Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/795

ARNOBIUS ARNOLD 759 through which the Arno flows between Flor- ence and Pisa is the very garden of Italy, and is famous for its beauty. ARNOBIUS, an African rhetorician, born in Sicca Veneria (supposed to be the Tunisian Keff), on the eastern border of Numidia, flourished at the beginning of the 4th cen- tury. He was a violent opponent of Chris- tianity, which had been introduced into Nu- midia as early as 250, until, tradition says, he was warned in a dream to embrace the new religion. There is, however, reason to ascribe his conversion to a rational investiga- tion of the gospels. On his conversion he ap- plied to the bishop of Sicca for admission to the church. The bishop desired some proof of the sincerity of a man who had been so zeal- ous a defender of paganism. Arnobius there- fore wrote the famous treatise entitled Adver- sus Gentes, in which he gives proof of his zeal for Christianity by exposing the fallacies of his former faith. The Adversus Gentes inclines to Gnosticism and Dualism, in the conclusion that, since the Supreme Being would not have cre- ated so imperfect a work as the human soul, it must have been created by some inferior be- ing in his image. Arnobius taught that immor- tality was not an attribute of the soul, but could only be acquired by effort to conquer evil and rise to the supremacy of good. ARNOLD, Benedict, an officer in the American revolutionary army, born in Norwich, Conn., Jan. 3, 1740, died in London, June 14, 1801. He was trained to mercantile pursuits, but, being of a restless and reckless disposition, was invariably unsuccessful in trade. He showed, however, considerable aptitude for military life, and at the outbreak of the American rev- olution was the captain of a company of Con- necticut militia known as the "governor's guards." At the head of this command he re- paired to Cambridge, Mass., after the battle of Lexington, and was commissioned a colonel. He cooperated with Ethan Allen in the capture of Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain, and in the latter part of 1775 was appointed, in connection with Gen. Richard Montgomery, to the command of an expedition against Canada, whence with Montgomery he made (Dec. 31) a gallant but unsuccessful as- sault upon Quebec, receiving a severe wound in the leg. For these services he was rewarded by congress with the commission of a brigadier general. He remained on the northern fron- tier daring the ensuing spring and summer, and, having organized a flotilla on Lake Cham- plain, fought a desperate battle on Oct. 11, 1776, with a greatly superior British force, in which he was worsted. On the succeeding day he ran his vessels on shore and fired them, and then retired unmolested to Ticonderoga. Notwithstanding these exploits, he was omitted from the list of five 'major generals who soon after were appointed by congress. A letter from Washington soothed his wounded vanity, but there is little doubt that the injustice of congress in this instance first suggested to his mind the idea of betraying his country. Re- ceiving permission to visit Philadelphia, where congress was then sitting, he took part near Danbury, Conn., in an encounter with a su- perior body of British troops, and again dis- tinguished himself by coolness and audacity in the presence of extreme danger. Congress finally commissioned him a major general, but still left him below the five others recently appointed, which only intensified his feelings of resentment. In the summer of 1777 he joined the northern army under Gates, and by a brilliant movement relieved Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk, besieged by a large force of British and Indians. He was prevented by the jealousy of Gates from taking an active part in the first battle of Bemus Heights, but in the second battle, Oct. 7, he entered the field with- out permission, led the last desperate charge against the Hessian encampment, and was se- verely wounded in the leg as he rode into the sallyport. Having partially recovered from his wound, he was appointed in June, 1778, to the command of Philadelphia, then recently evac- uated by the enemy. During the nine months that he occupied this position he governed with a high hand, and the council of Penn- sylvania preferred charges of misconduct, for which he was tried by a court martial, and in January, 1780, was sentenced to be repri- manded by the commander-in-chief, who per- formed the unwelcome duty in as lenient a spirit as possible. Although in presenting his case to the court he had announced in exalted terms his devotion to the American cause, it was subsequently discovered that for many months previous he had been in secret and treasonable correspondence with the enemy. His marriage while in Philadelphia with Miss Shippen, a lady of strong tory predilections, also predisposed him to look favorably upon any scheme of betrayal of his country. In this frame of mind he solicited and received the command of the works at West Point, alleging that his wounds still precluded him from active service in the field. He entered upon his new duties on Aug. 3, 1780, and estab- lished his headquarters at a house on the op- posite bank, which had formerly belonged to Col. Beverley Robinson of Virginia, a tory. He had now been nearly 18 months in treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander-in-chief at New York, and his immediate object was the surrender to him of West Point, then considered the key of communication between the eastern and south- ern states. The correspondence was conducted on the part of Clinton by his adjutant general, Major Andre", who used the pseudonyme of "John Anderson," while Arnold signed him- self " Gustavus." In September, 1780, the plot being ripe, Arnold requested a personal inter- view with Andre 1 at headquarters to settle the final details. On the 18th, the very day when this meeting should have taken place, the