with much specie. This circumstance may also lead to suspicion, as it is but too well known to the enemy that we do not abound in this article.
"The interviews between the party in and out of the city, should be managed with much caution and seeming indifference; or else the frequency of their meetings, etc., may betray the design, and involve bad consequences; but I am persuaded that you will place every matter in a proper point of view to the conductors of this interesting business, and therefore I shall only add that
"I am, dear sir, etc., etc. "G. WASHINGTON."
Written communications between Champe and Lee continued. In ten days Champe had added the final touches to his plan for the abduction and so informed Lee, asking that on the third subsequent night a party of dragoons meet him at Hoboken to whom he hoped to deliver Arnold.
Our sergeant was by this time familiar with Arnold's habits and movements. He knew that it was Arnold's custom to return to his home about midnight and to visit the garden before retiring. It was at that time that Champe and the allies he, through Lee's letters, had obtained, planned to seize and gag the renegade and remove him by way of an adjoining alley to a boat, manned by other trusted conspirators, at one of the wharves on the nearby Hudson.
When the appointed day arrived, Washington directed Lee to himself take command of the small detachment of dragoons who were to meet Champe and his prisoner. "The day arrived," quoting Lee again "and Lee with a party of dragoons left camp late in the evening, with three led horses; one for Arnold, one for the sergeant and the third for his associate; never doubting the success of the enterprise from the tenor of the last received communication. The party reached Hoboken about midnight, where they were concealed in the adjoining wood--Lee with three dragoons stationing himself near the river shore. Hour after hour passed--no boat approached. At length the day broke and the major retired to his party and with his led horses returned to camp, where he proceeded to headquarters to inform the general of the disappointment as mortifying as inexplicable."