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diff --git a/old/51911.txt b/old/51911.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 046ddce..0000000 --- a/old/51911.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7617 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of An American Patrician, or The Story of -Aaron Burr, by Alfred Henry Lewis - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: An American Patrician, or The Story of Aaron Burr - Illustrated - -Author: Alfred Henry Lewis - -Release Date: May 1, 2016 [EBook #51911] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN PATRICIAN *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - - -AN AMERICAN PATRICIAN OR THE STORY OF AARON BURR - -By Alfred Henry Lewis - -Author of "When Men Grew Tall or The Story of Andrew Jackson" - -Illustrated - -D. Appleton And Company New York - -1908 - -[Illustration: 0010] - -[Illustration: 0011] - - -TO - -ELBERT HUBBARD - -FOR THE PLEASURE HIS WRITINGS HAVE GIVEN ME, AND AS A MARK OF ADMIRATION -FOR THE GLOSS AND PURITY OF HIS ENGLISH, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED A. H. -L. - - - - - -AN AMERICAN PATRICIAN - - - - -CHAPTER I--FROM THEOLOGY TO LAW - - -THE Right Reverend Doctor Bellamy is a personage of churchly -consequence in Bethlehem. Indeed, the doctor is a personage of churchly -consequence throughout all Connecticut. For he took his theology from -that well-head of divinity and metaphysics, Jonathan Edwards himself, -and possesses an immense library of five hundred volumes, mostly on -religion. Also, he is the author of "True Religion Delineated"; -which work shines out across the tumbling seas of New England -Congregationalism like a lighthouse on a difficult coast. Peculiarly is -it of guiding moment to storm-vexed student ones, who, wanting it, -might go crashing on controversial reefs, and so miss those pulpit -snug-harbors toward which the pious prows of their hopes are pointed. - -The doctor has a round, florid face, which, with his well-fed stomach, -gives no hint of thin living. From the suave propriety of his cue to -the silver buckles on his shoes, his atmosphere is wholly clerical. Just -now, however, he wears a disturbed, fussy air, as though something has -rubbed wrong-wise the fur of his feelings. He shows this by the way in -which he trots up and down his study floor. Doubtless, some portion of -that fussiness is derived from the doctor's short fat legs; for none -save your long-legged folk may walk to and fro with dignity. Still, it -is clear there be reasons of disturbance which go deeper than mere short -fat legs, and set his spirits in a tumult. - -The good doctor, as he trots up and down, is not alone. Madam Bellamy is -with him, chair drawn just out of reach of the June sunshine as it comes -streaming through the open lattice. In her plump hands she holds her -sewing; for she is strong in the New England virtue of industry, and -regards hand-idleness as a species of viciousness. While she stitches, -she bends appreciative ear to the whistle of a robin in an apple tree -outside. - -"No, mother," observes the doctor, breaking in on the robin, "the lad -does himself no credit. He is careless, callous, rebellious, foppish, -and altogether of the flesh. I warrant you I shall take him in hand; it -is my duty.". "But no harshness, Joseph!" - -"No, mother; as you say, I must not be harsh. None the less I shall be -firm. He must study; he is not to become a preacher by mere wishing." - -Shod hoofs are heard on the graveled driveway; a voice is lifted: - -"Walk Warlock up and down until he is cooled out. Then give him a rub, -and a mouthful of water." - -Madam Bellamy steps to the window. The master of the voice is swinging -from the saddle, while the doctor's groom takes his horse--sweating from -a brisk gallop--by the bridle. - -"Here he comes now," says Madam Bellamy, at the sound of a springy step -in the hall. - -The youth, who so confidently enters the doctor's study, is in his -nineteenth year. His face is sensitive and fine, and its somewhat -overbred look is strengthened and restored by a high hawkish nose. The -dark hair is clubbed in an elegant cue. The skin, fair as a girl's, -gives to the black eyes a glitter beyond their due. These eyes are the -striking feature; for, while the eyes of a poet, they carry in their -inky depths a hard, ophidian sparkle both dangerous and fascinating--the -sort of eyes that warn a man and blind a woman. - -The youth is but five feet six inches tall, with little hands and -feet, and ears ridiculously small. And yet, his light, slim form is so -accurately proportioned that, besides grace and a catlike quickness, it -hides in its molded muscles the strength of steel. Also, any impression -of insignificance is defeated by the wide brow and well-shaped head, -which, coupled with a steady self-confidence that envelops him like an -atmosphere, give the effect of power. - -As he lounges languidly and pantherwise into the study, he bows to Madam -Bellamy and the good doctor. - -"You had quite a canter, Aaron," remarks Madam Bellamy. - -"I went half way to Litchfield," returns the youth, smiting his glossy -riding boot with the whip he carries. "For a moment I thought of seeing -my sister Sally; but it would have been too long a run for so warm a -day. As it is, poor Warlock looks as though he'd forded a river." - -The youth throws himself carelessly into the doctor's easy-chair. That -divine clears his throat professionally. Foreseeing earnestness if not -severity in the discourse which is to follow, Madam Bellamy picks up her -needlework and retires. - -When she is gone, the doctor establishes himself opposite the youth. His -manner is admonitory; which is not out of place, when one remembers that -the doctor is fifty-five and the youth but nineteen. - -"You've been with me, Aaron, something like eight months." - -The black eyes are fastened upon the doctor, and their ophidian glitter -makes the latter uneasy. For relief he rebegins his short-paced trot up -and down. - -Renewed by action, and his confidence returning, the doctor commences -with vast gravity a kind of speech. His manner is unconsciously pompous; -for, as the village preacher, he is wont to have his wisdom accepted -without discount or dispute. - -"You will believe me, Aaron," says the doctor, spacing off his words and -calling up his best pulpit voice--"you will believe me, when I tell -you that I am more than commonly concerned for your welfare. I was the -friend of your father, both when he held the pulpit in Newark, and later -when he was President of Princeton University. I studied my divinity -at the knee of your mother's father, the pious Jonathan Edwards. Need -I say, then, that when you came to me fresh from your own Princeton -graduation my heart was open to you? It seemed as though I were about to -pay an old debt. I would regive you those lessons which your grandfather -Edwards gave me. In addition, I would--so far as I might--take the place -of that father whom you lost so many years ago. That was my feeling. -Now, when you've been with me eight months, I tell you plainly that I'm -far from satisfied." - -"In what, sir, have I disappointed?" - -The voice is confidently careless, while the ophidian eyes keep up their -black glitter unabashed. - -"Sir, you are passively rebellious, and refuse direction. I place -in your hands those best works of your mighty grandsire, namely, his -'Qualifications for Full Communion in the Visible Church' and 'The -Doctrine of Original Sin Defended,' and you cast them aside for the -'Letters of Lord Chesterfield' and the 'Comedies of Terence.' Bah! the -'Letters of Lord Chesterfield'! of which Dr. Johnson says, 'They teach -the morals of a harlot and the manners of a dancing master.'" - -"And if so," drawls the youth, with icy impenitence, "is not that a -pretty good equipment for such a world as this?" - -At the gross outrage of such a question, the doctor pauses in that -to-and-fro trot as though planet-struck. - -"What!" he gasps. - -"Doctor, I meant to tell you a month later what--since the ice is so -happily broken--I may as well say now. My dip into the teachings of my -reverend grandsire has taught me that I have no genius for divinity. To -be frank, I lack the pulpit heart. Every day augments my contempt for -that ministry to which you design me. The thought of drawing a salary -for being good, and agreeing to be moral for so much a year, disgusts -me." - -"And this from you--the son of a minister of the Gospel!" The doctor -holds up his hands in pudgy horror. - -"Precisely so! In which connection it is well to recall that German -proverb: 'The preacher's son is ever the devil's grandson.'" The doctor -sits down and mops his fretted brow; the manner in which he waves his -lace handkerchief is like a publication of despair. He fixes his gaze on -the youth resignedly, as who should say, "Strike home, and spare not!" - -This last tacit invitation the youth seems disposed to accept. It is -now his turn to walk the study floor. But he does it better than did the -fussy doctor, his every motion the climax of composed grace. - -"Listen, my friend," says the youth. - -For all the confident egotism of his manner, there is in it no smell of -conceit. He speaks of himself; but he does so as though discussing some -object outside of himself to which he is indifferent. - -"Those eight months of which you complain have not been wasted. If I -have drawn no other lesson from my excellent grandsire's 'Doctrine of -Original Sin Defended,' it has taught me to exhaustively examine my -own breast. I discover that I have strong points as well as points of -weakness. I read Latin and Greek; and I talk French and German, besides -English, indifferently well. Also, I fence, shoot, box, ride, row, sail, -walk, run, wrestle and jump superbly. Beyond the merits chronicled I -have tried my courage, and find that I may trust it like Gibraltar. -These, you will note, are not the virtues of a clergyman, but of a -soldier. My weaknesses likewise turn me away from the pulpit. - -"I have no hot sympathies; and, while not mean in the money sense, -holding such to be beneath a gentleman, I may say that my first concern -is not for others but for myself." - -"It is as though I listened to Satan!" exclaims the dismayed doctor, -fidgeting with his ruffles. - -"And if it were indeed Satan!" goes on the youth, with a gleam of -sarcasm, "I have heard you characterize that arch demon from your -pulpit, and even you, while making him malicious, never made him -mean. But to get on with this picture of myself, which I show you -as preliminary to laying bare a resolution. As I say, I have no -sympathies, no hopes which go beyond myself. I think on this world, -not the next; I believe only in the gospel according to Philip Dormer -Stanhope--that Lord Chesterfield, whom, with the help of Dr. Johnson, -you so much succeed in despising." - -"To talk thus at nineteen!" whispers the doctor, his face ghastly. - -"Nineteen, truly! But you must reflect that I have not had, since I may -remember, the care of either father or mother, which is an upbringing to -rapidly age one." - -"Were you not carefully reared by your kind Uncle Timothy?" This -indignantly. - -"Indeed, sir, I was, as you say, well reared in that dull town of -Elizabeth, which for goodness and dullness may compare with your -Bethlehem here. It was a rearing, too, from which--as I think my kind -Uncle Timothy has informed you--I fled." - -"He did! He said you played truant twice, once running away to sea." - -"It was no great voyage, then!" The imperturbable youth, hard of eye, -soft of voice, smiles cynically. "No, I was cabin boy two days, during -all of which the ship lay tied bow and stern to her New York wharf. -However, that is of no consequence as part of what we now consider." - -"No!" interrupts the doctor miserably, "only so far as it displays the -young workings of your sinfully rebellious nature. As a child, too, you -mocked your elders, as you do now. Later, as a student, you were the -horror of Princeton." - -"All that, sir, I confess; and yet I say that it is of the past. I hold -it time lost to think on aught save the present or the future." - -"Think, then, on your soul's future!--your soul's eternal future!" - -"I shall think on what lies this side of the grave. I shall devote my -faculties to this world; which, from what I have seen, is more than -likely to keep me handsomely engaged. The next world is a bridge, the -crossing of which I reserve until I come to it." - -"Have you then no religious convictions? no fears?" - -"I have said that I fear nothing, apprehend nothing. Timidity, of either -soul or body, was pleasantly absent at my birth. As for convictions, -I'd no more have one than I'd have the plague. What is a conviction -but something wherewith a man vexes himself and worries his neighbor. -Conclusions, yes, as many as you like; but, thank my native star! I am -incapable of a conviction." - -The doctor's earlier horror is fast giving way to anger. He almost -sneers as he asks: - -"But you pretend to honesty, I trust?" - -"Why, sir," returns the youth, with an air which narrowly misses the -patronizing, and reminds one of nothing so much as polished brass--"why, -sir, honesty, like generosity or gratitude, is a gentlemanly trait, the -absence of which would be inexpressibly vulgar. Naturally, I'm honest; -but with the understanding that I have my honesty under control. It -shall never injure me, I tell you! When its plain effect will be to -strengthen an enemy or weaken myself, I shall prove no such fool as to -give way to it." - -"While you talk, I think," breaks in the doctor; "and now I begin to see -the source of your pride and your satanism. It is your own riches that -tempt you! Your soul is to be undone because your body has four hundred -pounds a year." - -"Not so fast, sir! I am glad I have four hundred pounds a year. It -relieves me of much that is gross. I turn my back on the Church, -however, only because I am unfitted for it, and accept the world simply -for that it fits me. I have given you the truth. As a minister of the -Gospel I should fail; as a man of the world I shall succeed. The pulpit -is beyond me as religion is beyond me; for I am not one who could allay -present pain by some imagined bliss to follow after death, or find joy -in stripping himself of a benefit to promote another." - -"Now this is the very theology of Beelzebub for sure!" cries the -incensed doctor. - -"It is anything you like, sir, so it be understood as a description of -myself." - -"Marriage might save him!" muses the desperate doctor. "To love and be -loved by a beautiful woman might yet lead his heart to grace!" - -The pale flicker of a smile comes about the lips of the black-eyed one. - -"Love! beauty!" he begins. "Sir, while I might strive to possess myself -of both, I should no more love beauty in a woman than riches in a man. I -could love a woman only for her fineness of mind; wed no one who did not -meet me mentally and sentimentally half way. And since your Hypatia is -quite as rare as your Phoenix, I cannot think my nuptials near at hand." - -"Well," observes the doctor, assuming politeness sudden and vast, "since -I understand you throw overboard the Church, may I know what other -avenue you will render honorable by walking therein?" - -"You did not give me your attention, if you failed to note that what -elements of strength I've ascribed to myself all point to the camp. -So soon as there is a war, I shall turn soldier with my whole heart." - -"You will wait some time, I fear!" - -"Not so long as I could wish. There will be war between these colonies -and England before I reach my majority. It would be better were it -put off ten years; for now my youth will get between the heels of my -prospects to trip them up." - -"Then, if there be war with England, you will go? I do not think such -bloody trouble will soon dawn; still--for a first time to-day--I -am pleased to hear you thus speak. It shows that at least you are a -patriot." - -"I lay no claim to the title. England oppresses us; and, since one only -oppresses what one hates, she hates us. And hate for hate I give her. I -shall go to war, because I am fitted to shine in war, and as a shortest, -surest step to fame and power--those solitary targets worthy the aim of -man!" - -"Dross! dross!" retorts the scandalized doctor. "Fame! power! Dead sea -apples, which will turn to ashes on your lips! And yet, since that war -which is to be the ladder whereon you will go climbing into fame and -power is not here, what, pending its appearance, will you do?" - -"Now there is a query which brings us to the close. Here is my answer -ready. I shall just ride over to Sally, and her husband, Tappan -Reeve, and take up Blackstone. If I may not serve the spirit and study -theology, I'll even serve the flesh and study law." - -And so the hero of these memoirs rides over to Litchfield, to study -the law and wait for a war. The doctor and he separate in friendly -son-and-father fashion, while Madam Bellamy urges him to always call -her house his home. He is not so hard as he thinks, not so cynical as -he feels; still, his self-etched portrait possesses the broader lines -of truth. He is one whom men will follow, but not trust; admire, but -not love. There is enough of the unconscious serpent in him to rouse one -man's hate, while putting an edge on another's fear. Also, because--from -the fig-leaf day of Eve--the serpent attracts and fascinates a woman, -many tender ones will lose their hearts for him. They will dash -themselves and break themselves against him, like wild fowl against a -lighthouse in the night. Even as he rides out of Bethlehem that June -morning, bright young eyes peer at him from behind safe lattices, until -their brightness dies away in tears. As for him thus sighed over, his -lashes are dry enough. Bethlehem, and all who home therein, from the -doctor with Madam Bellamy, to her whose rose-red lips he kissed the -latest, are already of the unregarded past. He wears nothing but the -future on his agate slope of fancy; he is thinking only on himself and -his hunger to become a god of the popular--clothed with power, wreathed -of fame! - -"Mother," exclaims the doctor, "the boy is lost! Ambitious as Lucifer, -he will fall like Lucifer!" - -"Joseph!" - -"I cannot harbor hope! As lucidly clear as glass, he was yet as hard as -glass. If I were to read his fortune, I should say that Aaron Burr will -soar as high to fall as low as any soul alive." - - - - -CHAPTER II--THE GENTLEMAN VOLUNTEER - - -YOUNG Aaron establishes himself in Litchfield with his pretty sister -Sally, who, because he is brilliant and handsome, is proud of him. Also, -Tappan Reeve, her husband, takes to him in a slow, bookish way, and is -much held by his trenchant powers of mind. - -Young Aaron assumes the law, and makes little flights into Bracton's -"Fleeta," and reads Hawkins and Hobart, delighting in them for their -limpid English. More seriously, yet more privately, he buries himself in -every volume of military lore upon which he may lay hands; for already -he feels that Bunker Hill is on its way, without knowing the name of it, -and would have himself prepared for its advent. - -In leisure hours, young Aaron gives Litchfield society the glory of his -countenance. He flourishes as a village Roquelaure, with plumcolored -coats, embroidered waistcoats, silken hose, and satin smalls, sent up -from New York. Likewise, his ruffles are miracles, his neckcloths works -of starched and spotless art, while at his hip he wears a sword--hilt of -gilt, and sharkskin scabbard white as snow. - -Now, because he is splendid, with a fortune of four hundred annual -pounds, and since no girl's heart may resist the mystery of those eyes, -the village belles come sighing against him in a melting phalanx -of loveliness. This is flattering; but young Aaron declines to be -impressed. Polished, courteous, in amiable possession of himself, he -furnishes the thought of a bright coldness, like sunshine on a field -of ice. Not that anyone is to blame. The difference between him and the -sighing ones, is a difference of shrines and altars. They sacrifice to -Venus; he worships Mars. While he has visions of battle, they dream of -wedding bells. - -For one moment only arises some tender confusion. There is an Uncle -Thaddeus--a dotard ass far gone in years! Uncle Thaddeus undertakes, -behind young Aaron's back, to make him happy. The liberal Uncle Thaddeus -goes so blindly far as to explore the heart of a particular fair one, -who mayhap sighs more deeply than do the others. It grows embarrassing; -for, while the sighing one thus softly met accepts, when Uncle Thaddeus -flies to young Aaron with the dulcet news, that favored personage -transfixes him with so black a stare, wherefrom such baleful serpent -rage glares forth, that our dotard meddler is fear-frozen in the very -midst of his ingenuous assiduities. And thereupon the sighing one is -left to sigh uncomforted, while Uncle Thaddeus finds himself the scorn -of all good village opinion. - -While young Aaron goes stepping up and down the Litchfield causeways, -as though strutting in Jermyn Street or Leicester Square; while thus he -plays the fine gentleman with ruffles and silks and shark-skin sword, -skimming now the law, now flattering the sighing belles, now devouring -the literature of war, he has ever his finger on the pulse, and his ear -to the heart of his throbbing times. It is he of Litchfield who hears -earliest of Lexington and Bunker Hill. In a moment he is all action. Off -come the fine feathers, and that shark-skin, gilt-hilt sword. Warlock is -saddled; pistols thrust into holsters. In roughest of costumes the -fop surrenders to the soldier. It takes but a day, and he is ready for -Cambridge and the American camp. - -As he goes upon these doughty preparations, young Aaron finds himself -abetted by the pretty Sally, who proves as martial as himself. Her -husband, Tappan Reeve, easy, quiet, loving his unvexed life, from the -law book on his table to the pillow whereon he nightly sleeps, cannot -understand this headlong war hurry. - -"You may lose your life!" cries Tappan Reeve. - -"What then?" rejoins young Aaron. "Whether the day be far or near, that -life you speak of is already lost. I shall play this game. My life is my -stake; and I shall freely hazard it upon the chance of winning glory." - -"And have you no fear?" - -The timid Tappan's thoughts of death are ashen; he likes to live. - -Young Aaron bends upon him his black gaze. "What I fear more than any -death," says he, "is stagnation--the currentless village life!" - -Young Aaron, arriving at Cambridge, attaches himself to General Putnam. -The grizzled old wolf killer likes him, being of broadest tolerations, -and no analyst of the psychic. - -There are seventeen thousand Americans scattered in a ragged fringe -about Boston, in which town the English, taught by Lexington and Bunker -Hill, are cautiously prone to lie close. Young Aaron makes the round of -the camps. He is amazed by the unrule and want of discipline. Besides, -he cannot understand the inaction, feeling that each new day should have -its Bunker Hill. That there is not enough powder among the Americans -to load and fire those seventeen thousand rifles twice, is a piece of -military information of which he lives ignorant, for the grave Virginian -in command confides it only to a merest few. Had young Aaron been aware -of this paucity of powder, those long days, idle, vacant of event, might -not have troubled him. The wearisome wonder of them at least would have -been made plain. - -Young Aaron learns of an expedition against Quebec, to be led by Colonel -Benedict Arnold, and resolves to join it. That all may be by military -rule, he seeks General Washington to ask permission. He finds that -commander in talk with General Putnam; the old wolf killer does him the -favor of a presentation. - -"From where do you come?" asks Washington, closely scanning young Aaron -whom he instantly dislikes. - -"From Connecticut. I am a gentleman volunteer, attached to General -Putnam with the rank of captain." - -Something of repulsion shows cloudily on the brow of Washington. -Obviously he is offended by this cool stripling, who clothes his -hairless boy's face with a confident maturity that has the effect of -impertinence. Also the phrase "gentleman volunteer," sticks in his -throat like a fish bone. - -"Ah, a 'gentleman volunteer!'" he repeats in a tone of sarcasm scarcely -veiled. "I have now and then heard of such a trinket of war, albeit, -never to the trinket's advantage. Doubtless, sir, you have made the -rounds of our array!" - -Young Aaron, from his beardless five feet six inches, looks up at the -tall Virginian, and cannot avoid envying him his door-wide shoulders -and that extra half foot of height. He perceives, too, with a resentful -glow, that he is being mocked. However, he controls himself to answer -coldly: - -"As you surmise, sir, I have made the rounds of your forces." - -"And having made them"--this ironically--"I trust you found all to your -satisfaction." - -"As to that," remarks young Aaron, "while I did not look to find trained -soldiers, I think that a better discipline might be maintained." - -"Indeed! I shall make a note of it. And yet I must express the hope -that, while you occupy a subordinate place, you will give way as little -as may be to your perilous trick of thinking, leaving it rather to our -experienced friend Putnam, here, he being trained in these matters." - -The old wolf killer takes advantage of this reference to himself, to -help the interview into less trying channels. - -"You were seeking me?" he says to the youthful critic of camps and -discipline. - -"I was seeking the commander in chief," returns young Aaron, again -facing Washington. "I came to ask permission to go with Colonel Arnold -against Quebec." - -"Against Quebec?" repeats Washington. "Go, with all my heart!" - -There is a cut concealed in that consent, to the biting smart of which -young Aaron is not insensible. However, he finds in the towering -manner of its delivery something which checks even his audacity. After -saluting, he withdraws without added word. - -"General," observes Washington, when young Aaron has gone, "I fear I -cannot congratulate you on your new captain." - -"If you knew him better, general," protests the good-hearted old wolf -killer, "you would like him better. He is a boy; but he has an old head -on his young shoulders." - -[Illustration: 0043] - -"The very thing I most fear," rejoins Washington. "A boy has no more -business with an old head than with old lungs or old legs. It is -unnatural, sir; and the unnatural is the wrong. I want only heads and -shoulders about me that were born the same day. For that reason, I am -glad your 'gentleman volunteer'"--this with a shade of irony--"goes to -Quebec with that turbulent Norwich apothecary, Arnold. The army will be -bettered just now by the absence of these lofty spirits. They disturb -more than they help. Besides, a tramp of sixty days through the Maine -woods will improve such Hotspurs vastly. There is nothing like a -six-hundred mile march through an unbroken wilderness, with a fight in -the snow at the far end of it, to take the edge off beardless arrogance -and young conceit." - -What young Aaron carries away from that interview, as an impression -of the big commander in chief, crops out in converse with his former -college chum, young Ogden. The latter, like himself, is attached to the -military family of General Putnam. - -"Ogden, we have begun wrong as soldiers--you and I!" says young Aaron. -"By flint and steel, man, we should have commenced like Washington, by -hoeing tobacco!" - -"Now this is not right!" cries young Ogden, in reproof. "General -Washington is a soldier who has seen service." - -"Why," retorts young Aaron, "I believe he was trounced with Braddock." -Then, warmly: "Ogden, the man is Failure walking about in blue and -buff and high boots! I read him like a page of print! He is slow, dull, -bovine, proud, and of no decision. He lacks initiative; and, while he -might defend, he is incapable of attacking. Worst of all he has the soul -of a planter--a plantation soul! A big movement like this, which brings -the thirteen colonies to the field, is beyond his grasp." - -"Your great defect, Aaron," cries young Ogden, not without indignation, -"is that you regard your most careless judgment as final. Half the time, -too, your decision is the product of prejudice, not reason. General -Washington offends you--as, to be frank, he did me--by putting a lower -estimate on your powers than that at which you yourself are pleased -to hold them. I warrant now had he flattered you a bit, you would have -found in him a very Alexander." - -"I should have found him what I tell you," retorts young Aaron stoutly, -"a glaring instance of misplaced mediocrity. He is even wanting in -dignity!" - -"For my side, then, I found him dignified enough." - -"Friend Ogden, you took dullness for dignity. Or I will change it; I'll -even consent that he is dignified. But only in the torpid, cud-chewing -fashion in which a bullock is dignified. Still, he does very well by me; -for he says I may go with Colonel Arnold. And so, Ogden, I've but -time for 'good-by!' and then off to make myself ready to accompany our -swashbuckler druggist against Quebec." - - - - -CHAPTER III--COLONEL BENEDICT ARNOLD EXPLAINS - - -IT is September, brilliant and golden. Newburyport is brave with -warlike excitement. Drums roll, fifes shriek, armed men fill the single -village street. These latter are not seasoned troops, as one may see -by their careless array and the want of uniformity in their homespun, -homemade garbs. No two are armed alike, for each has brought his own -weapon. These are rifles--long, eight-square flintlocks. Also every -rifleman wears a powderhorn and bullet pouch of buckskin, while most of -them carry knives and hatchets in their rawhide belts. - -As our rude soldiery stand at ease in the village street, cheering -crowds line the sidewalk. The shouts rise above the screaming fifes and -rumbling drums. The soldiers are the force which Colonel Arnold will -lead against Quebec. Young, athletic--to the last man they have been -drawn from the farms. Resenting discipline, untaught of drill, their -disorder has in it more of the mob than the military. However, their -eyes like their hopes are bright, and one may read in the healthy, -cheerful faces that each holds himself privily to be of the raw -materials from which generals are made. - -Down in the harbor eleven smallish vessels ride at anchor. They are of -brigantine rig, each equal to transporting one hundred men. These will -carry Colonel Arnold and his eleven hundred militant young rustics to -the mouth of the Kennebec. In the waist of every vessel, packed one -inside the other as a housewife arranges teacups on her shelves, are -twenty bateaux. They are wide, shallow craft, blunt at bow and stern, -and will be used to convey the expedition up the Kennebec. Each is large -enough to hold five men, and so light that the five, at portages or -rapids, can shoulder it with the dunnage which belongs to them and carry -it across to the better water beyond. - -The word of command runs along the unpolished ranks; the column begins -to move toward the water front, taking its step from the incessant drums -and fifes. Once at the water, the embarkation goes briskly forward. As -the troops march away, the crowds follow; for the day in Newburyport is -a gala occasion and partakes of the character of a celebration. No one -considers the possibility of defeat. Everywhere one finds optimism, as -though Quebec is already a captured city. - -Now when the throngs have departed with the soldiery, the street shows -comparatively deserted. This brings to view the Eagle Inn, a hostelry of -the village. In the doorway of the Eagle a man and woman are standing. -The woman is dashingly handsome, with cheek full of color and a bold -eye. The man is about thirty-five in years. He swaggers with a forward, -bragging, gamecock air, which--the basis being a coarse, berserk -courage--is not altogether affectation. His features are vain, sensual, -turbulent; his expression shows him to be proud in a crude way, and is -noticeable because of an absence of any slightest glint of principle. -There is, too, an extravagance of gold braid on his coat, which goes -well with the superfluous feather in the three-cornered hat, and those -russet boots of stamped Spanish leather. These swashbuckley excesses -of costume bear out the vulgar promise of his face, and guarantee that -intimated lack of fineness. - -The pair are Colonel Arnold and Madam - -Arnold. She has come to see the last of her husband as he sails away. -While they stand in the door, the coach in which she will make the -homeward journey to Norwich pulls up in front of the Eagle. - -As Colonel Arnold leads his wife to the coach, he is saying: "No; I -shall be aboard within the hour. After that we start at once. I want a -word with a certain Captain Burr before I embark. I've offended him, it -seems; for he is of your proud, high-stomached full-pursed aristocrats -who look for softer treatment than does a commoner clay. I've ordered -a bottle of wine. As we drink, I shall make shift to smooth down his -ruffled plumage." - -"Captain Burr," repeats Madam Arnold, not without a sniff of scorn. "And -you are a colonel! How long is it since colonels have found it necessary -to truckle to captains, and, when they pout, placate them into good -humor?" - -"My dear madam," returns Colonel Arnold as he helps her into the clumsy -vehicle, "permit me to know my own affairs. I tell you this thin-skinned -boy is rich, and what is better was born with his hands open. He parts -with money like a royal prince. One has but to drop a hint, and presto! -his hand is in his purse. The gold I gave you I had from him." - -As the coach with Madam Arnold drives away, young Aaron is observed -coming up from the water front. His costume, while as rough as that of -the soldiers, has a fit and a finish to it which accents the graceful -gentility of his manner beyond what satins and silks might do. Madam -Arnold's bold eyes cover him. He takes off his hat with a gravely -accurate flourish, whereat the bold eyes glance their pleasure at the -polite attention. - -Coach gone, Colonel Arnold seizes young Aaron's arm, with a familiarity -which fails of its purpose by being overdone, and draws him into -the inn. He carries him to a room where a table is spread. The stout -landlady by way of topping out the feast is adding thereunto an apple -pie, moonlike as her face and its sister for size and roundness. This, -and the roast fowl which adorns the center, together with a bottle -of burgundy to keep all in countenance, invest the situation with an -atmosphere of hope. - -"Be seated, Captain Burr," exclaims the hearty Colonel Arnold, as -the two draw up to the table. "A roast pullet, a pie, and a bottle of -burgundy, let me tell you, should make no mean beginning to what is like -to prove a hard campaign. I warrant you, sir, we see worse fare in -the pine wilderness of upper Maine. Let me help you to wine, sir," he -continues, after carving for himself and young Aaron. The latter, as -cold and imperturbable as when, in Dr. Bellamy's study, he shattered the -designs of that excellent preacher by preferring law to theology and war -to either, responds to this hospitable politeness with a bow. "Take your -glass, Captain Burr. I desire to drink down all irritations. Yes, sir," -replacing the drained glass, "I may say, without lowering myself as -a gentleman in your esteem, that, in giving you the order to see the -troops aboard, I had no thought of affronting you." - -"It was not your orders to which I objected; it was to your manner. If -I may say so, sir, it was a manner of intolerable arrogance, one which I -shall brook from no man." - -"Tush, sir, tush! In war we must thicken our hides. We are not to be -sensitive. We should not look in the camps for the manners of a king's -court. What you mistook for arrogance was no more than just a tone of -command." - -Colonel Arnold's delivery of this is meant to be conciliating. Through -it, however, runs an exasperating vein of patronage, due, doubtless, to -his superior rank, and those extra fifteen years wherein he overlooks -young Aaron. - -"Let us be plain, colonel," observes young Aaron, studying his wine -between eye and windowpane. "I hope for nothing better than concord -between us. Also, every order you give me I shall obey. None the less I -ask you to observe that I have no purpose of lowering my self-respect in -coming to this war. As your subordinate I shall take your commands; as a -gentleman, the equal of any, I must be treated as such." - -Colonel Arnold's brow is red; but he fills his mouth with chicken which -he drenches down with wine, and so restrains every fretful expression. -After a moment filled of wine and chicken, he observes carelessly: - -"Say no more! Say no more, Captain Burr! We understand one another!" - -"There is no more to say," returns young Aaron steadily. "And I beg you -to remember that the subject is one which you, yourself, proposed. I am -through when I state that, while I object to no man's vanity, no man's -arrogance, I shall never permit him to transact them at the expense of -my self-respect." - -Colonel Arnold turns the talk to what, in a wilderness as well as a -fighting way, lies ahead. They linger over pullet and burgundy for the -better part of an hour, and get on as well as should gentlemen who -have no mighty mutual liking. As they prepare to go aboard, the stout -landlady meets them in the hall. Her modest' charges are to be met with -a handful of shillings. Colonel Arnold rummages his pockets, wearing the -while a baffled angry air; then he falls to cursing in a spirit truly -military. - -"May the black fiend seize me!" says he, "if my purse has not gone -aboard with my baggage!" - -Young Aaron pays the score with an indifference which does not betray -a conviction that the pocket-rummaging is a pretence, and the native -money-meanness of his coarse-faced colonel designed such finale from the -first. Score settled, they repair to the water front. As the two depart, -the stout landlady of the Eagle follows the retreating Colonel Arnold -with shocked, insulted glance. She is a religious woman, and those -curses have moved her soul. - -"Blaspheming upstart!" she mutters. "And the airs he takes on! As though -folk have forgotten that within the year he stood behind his Norwich -counter selling pills and plasters!" - -The eleven little ships voyage to the mouth of the Kennebec without -event. The bateaux are launched, and the eleven hundred highhearted -youngsters proceed to pole and paddle their way up the river. Where the -currents are overswift they tow with lines from the banks. Finally they -abandon the Kennebec, and shoulder the bateaux for a scrambling tramp -across the pine-sown watershed. It takes days, but in the end they find -themselves again afloat on the Dead River. This stream leads them to -the St. Lawrence. It is the march of the century! These buoyant young -rustics through the untraced wilderness have come six hundred miles in -fifty days. - -Woodmen born and bred, this long push through the forests is no -surprising feat to these who perform it. They scarcely discuss the -matter as they crouch about their camp fires. The big topic among -them is their hatred of Colonel Arnold. From that September day in -Newbury-port his tyranny has been in hourly expression. Also, it seems -to grow with time. He hectors, raves, vituperates, until there isn't -a trigger finger in the command which does not itch to shoot him down. -Disdaining to aid the march by carrying so much as a pound's weight--as -being work beneath his exalted rank--this Caesar of the apothecaries -must needs have his special cooking kit along. Also his tent must be -pitched with the coming down of every night. Men hungry and unsheltered -all around him, he sees no reason why he should not sleep warmly soft, -and breakfast and dine and sup like a wilderness Lucullus. Thereat the -farmer youth grumble, and console themselves with slighting remarks and -looks of contumely. - -To these remarks and looks, Colonel Arnold is driven to deafen his -ears and offer his back. It would be inconvenient to hear and see these -things; since, for all his bullying attitude, he dare not crowd his -followers too far. Their unbroken mouths are but new to the military -bit; a too cruel pressure on the bridle reins might mean the unhorsing -of our vanity-eaten apothecary. As it is, by twos and tens and twenties, -the command dwindles away. Every roll call discloses fresh desertions. -Wroth with their commander, resolved against the mean tyranny of his -rule, when the party reaches the St. Lawrence, half have gone to a -right-about and are on their way home. The feather-headed Colonel Arnold -finds himself with a muster of five hundred and fifty where he should -have had eleven hundred. And the five hundred and fifty with him are on -the darkling edge of revolt. - -"Think on such cur hearts!" cries Colonel Arnold, as he speaks with -young Aaron of those desertions which have cut his force in two. "Half -have already turned tail, and the other half are of a coward mind to -follow their mongrel example. I would sooner command a brigade of dogs!" - -"Believe me," observes young Aaron, icily acquiescent, "I shall not -contradict your peculiar fitness for the command you describe." - -Being thus happily delivered, young Aaron goes round on his -imperturbable heel and strolls away, leaving the angry Colonel Arnold -glaring with rage-congested eye. - -"Insolent puppy!" the latter grits between his teeth. - -He is heedful, however, to avoid the epithet in the presence of young -Aaron; for, in spite of that rude courage which, when all is said, -lies at the root of his nature, the ex-apothecary dreads the "gentleman -volunteer," with his black ophidian glance--so balanced, so hard, so -vacant of fear! - -It is toward the last of November; the valley of the St. Lawrence seems -the home of snow. Colonel Arnold grows afraid of the temper of his -people. As they push slowly through the drifts, their angry wrath -against the Caligula who leads them is only too thinly veiled. At -this, the insolent oppressions of our ex-apothecary cease; he seeks to -conciliate, but the time is overlate. - -Colonel Arnold goes into camp, and considers the situation. Even if his -followers do not wheel suddenly southward for home, he fears that on -some final battle day they will refuse to fight at his command. -With despair gnawing at his heart, he decides to get word to General -Montgomery, who has conquered and is holding Montreal. The giant -Irishman is the idol of the army. Once he appears, the grumblings and -mutinous murmurings will abate. The rebellious ones will go wherever he -points, fight like lions at his merest word. - -True, the coming of Montgomery will mean his own loss of command, and -that is a bitter pill. Still, since he may do no better, he resolves -to gulp it. Thus resolving, he calls young Aaron into conference. The -uneasy tyrant hates young Aaron--hates him for the gold he has borrowed -from him, hates him for his scarcely concealed contempt of himself. None -the less he calls him into council. It is wisdom not friendship his case -requires, and he early learned to value the long head of our "gentleman -volunteer." - -"It is this," explains Colonel Arnold, desperately. "We have not -the force demanded for the capture of Quebec. We must get word to -Montgomery. He is one hundred and twenty miles away in Montreal. -The puzzle is to find some one, whom we can trust among these -French-speaking native Canadians, who will carry my message." - -Young Aaron knots his brows. Colonel Arnold watches him anxiously, for -he is at the end of his resources. Finally young Aaron consults his -watch. - -"It is now ten o'clock," he says. "Nothing can be done to-night. And -yet I think I know the man for your occasion. By daybreak I'll have him -before you." - - - - -CHAPTER IV--THE YOUNG FRENCH PRIEST - - -THERE are many deserted log huts along the St. Lawrence. Colonel Arnold -has taken up his quarters in one of these. It is eight o'clock of the -morning following the talk with young Aaron when the sentinel at the -door reports that a priest is asking admission. - -"What have I to do with priests!" demands Colonel Arnold. "However, -bring him in! He must give good reasons for disturbing me, or his black -coat will do him little good." - -The priest is clothed from head to heel in the black frock of his order. -The frock is caught in about the waist with a heavy cord. Down the front -depend a crucifix and beads. The frock is thickly lined with fur; the -peaked hood, also fur-lined, is drawn forward over the priest's face. In -figure he is short and slight. As he peers out from his hood at Colonel -Arnold, his black eyes give that commander a start of uncertainty. - -"I suppose you speak no French?" says the priest. - -His accent is wretched. Colonel Arnold might be justified in retorting -that his visitor speaks no English. He restricts himself, however, to an -admission that, as the priest surmises, he has no French, and follows it -with a bluff demand that the latter make plain his errand. - -"Why, sir," returns the priest, glancing about as though in quest of -some one, "I expected to find Captain Burr here. He tells me you wish to -send a message to Montreal." - -Colonel Arnold is alert in a moment; his manner undergoes a change from -harsh to suave. - -"Ah!" he cries amiably; "you are the man." Then, to the sentinel at the -door: "Send word, sir, to Captain Burr, and ask him to come at once to -my quarters." - -While waiting the coming of young Aaron, Colonel Arnold enters into -conversation with his clerkly visitor. The priest explains that he hates -the English, as do all Canadians of French stock. He is only too willing -to do Colonel Arnold any service that shall tell against them. Also, he -adds, in response to a query, that he can make his way to Montreal in -ten days. - -"There are farmer and fisher people all along the St. Lawrence," says -he. "They are French, and good sons of mother church. I am sure they -will give me food and shelter." - -The sentinel comes lumbering in, and reports that young Aaron is not to -be found. - -"That is sheer nonsense, sir!" fumes Colonel Arnold. "Why should he not -be found? He is somewhere about camp. Fetch him instantly!" - -When the sentinel again departs, the priest frees his face of the -obscuring hood. - -"Your sentinel is right," he says. "Captain Burr is not at his -quarters." - -Colonel Arnold stares in amazement; the priest is none other than our -"gentleman volunteer." Perceiving Colonel Arnold gazing in curious -wonder at his clerkly frock, young Aaron explains. - -"I got it five days back, at that monastery we passed. You recall how I -dined there with the Brothers. I thought then that just such a peaceful -coat as this might find a use." - -"Marvelous!" exclaims Colonel Arnold. "And you speak French, too?" - -"French and Latin. I have, you see, the verbal as well as outward -furnishings of a priest of these parts." - -"And you think you can reach Montgomery? I have to warn you, sir, that -the work will be extremely delicate and the danger great." - -"I shall be equal to the work. As for the peril, if I feared it I should -not be here." - -It is arranged; and young Aaron explains that he is prepared, indeed, -prefers, to start at once. Moreover, he counsels secrecy. - -"You have an Indian guide or two, about you," says he, "whom I do not -trust. If my errand were known, one of them might cut me off and sell my -scalp to the English." - -When Colonel Arnold is left alone, he gives himself up to a -consideration of the chances of his message going safely to Montreal. He -sits long, with puckered lips and brooding eye. - -"In any event," he murmurs, "I cannot fail to be the better off. If he -reach Montgomery, that is what I want. On the other hand, should he fall -a prey to the English I shall think it a settlement of what debts I owe -him. Yes; the latter event would mean three hundred pounds to me. Either -way I am rid of one whose cool superiorities begin to smart. Himself a -gentleman, he seems never to forget that I am an apothecary." - -Young Aaron is twenty miles nearer Montreal when the early winter sun -goes down. For ten days he plods onward, now and again lying by to avoid -a roving party of English. As he foretold, every cabin is open to the -"young priest." He but explains that he has cause to fear the redcoats, -and with that those French Canadians, whom he meets with, keep nightly -watch, while couching him warmest and softest, and feeding him on the -best. At last he reaches General Montgomery, and tells of Colonel Arnold -below Quebec. - -General Montgomery, a giant in stature, has none of that sluggishness -so common with folk of size. In twenty-four hours after receiving young -Aaron's word, he is off to make a junction with Colonel Arnold. He takes -with him three hundred followers, all that may be spared from Montreal, -and asks young Aaron to serve on his personal staff. - -[Illustration: 0067] - -They find Colonel Arnold, with his five hundred and fifty, camped under -the very heights of Quebec. The garrison, while quite as strong as is -his force, have not once molested him. They leave his undoing to the -cold and snow, and that starvation which is making gaunt the faces and -shortening the belts of his men. - -General Montgomery upon his arrival takes command. Colonel Arnold, -while foreseeing this--since even his vanity does not conceive of a -war condition so upside down that a colonel gives orders to a -general--cannot avoid a fit of the sulks. He is the more inclined to be -moody, because the coming of the big Irishman has visibly brightened his -people, who for months have been scowls and clouds to him. Now the face -of affairs is changed; the mutinous ones have nothing save cheers for -the big general whenever he appears. - -General Montgomery calls a conference, and Colonel Arnold comes with all -his officers. At the request of young Aaron, the big general retains -him by his side. This does not please the ex-apothecary, it hurts his -self-love that the "gentleman volunteer" is so obviously pleased to be -free of his company. At the conference, General Montgomery advises all -to hold themselves in readiness for an assault upon the English walls. - -"I cannot tell the night," he observes; "I only say that we shall -attack during the first snowstorm that occurs. It may come in an hour, -wherefore be ready!" - -The storm which is to mask the movements of General Montgomery does not -keep folk waiting. There soon falls a midnight which is nothing save -a blinding whirling sheet of snow. Thereupon the word goes through the -camp. - -The assault is to be made in two columns, General Montgomery leading -one, Colonel Arnold the other. Young Aaron will be by the elbow of the -big Irishman. By way of aiding, a feigned attack is ordered for a far -corner of the English works. - -As the soldiers fall into their ranks, the storm fairly swallows them -up. It would seem as though none might live in such a tempest--white, -ferociously cold, Arctic in its fury! It is desperate weather! the -more desperate when faced by ones whose courage has been diminished -by privation. But the strong heart of General Montgomery listens to no -doubts. He will lead out his eight hundred and fifty against an equal -force that have been sleeping warm and eating full, while his own were -freezing and starving. Also, those warm, full-fed ones are behind stone -walls, which the lean, frozen ones must scale and capture. - -"I shall give you ten minutes' start," observes General Montgomery to -Colonel Arnold. "You have farther to go than we to gain your position. I -shall wait ten minutes; then I shall press forward." - -Colonel Arnold moves off with his column through the driving storm. When -those ten minutes of grace have elapsed, General Montgomery gives his -men the word to advance. - -They urge their difficult way up a ravine, snow belt-deep. There is an -outer work of blockhouse sort at the head of the defile. It is of solid -mason work, two stories, crenelled above for muskets, pierced below for -two twelve-pounders. This must be reduced before the main assault can -begin. - -As General Montgomery, with young Aaron on the right, the column in -broken disorder at his heels, nears the blockhouse, a dog, more wakeful -than the English, is heard to bark. That bark turns out the redcoat -garrison as though a trumpet called. - -"Forward!" cries General Montgomery. - -The men respond; they rush bravely on. The blockhouse, dully looming -through the storm, is no more than forty yards away. - -Suddenly a red tongue of flame licks out into the snow swirl, to be -followed by the roar of one of the twelve-pounders. In quick response -comes the roar of its sister gun, while, from the loopholes above, the -muskets crackle and splutter. - -It is blind cannonading; but it does its work as though the best -artillerist is training the guns at brightest noonday. The head of the -assaulting column is met flush in the face with a sleet of grapeshot. - -General Montgomery staggers; and then, without a word, falls forward on -his face in the snow. Young Aaron stoops to raise him to his feet. It is -of no avail; the big Irishman is dead. - -The bursting roar of the twelve-pounders is heard again. As if to keep -their general company, a dozen more give up their lives. - -"Montgomery is slain!" - -The word zigzags along the ragged column. - -It is a daunting word! The men begin to give way. - -Young Aaron rushes into their midst, and seeks to rally them. He might -as well attempt to stay the whirling snow in its dance! The men will -follow none save General Montgomery; and he is dead. - -Slowly they fall backward along the ravine up which they climbed. Again -the two twelve-pounders roar, and a raking hail of grape sings through -the shaking ranks. More men are struck down! That backward movement -becomes a rout. - -Young Aaron loses the icy self-control which is his distinguishing -trait. He buries the retreating ones beneath an avalanche of curses, -drowns them with a cataract of scorn. - -"What!" he cries. "Will you leave your general's body in their hands?" - -He might have spared himself the shouting effort. Already he is alone -with the dead. - -"It is better company than that of cowards!" is his bitter cry, as he -bends above the stark form of his chief. - -The English are pouring from the blockhouse. Still young Aaron will not -leave the dead Montgomery behind. Now are the steel-like powers of his -slight frame manifest. With one effort, he swings the giant body to -his shoulder, and plunges off down the defile, the eager blood-hungry -redcoats not a dozen rods behind. - - - - -CHAPTER V--THE WRATH OF WASHINGTON - - -THE gray morning finds the routed ones in their old camp by the St. -Lawrence. Colonel Arnold's assault has also failed. The ex-apothecary -received a slight wound, and is vastly proud. It is his left arm that -was hurt, and of it he makes a mighty parade, slinging it in a rich -crimson sash. - -Colonel Arnold, now in command, does not attempt another assault, but -contents himself with maneuvering his slender forces on the plain in -tantalizing view of the redcoat foe. He sends a flag of truce to the -foot of the walls, with a sprightly challenge to their defenders, -inviting them to come out and fight. The Quebec commander, being a -soldier and no mad knight errant, refuses to be thus romantic. The -winter is deepening; he will leave the vaporing Colonel Arnold to fight -a battle with the thermometer. Also, General Burgoyne, at the head of an -army, is pointed that way. - -His maneuverings ignored, his challenge declined, Colonel Arnold puts -in an entire night framing a demand for the instant surrender of Quebec. -This he is at pains to couch in terms of insult, peppering it from top -to bottom with biting taunts. He closes with a threat that, should the -English commander fail to lower his flag, he will conquer the city at -the point of the sword, and put the garrison to disgraceful death by -gibbet and halter. When he has completed this precious manifesto, he -seeks out young Aaron, and commands him to carry it in person to the -city's gates. As Colonel Arnold tenders the letter, young Aaron puts his -hands behind him. - -"Before I take it, sir," says he, "I should like to hear it read." - -Young Aaron's contempt for the ex-apothecary has found increase with -every day since the death of Montgomery. Those braggadocio maneuverings, -the foolish challenge to come out and fight, have filled him with -disgust. They shock by stress of their innate cheap vulgarity. He is of -no mind to lend himself to any kindred buffoonery. - -"Do you refuse my orders, sirrah?" cries Colonel Arnold, falling into a -dramatic fume. - -"I refuse nothing! I say that I shall carry no letter until I know its -contents. I warn you, sir, I am not to be 'ordered,' as you call it, -into a false position by any man alive." - -Young Aaron's face is getting white; there is a dangerous sparkle in -the black ophidian eyes. Colonel Arnold reads these symptoms, and draws -back. Still, he maintains a ruffling front. - -"Sir!" says he haughtily; "you should think on your subordinate rank, -and on your youth, before you pretend to overlook my conduct." - -"My subordinate rank shall not detract from my quality as a gentleman. -As for my youth, I shall prove old enough, I trust, to make safe my -honor. I say again, I'll not touch your letter till I hear it read." - -"Remember, sir, to whom you speak!" - -"I shall remember what I mentioned at the Eagle Inn; I shall remember my -self-respect." - -Colonel Arnold fixes young Aaron with a superior stare. If it be meant -for his confusion, it meets failure beyond hope. The black eyes stare -back with so much of iron menace in them, as to disconcert the personage -of former drugs. - -He feels them play upon him like two black rapier points. His assurance -breaks down; his lofty determination oozes away. With gaze seeking the -floor, his ruddy, wine-marked countenance flushes doubly red. - -"Since you make such a swelter of the business," he grumbles, "I, for my -own sake, shall now ask you to read it. I would have you know, sir, -that I understand the requirements as well as the proprieties of my -position." - -Colonel Arnold tears open the letter with a flourish, and gives it to -young Aaron. The latter reads it; and then, with no attempt to palliate -the insult, throws it on the floor. - -"Sir," cries Colonel Arnold, exploding into a sudden blaze of wrath, "I -was told in Cambridge, what my officers have often told me since, that -you are a bumptious young fool! Many times have I been told it, sir; -and, until now, I did you the honor to disbelieve it." Young Aaron is -cold and sneering. "Sir," he retorts, "see how much more credulous I -am than are you. I was told but once that you are a bragging, empty -vulgarian, and I instantly believed it." - -The pair stand opposite one another, glances crossing like sword blades, -the insulted letter on the floor between. It is Colonel Arnold who again -gives ground. Snapping his fingers, as though breaking off an incident -beneath his exalted notice, he goes about on his heel. - -"Ah!" says young Aaron; "now that I see your back, sir, I shall take my -leave." - -The winter days, heavy and leaden and chill, go by. Colonel Arnold -continues those maneuverings and challengings, those struttings and -vaporings. At last even his coxcomb vanity grows weary, and he thinks -on Montreal. One morning, with all his followers, he marches off to -that city, still held by the garrison that Montgomery left behind. -Established in Montreal he comports himself as becomes a conqueror, -expanding into pomp and license, living on the fat, drinking of the -strong. And day by day Burgoyne is drawing nearer. - -Broad spring descends; a green mist is visible in the winter-stripped -trees. The rumors of Burgoyne's approach increase and prove disquieting. -Colonel Arnold leads his people out of Montreal, and plunges southward -into the wilderness. He pitches camp on the river Sorel. - -Since the incident of the letter, young Aaron has held no traffic, -polite or otherwise, with Colonel Arnold. The "gentleman volunteer" sees -lonesome days; for he has made no friends about the camp. The men admire -him, but offer him no place in their hearts. A boy in years, with a -beardless girl's face, he gives himself the airs of gravest manhood. His -atmosphere, while it does not repel, is not inviting. Men hold aloof, -as though separated from him by a gulf. He tells no stories, cracks no -jests. His manner is one of careless nonchalance. In truth, he is so -much engaged in upholding his young dignity as to leave him no time -to be popular. His bringing off the dead Montgomery, under fire of the -English, has been told and retold in every corner of the camp. This -gains him credit for a heart of fire, and a fortitude without a flaw. On -the march, too, he faces every hardship, shirks no work, but meets and -does his duty equal with the best. And yet there is that cool reserve, -which denies the thought of comradeship and holds friendly folk at bay. -With them, yet not of them, the men about him cannot solve the conundrum -of his nature; and so they leave him to himself. They value him, they -respect him, they hold his courage above proof; there it ends. - -Young Aaron, aware of his lonely position, does nothing to change it. -He is conceitedly pleased with things as they are. It is the old head on -the young shoulders that thus gets in his way; Washington was right in -his philosophy. Young Aaron, however, is as content with that head, -as in those old Bethlehem days, when he patronized Dr. Bellamy, and -declared for the gospel according to Lord Chesterfield. - -None the less young Aaron is not wholly satisfied. As he idles about the -camp by the Sorel, he feels that any present chance of conquering the -fame and power he came seeking in this war is closed against him. - -"Plainly," counsels the old head on the young shoulders, "it is time to -bring about a change." - -Colonel Arnold is smitten of surprise one afternoon, when young Aaron -walks into his tent. He does his best to hide that surprise, as an -emotion at war with his high military station. Young Aaron, ever equal -to a rigid etiquette, salutes profoundly. - -"Colonel Arnold," says he, "I am here to return into your hands that -rank of captain, which I hold only by courtesy. Also, I desire to tell -you that I leave for Albany at once." - -"Albany!" - -"My canoe is waiting, sir. I start immediately." - -"I forbid your going, sir!" - -Colonel Arnold has recovered his breath, and makes this proclamation -grandly. Privately, he is a-quake; for he does not know what stories -young Aaron might tell in the south. - -"Sir," he repeats, "I forbid your departure! You must not go!" - -"Must not?" - -As though answering his own query, young Aaron leaves Colonel Arnold -without further remark, and walks down to the river, where a canoe -is waiting. The latter cranky contrivance is manned by a quartette of -Canadians, who sit, paddle in fist, ready for the word to start. - -[Illustration: 0081] - -At this decisive action, Colonel Arnold is roused. He springs to his -feet and follows to the waiting canoe. Young Aaron has just taken his -place. - -"Captain Burr," cries Colonel Arnold, "what does this mean? You heard my -orders, sir! You must not go!" - -Young Aaron is ashore like a flash. "Colonel Arnold," says he, "it -is quite possible that you have force enough at hand to detain me. Be -warned, however, that the exercise of such force will have a sequel -serious to yourself." - -"Oh, as to that," responds Colonel Arnold sullenly, "I shall not attempt -to detain you. I simply leave you to the responsibility of departing in -the teeth of my orders, sir." - -In a moment young Aaron is back in the canoe; the four paddles churn -the water into baby whirlpools, and the slight craft glides out upon the -bosom of the Sorel. - -Young Aaron encounters a party of Indians, and conquers their friendship -with diplomatic rum. He reaches Albany, and tastes the delights of fame; -for the story of Quebec has preceded him, and he finds himself a hero. -Thereupon, while outwardly unmoved, he swells in the proud but secret -recesses of his heart. - -In New York he meets his college friend Ogden, who tells him that he has -sold Warlock and spent the proceeds. Likewise, Colonel Troup explains -how he received a thousand pounds for him from his estate, but was moved -to borrow the half of it, having a call for such sum. Colonel Troup -gives five hundred pounds to young Aaron, who receives it carelessly, -the while assuring his debtor, as well as young Ogden, who spent the -price of Warlock, that they are cheerfully welcome to his gold. At -that, both young Ogden and Colonel Troup pluck up a generous spirit, and -borrow each another fifty pounds; which sums our "gentleman volunteer" -puts into their impoverished fingers, as readily as though pounds -mean groats and farthings. For he holds that to be niggard of money is -impossible to a soldier and a gentleman. Did not the knight-errant of -old romaunts go chucking gold-lined purses right and left, into every -empty outstretched hand? And shall not young Aaron be the modern -knight-errant if he chooses? These are the questions which he puts to -himself, as he ministers to the famished finances of his friends. - -General Washington learns of the incident of the dead Montgomery. Having -a conscience, he is distressed by the thought that he may have been -harshly unjust, one Cambridge day, to our "gentleman volunteer." The -conscience-smitten general has headquarters in New York, and now, when -young Aaron arrives, strives to make amends. He invites that youthful -campaigner to a place upon his personal staff, with the rank of major. -Young Aaron accepts, and becomes part of Washington's military family. -The general is living at Richmond Hill, a mansion which in after years -young Aaron will buy and make his residence. - -For six weeks young Aaron is with Washington. Sometimes he rides out -with him; sometimes he writes reports and orders at his dictation; -always he dislikes him. He finds nothing in the Virginian to invoke his -confidence or compel his esteem. In the finale he detests him. - -This latter mind condition is vastly built up by the lack of notice -he receives from the ever-taciturn, often-abstracted, overworried -Washington. The big general will sit for hours, with brows of thought -and pondering eye, as heedless of young Aaron--albeit in the same room -with him--as though our sucking Marlborough owns no existence. This -irritates the latter's pride; for he has military views which he longs -to unfold, but cannot because of the grim wordlessness of his chief. He -resolves to break the ice. - -Washington is sitting lost in thought. "Sir," exclaims young Aaron, -boldly rushing in upon the general's meditations, "the English grow -stronger. Every day their fleet is augmented by new ships, bringing -fresh troops. Eventually they will land and drive us from the city. When -that time comes, it will be my advice to burn New York to the ground, -and leave them naught save the charred ruins." - -Washington pays no attention; it is as though a starling spoke. -Presently he mounts his horse, and soberly rides off to an inspection of -troops. Young Aaron is mightily mortified, and, by way of reestablishing -his dignity on the pedestal from which it has been thrust, neglects a -line of clerical work that should claim his attention. Washington upon -his return discovers this, and having a temper like gunpowder flashes -into a rage. - -"What does this mean, sir?" he demands, angry to the eyes. - -"Why, sir," responds young Aaron coolly, "I should think it might mean -that I brought a sword not a pen to this war." - -"You are insolent, sir!" - -"As you please, sir. But since you say it, I must ask to be relieved -from further duty on your staff." - -The big general stalks from the room. The next day he transfers young -Aaron to the staff of Putnam. - -"I'm sorry he offended you, general," says the old wolf killer. "For -myself, I'm bound to say that I think well of the boy." - -"There is a word," returns Washington, "as to the meaning of which, -until I met him, I was ignorant; that is the word 'prig.' It is strange, -too; for he is as brave as Caesar. I have it on the words of twenty. Yes, -general, your 'gentleman-volunteer' is altogether a strangeling; for he -is one of those anomalies, a courageous prig." - - - - -CHAPTER VI--POOR PEGGY MONCRIEFFE - - -ON that day when the farmers of Concord turn their rifles upon King -George, there dwells in Elizabeth a certain English Major Moncrieffe. -With him is his daughter, just ceasing to be a girl and beginning to -be a woman. Peggy Moncrieffe is a beauty, and, to tell a whole truth, -confident thereof to the verge of brazen. When her father is ordered -to his regiment he leaves her behind. The war to him is no more than a -riot; he looks to be back in Elizabeth before the month expires. - -The optimistic Major Moncrieffe is wrong. That riot, which is not a riot -but a revolution, spreads and spreads like fire among dry grass. At last -a hostile line divides him from his daughter Peggy. This is serious; -for, aside from forbidding any word between them, it prevents him -sending what money she requires for her care. In her distress she writes -General Putnam, her father's comrade in the last war with the French. -The old wolf killer invites the desolate Peggy to make one of his -own household. When young Aaron leaves the staff of Washington, Peggy -Moncrieffe is with the Putnams, whose house stands at the corner of -Broadway and the Battery. - -The family of the old wolf killer is made up of Madam Putnam and two -daughters. Peggy Moncrieffe is received as a third daughter by the -kindly Madam Putnam. Also, like a third daughter, she is set to the -spinning wheel; for, while the old wolf killer fights the English, Madam -Putnam and her daughters work early and late, with spinning wheel and -loom, clothmaking for the continental troops. Peggy Moncrieffe offers -no demur; but goes at the spinning and weaving as though she is as much -puritan and patriot as are those about her. She is busy at the spinning -when young Aaron is presented. And in that presentation lurks a peril; -for she is eighteen and he is twenty. - -Young Aaron, selfish, gallant, pleased with a pretty face as with a -poem, becomes flatteringly attentive to pretty Peggy Moncrieffe. She, -for her side, turns restless when he leaves her, to glow like the sun -when he returns. She forgets the spinning wheel for his conversation. -The two walk under the trees in the Battery, or, from the quiet steps of -St. Paul's, watch the evening sun go down beyond the Jersey hills. - -Madam Putnam is prudent, and does not like these symptoms. She issues -a whispered mandate to the old wolf killer, with whom her word is law. -Thereupon he sends the pretty Peggy to safer quarters near Kingsbridge. - -That is to say, the Kingsbridge refuge, to which pretty Peggy -reluctantly retires, is safe until she arrives. It presently becomes -a theater of danger, since young Aaron is not a day in discovering a -complete military reason for visiting it. The old wolf killer is not -like Washington; there are no foolish orders or tedious dispatches for -his aide to write. This gives leisure to young Aaron, which he improves -in daily gallops to Kingsbridge. It is to be feared that he and pretty -Peggy Moncrieffe find walks as shady, and prospects as pleasant, and -moments as sweet, as when they had the Battery for a promenade and took -in the Jersey hills from the twilight steps of St. Paul's. Also, the -pretty Peggy no longer pleads to join her father; albeit that parent has -just been sent with his regiment to Staten Island, not an hour's sail -away. - -This contentment of the pretty Peggy with things as they are, re-alarms -the prudence of Madam Putnam, who regards it as a sign most sinister. -Having a genius to be military, quite equal to that of her old -wolf-killing husband, she attacks this dangerously tender situation in -flank. She gives her commands to the old wolf killer, and at once he -blindly obeys. He dispatches young Aaron on a mission to Long Island. -The latter is to look up positions of defense, so as to be prepared for -the English, should they carry their arms in that direction. - -In two days young Aaron returns, and makes an exhaustive report; whereat -the old wolf killer breaks into words of praise. This duty discharged, -young Aaron is into the saddle and off, clatteringly, for Kingsbridge. -The old wolf killer sees him depart and says nothing, while a cunning -twinkle dances in the old gray eye. Then the twinkle subsides, and is -succeeded by a self-reproachful doubt. - -"He might have married her," he observes tentatively to Madam Putnam. - -"Never!" returns that clear matron. "Your young Major Burr is too coolly -the selfish calculating egotist. He would win her and wear her as he -might some bauble ornament, and cast her aside when the glitter was -gone. As for marrying her, he'd as soon think of marrying the rings on -his fingers, or the buckles on his shoes." - -Young Aaron comes clattering back from Kingsbridge. His black eyes -sparkle wickedly; his face, usually so imperturbable, is the seat of an -obvious anger. Moreover, he seems chokingly full of a question, which -even his ingenious self-confidence is at a loss how to ask. He gets the -old wolf killer alone. - -"Miss Moncrieffe!" he breaks forth. Then he proceeds blunderingly: "I -had occasion to go to Kingsbridge, and was surprised to find her gone." -The last concludes with a rising inflection. - -"Why, yes!" retorts the old wolf killer, summoning the innocence of a -sheep. "I forgot to tell you that, seeing an opportunity, I yesterday -sent little Peg to Staten Island under a flag of truce. She is with her -father. Between us"--here he sinks his voice mysteriously--"I was afraid -the enemy might find some way to use little Peg as a spy." Young Aaron -clicks his teeth savagely, but says nothing; the old wolf killer watches -him with the tail of his eye. - -The "gentleman volunteer" strides down to the sea wall, and takes a long -and mayhap loving look at Staten Island, with the wind-ruffled expanse -of bay between. - -And there the romance ends. - -Two days later young Aaron is sipping his wine in black Sam Fraunces' -long room, the picture of that elegant indifference which he cultivates -as a virtue. Already the fancy for poor Peggy Moncrieffe has faded -from the agate surface of his nature, as the breath mists fade from the -mirror's face, and he thinks only on how and when he shall lay down his -title of major for that of lieutenant colonel. - -The woman's heart is the heart loyal. While he sips wine at Fraunces', -and weighs the chances of promotion, Peggy the forgotten finds in Staten -Island another Naxos, and like another Ariadne goes weeping for that -Theseus who has already lost her from out his thoughts. - -It is unfortunate that, as aide to the old wolf killer, young Aaron is -not provided with more work for hand and head. As it is, his unfilled -hours afford him opportunity to think and talk unprofitably. He falls to -criticising Washington to the old wolf killer; which is about as sapient -as though he fell to criticising Madam Putnam to the old wolf killer. - -"Of what avail," cries young Aaron one afternoon, as he and his grizzled -chief stroll in the Bowling Green--"of what avail for General Washington -to hold the city, when he must give it up at last? New English ships -show in the bay with the coming up of every sun. He would be wiser if -he withdrew into the interior, and so forced the foe to follow him. This -would lose them the backing of their fleet, from which they gain not -only supplies, but what is of more consequence a kind of moral support." - -The old wolf killer looks at his opinionated aide for a moment. Then -without replying directly, he observes: - -"Just as the Christian virtues are faith, hope, and charity, so the -military virtues are courage, endurance, and silence. And the greatest -of these is silence. You ought always to remember that a soldier's sword -should be immeasurably longer than his tongue." - -Young Aaron reddens at what he feels is a rebuke. The following day, -when he is directed to join General McDougal on Long Island, he is glad -to go. - -"He has had too little to do," explains the old wolf killer to Madam -Putnam. "Like all workless folk he is beginning to talk; and his is the -sort of conversation that breeds enemies and brews trouble." - -Young Aaron is in the fight on Long Island. Upon the retreating back of -that lost battle, he supervises the crossing of the troops to Manhattan. -All night, cool and quick and vigilant, he labors on the Brooklyn side -to put the men aboard the transports. When the last is across the East -River, he himself embarks, bringing with him his horse, hog-tied, in the -bottom of the barge. It is early dawn when he leads the released animal -ashore on the Manhattan side. Mounting it, with two fellow officers, -he rides northward at a leisurely gait, a half mile to the rear of the -retreating army. - -As young Aaron and his companions push north toward Kingsbridge, they -come across the baggage and stores of a battery of artillery. The -baggage and stores have been but the moment before abandoned. - -"It looks," observes young Aaron, who is as unruffled as upon the day -when he laid down theology for law, to the horrified distress of Dr. -Bellamy--"it looks as though the captain of that battery, whoever he is, -has permitted these English in our rear to get unnecessarily upon his -nerves. There is no such close occasion as to justify the abandonment of -these stores. At least he should have destroyed them." - -Twenty rods beyond, he finds one of the battery's guns. He points to the -lost piece scornfully. - -"There," says he, "is the pure proof of some one's cowardice!" - -Spurring on, and led by the rumbling sounds of field guns in full -retreat, he overtakes the timid ones who have thrown away baggage and -gun. The captain who commands is a youth no older than young Aaron. As -the latter comes up, the boy captain is urging his cannoneers to double -speed. - -"Let me congratulate you, captain," observes young Aaron, extravagantly -polite the better to set off the sneer that marks his manner, "on not -having thrown away your colors. May I ask your name?" - -"I, sir," returns the artillery youth, as much moved of resentment at -young Aaron's sneer, as is possible for one in his perturbed frame, "I, -sir, am Captain Alexander Hamilton." - -"And I, sir, am Major Burr. Let me compliment you, Captain Hamilton, -for the ardor you display in carrying your battery forward. One might -suppose from your headlong zeal that the English forces lie in that -direction. I must needs say, however, that the zeal which casts away its -stores and baggage, and leaves a gun behind, is ill considered." - -Captain Hamilton's face clouds angrily; but, since he is thinking more -on the English than on insults that perilous morning, he does not reply -to the taunt. Young Aaron, feeling the better for his expressions of -contempt, wheels off to the left toward the Hudson, leaving the other to -bring on his battery with what breathless speed he may. - -"Now, had that Captain Hamilton been in the light on Long Island," -remarks young Aaron to his companions, "the hurry he shows might have -found partial excuse. As it is, I hold his flight too feverish, when -one remembers that it is from an enemy which as yet he has personally -neither faced nor seen." - -Young Aaron puts in divers idle months at Kingsbridge. His conduct on -Long Island, and during the retreat of the army toward the north, has -multiplied his fame for an indomitable hardihood. Indeed he is inclined -to compliment himself; though he hides the fact defensively in his own -breast. - -This good opinion of his services teaches him to entertain ambitions of -the vaulting, not to say o'er-leaping sort. As he now, by the light of -recent achievement, measures his merits nothing short of a colonelcy -and the leadership of a regiment will do him justice. Conceive then, how -deeply he feels slighted when Washington fails to share these liberal -views, and promotes him to nothing higher than that lieutenant colonelcy -which his hopes have so much outgrown. He accepts; but he feels the -title fit him with an awkward nearness, as might a coat that some -blundering tailor has cut too small. The letter of acceptance which he -indites to Washington includes such paragraphs as this: - -_I am constrained to observe that the late date of my appointment as -lieutenant colonel, subjects me to the command of officers who, in the -late campaign, were my juniors. With due submission, sir, I should like -to know whether it was misconduct on my part or extraordinary merit on -theirs, which has thus given them the preference. I desire, on my part, -to avoid equally the character of turbulent or passive, but as a decent -regard to rank is proper and necessary I hope the concern I feel in this -matter will be found excusable in one who regards his honor next to the -welfare of his country._ - -The old wolf killer is with Washington when that harassed commander -reads young Aaron's effusion. With an exclamation of wrath the big -general tosses it across. - -"By all that is ineffable!" he cries, "read that. Now here is a boy gone -stark staring mad for vanity! A stripling of twenty-one, with face as -hairless as an egg, and yet the second rank in a regiment is no match -for his majestic deserts! Putnam," he continues, as the old wolf killer -runs his eye over the letter, "that young friend of yours will be the -death of me yet! As I told you, sir, he is a courageous prig--yes, sir, -a mere courageous prig!" - -"What reply will you make? It should be a sharp one." - -"It shall be none at all. I'll make no reply to such bombastic -fault-finding. One might as well pelt a pig with pearls, as waste common -sense on such self-conceit as we have here. Do me the honor, Putnam, to -write this boy-conqueror a note, saying it is my orders that he join his -regiment at once." - -Young Aaron finds the regiment to which he has been assigned on the -Ramapo, a day's ride back from the Hudson. His superior in command, -Colonel Malcolm, is a shop-keeping, amiable gentleman, as short of -breath as of courage, who would as soon think of thrusting his hand -into the embers as his fat body into battle. Preeminently is he of that -peculiar war-feather that, for every reason in favor of going forward, -can give a dozen for falling back. Perceiving with delight young -Aaron to be possessed of a taste for carnage as well as command, the -peace-loving Colonel Malcolm promptly surrenders the regiment into his -hands. - -"You shall drill it and fight it," says he, "while I will be its -father." - -With this, the fat Colonel Malcolm retires twenty miles farther into the -interior; where he joins Madam Malcolm, as fat as himself, who unites -with five fat children, their offspring, to fatly welcome him. - -Young Aaron, now when he finds himself in sole control, parades the -regiment, and does not like its appearance. He makes it a speech, and -is exceeding frank. He explains that it is more fitted to shine at -barbecues and barn-raisings than in war. Then he grasps it with a daily -hand of steel, and begins to crush it into disciplined shape. From break -of morning until the sun goes down, he puts it through its paces. As one -of the onlookers remarks: - -"He drills 'em till their tongues hang out." - -The fruits of this iron rule, so much a change from that picnic -character of control but lately exercised by the amiable Colonel -Malcolm, are twofold. Young Aaron is hated and respected by every soul -on the rolls. Caring nothing for the one and everything for the other, -he continues to drill the boots off their feet. Finally, the regiment -ceases to look like a mob, and dons a military expression. At which -young Aaron is privily exalted. - -There still remain, however, a round score of thorns in his militant -flesh, being as many captains and lieutenants, who are better qualified -for the drawing-room than the field. He must rid himself of this element -of popinjay. - -Since young Aaron is clothed of no power of dismissal over the offensive -popinjays, the situation bristles with difficulties. For all that they -must go. After one night's thought, he gets up from his cogitations -inclined to exclaim, like another Archimedes: "I have found it!" - -Young Aaron's device is simplicity itself. Having no power of dismissal, -he will usurp it. Also, he will assert it in such fashion that not a -popinjay of them all will be able to make his dismissal the basis of -military inquiry, and keep his credit clean. - -Young Aaron writes, word for word, the same letter to each of the -undesirable popinjay ones. He words it, skillfully, in this wise: - -_Sir: You are unfitted for the duties you have assumed. For the good -of the service therefore, I demand the immediate resignation or your -commission. To be frank, sir, I think you lack the courage to lead your -men in the presence of a foe. Should I be wrong in this assumption, you -of course will demonstrate that fact by methods which readily suggest -themselves to every gentleman of spirit. Let me therefore urge that you -either forward your resignation as herein demanded by me, or dispatch -in its stead a request for that satisfaction which I, as a man of honor, -shall not for one moment deny. I beg leave to remain, sir,_ - -_Your very humble servant,_ - -_Aaron Burr, Acting Colonel._ - -"There!" thinks he, when the last letter is signed, sealed, and sent -upon its way to the popinjay hand for which it is designed, "that -should do nicely. I've ever held that the way to successfully deal with -humanity is to take humanity by the horns. That I've done. Likewise, -I flatter myself I've constructed my net so fine that none of them can -wriggle through. And as for breaking through by the dueling method I -hint at, I shall have guessed vastly to one side, if the best among them -own either the force or courage to so much as make the attempt." - -Young Aaron is justified of his perspicacity. The resignations of the -popinjays come pouring in, each seeming to take the initiative, and -basing his "voluntary" abandonment of a military career on grounds -wholly invented and highly honorable to himself. No reference, even of -the blindest, is made to that brilliant usurpation of authority. Neither -is young Aaron's letter alluded to in any conversation. - -There is one exception; a popinjay personage named Rawls, retorts in -a hectic epistle which, while conveying his resignation, avows a -determination to welter in young Aaron's blood as a slight solace for -the outrage done his feelings. To this, young Aaron replies that he -shall, on the very next day, do himself the honor of a call upon the -ill-used and flaming Rawls, whose paternal roof is not an hour's gallop -from the Ramapo. Accordingly, young Aaron repairs to the Rawls's mansion -at eleven of next day's clock. He has with him two officers, who are -dark as to the true purpose of the excursion. - -Young Aaron and the accompanying duo are asked to dinner by the Rawls's -household. The popinjay fiery Rawls is present, but embarrassed. After -dinner, when young Aaron asks popinjay Rawls to ride with his party a -mile or two on the return journey, the fiery, ill-used one grows more -embarrassed. - -He does not, however, ride forth on that suggested mission of honor; his -alarmed sisters, of whom there are an angelic three, rush to his rescue -in a flood of terrified exclamation. - -"O Colonel Burr!" they chorus, "what are you about to do with Neddy?" - -"My dear young ladies," protests young Aaron suavely, "believe me, I'm -about to do nothing with Neddy. I intend only to ask him what he desires -or designs to do with me. I am here to place myself at Neddy's disposal, -in a matter which he well understands." - -The interfering angelic sisterly ones declare that popinjay Neddy meant -nothing by his letter, and will never write another. Whereupon young -Aaron observes he will be content with the understanding that popinjay -Neddy send him no more letters, unless they have been first submitted to -the sisterly censorship of the angelic three. To this everyone concerned -most rapturously consents; following which young Aaron goes back to his -camp by the Ramapo, while the sisterly angelic ones festoon themselves -about the neck of popinjay Neddy, over whom they weepingly rejoice as -over one returned from out the blackness of the shadow of death. - - - - -CHAPTER VII--THE CONQUERING THEODOSIA - - -WHILE young Aaron, in his camp by the Ramapo, is wringing the withers -of his men with merciless drills, sixteen miles away, in the outskirts -of the village of Paranius dwells Madam Theodosia Prevost. Madam Prevost -is the widow of an English Colonel Prevost, who was swept up by yellow -fever in Jamaica. With her are her mother, her sister, her two little -boys. The family name is De Visme, which is a Swiss name from the French -cantons. - -The hungry English in New York are running short of food. Two thousand -of them cross the Hudson, and commence combing the country for beef. -Word of that cow-driving reaches young Aaron by the Ramapo. Hackensack -is given as the theater of those beef triumphs of the hungry English. - -From rustical ones bewailing vanished kine, young Aaron receives the -tale first hand. Instantly he springs to the defense of the continental -cow. He orders out his regiment, and marches away for that stricken -Hackensack region of ravished flocks and herds. - -At Paramus, excited by stories of a cow-conquering English, the militia -of the neighborhood are fallen to a frenzied building of breastworks. -Certain of these home guards look up from their breastwork building long -enough to decide that Madam Prevost, as the widow of a former English -colonel, is a Tory. - -Arriving at this conclusion, the home guards make the next natural step, -and argue--because of their nearness to Madam Prevost--that the mother -and sister and little boys are Tories. The quietly elegant home of Madam -Prevost is declared a nest of Tories, against which judgment a belief -that the mansion is worth looting is not allowed to militate. - -As young Aaron, on his rescuing way to Hackensack, marches into Paramus, -the judgmatical home guards, in the name of a patriotism which believes -in spoiling the Egyptian, are about to begin their work of sack and -pillage. Young Aaron, who does not think that robbery assists the cause -of freedom, calls a halt. He drives off the home guards at the point of -his sword, and places sentinels upon the premises. Also he promises to -hang the first home guard who, in the name of liberty, or for any more -private reason, touches a shilling's worth of Madam Prevost's chattels. - -Having established his protectorate in favor of the threatened Prevost -household, young Aaron enters, hat in hand, with the pardonable purpose -of discovering what manner of folk he has pledged himself to keep -safe. It may be that he is beset by visions of distressed fair -ones--disheveled, tearful, beautiful! If so, his dreams receive a shock. -'Instead of that flushed, frightened, clinging, tear-stained loveliness, -so common of romance, he is met by a severely angular lady who, plain of -face, with high, harsh cheek bones, and a scar on her forehead, is two -inches taller and twelve years older than himself. - -Madam Prevost owns all these; and yet, beyond and above them, she -also possesses an ineffable, impalpable something, which is like -an atmosphere, a perfume, a melody of manner, and marks her as that -greatest of graceful rarities, a well-bred, cultured woman of the -world. Polished, fine, Madam Prevost is familiar with the society of -two continents. She knows literature, music, art; she is wise, erudite, -nobly high. These attributes invest her with a soft brilliancy, into -which those uglinesses and bony angularities retreat as into a kind of -moonlight, to recur in gentle reassertion as the poetic sublimation of -all that charms. - -Thus does she break upon young Aaron--young Aaron, who has said that he -would no more love a woman for her beauty than a man for his money, and -is to be won only by her who, mentally and sentimentally, meets him half -way. This last Madam Prevost does; and, from the moment he meets her -to the hour of her death, she draws him and holds him like a magnet. It -illustrates the inexplicable in love, that this cool, cynical one, whose -very youth is an iron element of hardest strength, should be fascinated -and fettered by a worn, middle-aged woman with eyes of faded gray. - -Young Aaron, on this first encounter with his goddess, remains no longer -than is required to receive the arrow in his heart. He presses on with -his followers for the Hackensack. A mile from Paramus he halts his -soldiery, and, leaving the great body of them, goes forward in person -with a scouting party of seventeen. In the middle watches of the night, -he discovers a picket post of the cow-collecting English. Only one -is awake; he is shot dead by young Aaron. The others, twenty-eight in -number, are seized in their sleep. - -In the wake of this exploit, young Aaron brings up his whole command. -The cow-hunting redcoats, from the confidence of his advance, infer in -his favor an overwhelming strength. Panic claims them; they make for the -Hudson, leaving those collected cows behind. There is rejoicing among -the Hackensack folk at this happy return of their property, and young -Aaron goes back to the Ramapo rich in encomium and praise. - -The camp by the Ramapo is given up, and young Aaron, love-drawn, brings -his force within a mile of Paramus. Daily he seeks the society of Madam -Prevost, as sick folk seek the sun. She speaks French, Spanish, German; -she reads Voltaire, and is capable of admiring without approving -the cynic of Fernay. More; she is familiar with Petrarch, Le Sage, -Corneille, Rousseau, Chesterfield, Cervantes. Madam Prevost and young -Aaron find much to talk of and agree about, in the way of romance and -poetry and philosophy, and are never dull for lack of topics. And, as -they converse, he worships her with his eyes, from which every least -black trace of that ophidian sparkle has been extinguished. - -The first snowflakes are falling when young Aaron receives orders to -join Washington's army at Valley Forge. Arriving, his hatred of the big -general is rearoused. He suggests an expedition against the English -on Staten Island, and offers to undertake it with three hundred men. -Washington thinks well of the suggestion, but dispatches Lord Stirling -to carry it out. Young Aaron, hot with disappointment, adds this to the -list of injuries which he believes he has received from the Virginian. - -Food is stinted, fire scarce at Valley Forge; there is a deal of cold -and starving. Folk hungry and frozen are in no humor for work, and look -on labor as an evil. Young Aaron takes no account of this, but has out -his tattered, chilled, thin-flanked followers to those daily drills. - -In the end a spirit of mutiny creeps in among the men. It finds concrete -shape one frosty morning when private John Cook levels his musket at -young Aaron's heart. Private Cook means murder, and is only kept from it -by the promptitude of young Aaron. With that very motion of the mutineer -which aims the gun, young Aaron's sword comes rasping from its scabbard, -and a backhanded stroke all but severs the would-be homicide's right -arm. The wounded man falls bleeding to the ground. With that, young -Aaron details a pale-faced, silent quartette to carry the wounded one to -the hospital, and, drawing his blade through a handkerchief to wipe away -the blood, proceeds with the hated drill. - -[Illustration: 0111] - -While young Aaron serves at Valley Forge, a conspiracy, whereof General -Conway is the animating heart and General Gates the figurehead, is -hatched. The purpose is to remove Washington, and set the conqueror of -Burgoyne in his place. Young Aaron joins the conspiracy, and is looked -upon by his fellow plotters as ardent, but unimportant because of his -youth. - -The design falls to the ground; Washington retains his command, while -Gates goes south to lose his Burgoyne laurels and get drubbed by -Cornwallis. As for young Aaron, he swallows as best he may his -disappointment over the poor upcome of that plot, and takes part in the -battle of Monmouth. Here he has his horse shot under him, and lays -up fresh hatreds against Washington for refusing to let him charge an -English battery. - -Sore, heart-cankered of chagrin, young Aaron asks for leave of absence. -He declares that he is ill, and his hollow cheek and bilious eye sustain -him. He says that, until his health mends, he will take no pay. - -"You shall have leave of absence," says Washington, to whom young Aaron -prefers his request in person, "but you must draw pay." - -"And why draw pay, sir!" demands young Aaron warmly, for he somehow -smells an insult. "I shall render no service. I think the proprieties -much preserved by a stoppage of my pay." - -"If you were the only, one, sir," returns Washington, "I might say as -you do. But there be others on sick leave, who are not men of fortune -like yourself. Those gentlemen must draw their pay, or see their -people suffer. Should you be granted leave without pay, they might feel -criticised. You note the point, sir." - -"Why," replies young Aaron, with a tinge of sarcasm, "the point, I take -it, is that you would not have me shine at the expense of folk of lesser -fortune or more avarice than myself. Because others are not generous to -their country, I must be refused the poor privilege of contributing even -my absence to her cause." - -At young Aaron's palpable sneer, the big general's face darkens with -anger. "You exhibit an insolence, sir," he says at last, "which I -succeed in overlooking only by remembering that I am twice your age. -I understand, of course, that you intend a covert thrust at myself, -because I draw my three guineas per day as commander in chief. Rather -to enlighten you than defend my own conduct, I may tell you, sir, that I -draw those three guineas upon the precise grounds I state as reasons -why you, during your leave, must accept pay. There are men as brave, -as true, as patriotic as either of us, who cannot--as we might--fight -months on end, without some provision for their families. What, -sir"--here the big general begins to kindle--"is it not enough that men -risk their blood for these colonies? Must wives and children starve? The -cause is not so poor, I tell you, but what it can pay its own cost. You -and I, sir, will draw our pay, to keep in self-respecting countenance -folk as good as ourselves in everything save fortune." - -Young Aaron shrugs his shoulders. "If it were not, sir," he begins, -"for that difference in our ages which you so opportunely quote, to say -nothing of my inferior military rank, I might ask if your determination -to make me accept pay, whether I earn it or no, be not due to a latent -dislike for myself personally. I can think of much that justifies the -question." - -"Colonel Burr," observes the big general, with a dignity which is not -without rebuking effect upon young Aaron, "because you are young and -will one day be older, I am inclined to justify myself in your eyes. I -make it a rule to seldom take advice and never give it. And yet there -is room for a partial exception in your instance. There is a word, two, -perhaps, which I think you need." - -"Believe me, sir, I am honored!" - -"My counsel, sir, is to cease thinking of yourself. Give your life a -better purpose and a higher aim. You will have more credit now, more -fame hereafter, if you will lay aside that egotism which dominates you, -and give your career a motive beyond and above a mere desire to advance -yourself." - -The big general, from the commanding heights of those advantageous extra -six inches, looks down upon young Aaron. In that looking down there is -nothing of the paternal. Rather it is as though a pedagogue deals with -some self-willed pupil. - -Of all the big general's irritating attitudes, young Aaron finds this -pose of unruffled supremacy the one hardest to bear. He holds himself -in hand, however, deeming it a time, now the ice is broken, to go to the -bottom of his prospects, and learn what hope there is of honors which -can come only through the other's word. - -"Sir," observes young Aaron, "will you be so good as to make yourself -clear. What you say is interesting; I would not miss its slightest -meaning." - -"It should be confessed," returns the big general, somewhat to one side, -"that I am of a hot and angry temper. My one fear, having authority, is -that in the heat of personal resentments I may do injustice. If it were -not for such fear, you would have gone south with General Gates, for -whom you plotted all you knew to bring about my downfall." - -Young Aaron is seized of a chilling surprise. This is his first news -that Washington is aware of his part in that plot. However, he schools -his features to a statuelike immobility, and evinces neither amazement -nor dismay. The big general goes on: - -"No, sir; your conduct as a soldier has been good. So I leave you with -your regiment, retain you with me, because I can see no public reasons, -but only private ones, for sending you away. I go over these things, -sir, to convince you that I have not permitted personal bias to control -my attitude toward you. Besides, I hope to teach you a present sincerity -in what I say." - -"Why, sir," interjects young Aaron, careful to maintain a coolness -and self-possession equal with the big general's; "you give yourself -unnecessary trouble. I cannot think your sincerity important, since I -shall not permit the question of it to in any way add to or subtract -from your words. I listen gladly and with gratitude. None the less, I -shall accept or reject your counsel on its abstract merits, unaffected -by its honorable source." - -The insufferable impertinence of young Aaron's manner would have got him -drummed out of some services, shot in others. The big general only bites -his lip. - -"What I would tell you," he resumes, "is this. You possess the raw -material of greatness--but with one element lacking. You may rise to -what heights you choose, if you will but cure yourself of one defect. -Observe, sir! Men are judged, not for deeds but motives. A man injures -you; you excuse him because no injury was meant. A man seeks to injure -you, but fails; and yet you resent it, in spite of that defensive -failure, because of the intent. So it is with humanity at large. It -looks at the motive rather than the act. Sir, I have watched you. You -have no motive but yourself. Patriotism plays no part when you come -to this war; it is not the country, but Aaron Burr, you carry on your -thoughts. Whatever you may believe, you cannot win fame or good repute -on terms, so narrow. A man is so much like a gun that, to carry far, he -must have some elevation of aim. You were born fortunate in your parts, -save for that defective element of aim. There, sir, you fail, and will -continue to fail, unless you work your own redemption. It is as though -you had been born on a dead level--aimed point-blank at birth. You -should have been born at an angle of forty-five degrees. With half the -powder, sir, you would carry twice as far. Wherefore, elevate yourself; -give your life a noble purpose! Make yourself the incident, mankind -the object. Merge egotism in patriotism; forget self in favor of your -country and its flag." - -The gray eyes of the big general rest upon young Aaron with concern. -Then he abruptly retreats into the soldier, as though ashamed of his own -earnestness. Without giving time for reply to that dissertation on the -proper aim of man, he again takes up the original business of the leave. - -[Illustration: 0119] - -"Colonel Burr," says he, "you shall have leave of absence. But your -waiver of pay is declined." - -"Then, sir," retorts young Aaron, "you must permit me to withdraw my -application. I shall not take the country's money, without rendering -service for it." - -"That is as you please, sir." - -"One thing stands plain," mutters young Aaron, as he walks away; "the -sooner I quit the army the better. For me it is 'no thoroughfare,' and -I may as well save my time. He knows of my part in that Conway-Gates -movement, too; and, for all his platitudes about justice and high aims, -he's no one to forget it." - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--MARRIAGE AND THE LAW - - -YOUNG Aaron, with his regiment, is ordered to West Point. Next he is -dispatched to hold the Westchester lines, being that debatable -ground lying between the Americans at White Plains and the English at -Kingsbridge. It is still his half-formed purpose to resign his sword, -and turn the back of his ambition on every hope of military glory. He -says as much to General Putnam, whose real liking for him he feels and -trusts. The wise old wolf killer argues in favor of patience. - -"Washington is but trying you," he declares. "It will all come right, -if you but hold on. And to be a colonel at twenty-two is no small thing, -let me tell you! Suck comfort from that!" - -Young Aaron knows the old wolf killer so well that he feels he may go -as far as he chooses into those twin subjects of Washington and his own -military prospects. - -"General," he says, "believe me when I tell you that I accept what you -say as though from a father. Let me talk to you, then, not as a colonel -to his general, but as son to sire. I have my own views concerning -Washington; they are not of the highest. I do not greatly esteem him as -either a soldier or a man." - -"And there you are wrong!" breaks in the old wolf killer; "twice wrong." - -"Give me your own views, then; I shall be glad to change the ones I -have." - -"You speak of Washington as no soldier. Without reminding you that -you yourself own but little experience to guide by in coming to such -conclusion, I may say perhaps that I, who have fought in both the French -War and the war with Pontiac, possess some groundwork upon which to -base opinion. Take my word for it, then, that there is no better soldier -anywhere than Washington." - -"But he is all for retreating, and never for advancing." - -"Precisely! And, whether you know it or no, those tactics of falling -back and falling back are the ones, the only ones, which promise final -success. Where, let me ask, do you think this war is to be won?" - -"Where should any war be won but on the battlefield?" - -The old wolf killer smiles a wide smile of grizzled toleration. Plainly, -he regards young Aaron as lacking in years quite as much as does -Washington himself; and yet, somehow, this manner on his part does not -fret the boy colonel. In truth, he meets the fatherly grin with the -ghost of a smile. - -"Where, then, should this war be won?" asks young Aaron. - -"Not on the battlefield. I am but a plain farmer when I'm not wearing -a sword, and no statesman like Adams or Franklin or Jefferson. For all -that, I am wise enough to know that the war must, and, in the end, will -be won in the Parliament of England. It must be won for us by Fox and -Burke and Pitt and the other Whigs. All we can do is furnish them -the occasion and the argument, and that can be accomplished only by -retreating." - -Young Aaron sniffs his polite distrust of such topsy-turvy logic. "Now I -should call," says he, "these retreats, by which you and Washington seem -to set so much store, a worst possible method of giving encouragement to -our friends. I fear you jest with me, general. How can you say that by -retreating, itself a confession of weakness, we give the English -Whigs an argument which shall induce King George to recognize our -independence?" - -"If you were ten years older," remarks the old wolf killer, "you would -not put the question. Which proves some of us in error concerning you, -and shows you as young as your age should warrant. Let me explain: You -think a war, sir, this war, for instance, is a matter of soldiers and -guns. It isn't; it is a matter of gold. As affairs stand, the English -are shedding their guineas much faster than they shed their blood. -Presently the taxpayers of England will begin to feel it; they feel -it now. Let the drain go on. Before all is done, their resolution will -break down; they will elect a Parliament instructed to concede our -independence." - -"Your idea, then, is to prolong the war, and per incident the expense of -it to the English, until, under a weight of taxation, the courage of the -English taxpayer breaks down." - -"You've nicked it. We own neither the force, nor the guns, nor -the powder, nor--and this last in particular--the bayonets to wage -aggressive warfare. To do so would be to play the English game. They -would, breast to breast and hand to hand, wipe us out by sheerest force -of numbers. That would mean the finish; we should lose and they would -win. Our plan--the Washington plan--is, with as little loss as possible -in men and dollars to ourselves, to pile up cost for the foe. There is -but one way to do that; we must fall back, and keep falling back, to the -close of the chapter." - -"At least," says young Aaron, with a sour grimace, "you will admit -that the plan of campaign you offer presents no peculiar features of -attractive gallantry." - -"Gallantry is not the point. I am but trying to convince you that -Washington, in this backwardness of which you complain, proceeds neither -from ignorance nor cowardice; but rather from a set and well-considered -strategy. I might add, too, that it takes a better soldier to retreat -than to advance. As for your true soldier, after he passes forty, he -talks not of winning battles but wars. After forty he thinks little or -nothing of that engaging gallantry of which you talk, and never throws -away practical advantage in favor of some gilded sentiment. You deem -slightly of Washington, because you know slightly of Washington. The -most I may say to comfort you is that Washington most thoroughly knows -himself. And"--here the old wolf killer's voice begins to tremble a -little--"I'll go further: I've seen many men; but none of a courage, a -patriotism, a fortitude, a sense of honor to match with his; none of his -exalted ideals or noble genius for justice." - -Young Aaron is silent; for he sees how moved is the old wolf killer, and -would not for the ransom of a world say aught to pain him. After a pause -he observes: - -"Assuredly, I could not think of going behind your opinions, and -Washington shall be all you say. None the less--and here I believe you -will bear me out--he has of me no good opinion. He will not advance me; -he will not give me opportunity to advance. And, after all, the question -I originally put only touched myself. I told you I thought, and now tell -you I still think, that I might better take off my sword, forget war, -and see what is to be won in the law." - -"And you ask my advice?" - -"Your honest advice." - -"Then stick to the head of your regiment. Convince Washington that his -opinion of you is unjust, and he'll be soonest to admit it. To convince -him should not be difficult, since you have but to do your duty." - -"Very good," observes Aaron, resignedly, "I shall, for the present -at least, act upon your counsel. Also, much as I value your advice, -general, you have given me something else in this conversation which I -value more; that is, your expressed and friendly confidence." - -Following his long talk with the old wolf killer, young Aaron throws -himself upon his duty, heart and hand. In his role as warden of the -Westchester marches, he is as vigilant as a lynx. The English under -Tryon move north from New York; he sends them scurrying back to town -in hot and fear-spurred haste. They attempt to surprise him, and are -themselves surprised. They build a doughty blockhouse near Spuyten -Duyvel; young Aaron burns it, and brings in its defenders as captives. -Likewise, under cloud of night--night, ever the ally of lovers--he -oft plays Leander to Madam Prevost's Hero; only the Hudson is his -Hellespont, and he does not swim but crosses in a barge. These -love pilgrimages mean forty miles and as many perils. However, the -heart-blinded young Aaron is not counting miles or perils, as he -pictures his gray goddess of Paramus sighing for his coming. - -One day young Aaron hears tidings that mean much in his destinies. -The good old wolf killer, his sole friend in the army, is stricken of -paralysis, and goes home to die. The news is a shock to him; the more -since it offers the final argument for ending with the military. He -consults no one. Basing his action on a want of health, he forwards his -resignation to Washington, who accepts. He leaves the army, taking with -him an unfaltering dislike of the big general which will wax not wane as -years wear on. - -Young Aaron is much and lovingly about his goddess of the wan gray eyes; -so much and so lovingly, indeed, that it excites the gossips. With -war and battle and sudden death on every hand and all about them, -scandal-mongering ones may still find time and taste for the discussion -of the faded Madam Prevost and her boy lover. The discussion, however, -is carried on in whispers, and made to depend on a movement of the -shoulder or an eyebrow knowingly lifted. Madam Prevost and young Aaron -neither hear nor see; their eyes and ears are sweetly busy over nearer, -dearer things. - -It is deep evening at the Prevost mansion. A carriage stops at the gate; -the next moment a bold-eyed woman, the boldness somewhat in eclipse -through weariness and fear, bursts in. Young Aaron's memory is for a -moment held at bay; then he recalls her. The bold-eyed one is none other -than that Madam Arnold whom he saw on a Newburyport occasion, when he -was dreaming of conquest and Quebec. Plainly, the bold-eyed one knows -Madam Prevost; for she runs to her with outstretched hands. - -"Oh, I've lied and played the hypocrite all day!" - -Then the bold-eyed one relates the just discovered treason of her -husband, and how she imitated tears and hysteria and the ravings of one -abandoned, to cover herself from the consequences of a crime to which -she was privy, and the commission whereof she urged. - -"This gentleman!" cries the bold-eyed one, as she closes her story--she -has become aware of young Aaron--"this gentleman! May I trust him?" - -[Illustration: 0133] - -"As you would myself," returns Madam Prevost. - -And so, by the lips he loves, young Aaron is bound to permit, if he does -not aid, the escape of the bold-eyed traitress. Wherefore, she goes her -uninterrupted way; after which he forgets her, and again takes up the -subject nearest his heart, his love for Madam Prevost. - -Eighteen months slip by; young Aaron is eager for marriage. Madam -Prevost is not so hurried, but urges a prudent procrastination. He is -about to return to those law studies, which he took up aforetime with -Tappan Reeve. She shows him that it would more consist with his dignity, -were he able to write himself "lawyer" before he became a married man. - -Lovers will listen to sweethearts when husbands turn blandly deaf to -wives, and young Aaron accepts the advice of his goddess of faded years -and experiences. He hunts up a certain Judge Patterson, a law-light of -New Jersey--not too far from Paramus--and enters himself as a student -under that philosopher of jurisprudence. - -Judge Patterson and young Aaron do not agree. The one is methodical, and -looks slowly out upon the world; he holds by the respectable theory that -one should know the law before he practices it. The other favors haste -at any cost, and argues that by practice one will most surely and -sharply come to a profound knowledge of the law. - -Perceiving his studies to go forward as though shod with lead, young -Aaron remonstrates with his preceptor. - -"This will never do," he cries. "Sir, I shall be gray before I go to the -bar!" He explains that it is his purpose to enter upon the practice of -the law within a year. "Twelve months as a student should be enough," he -says. - -"Sir," observes the scandalized Judge Patterson in retort, "to talk of -taking charge of a client's interests after studying but a year is to -talk of fraud. You would but sacrifice them to your own vain ignorance, -sir. It would be a most flagrant case of the blind leading the blind." - -"Possibly now," urges young Aaron the cynical, "the opposing counsel -might be as blind as I, and the bench as blind as either." - -"Such talk is profanation!" exclaims Judge Patterson who, making a cult -of the law, feels a priestly horror at young Aaron's ribaldry. "Let me -be plain, sir! No student shall leave me to engage upon the practice, -unless I think him competent. As to that condition of competency, I deem -you many months' journey from it." - -Finding himself and Judge Patterson so much at variance, young Aaron -bids that severe jurist adieu, and betakes himself to Haverstraw. There -he makes a more agreeable compact with one Judge Smith, whom the English -have driven from New York. While he waits for the day when--English -vanished--he may return to his practice, Judge Smith accepts a round sum -in gold from young Aaron, on the understanding that he devote himself -wholly to that impatient gentleman's education. - -Judge Smith of Haverstraw does his honest best to earn that gold. -Morning, noon, and night, and late into the latter, he and young Aaron -go hammering at the old musty masters of jurisprudence. The student -makes astonishing advances, and it is no more than a matter of weeks -when Jack proves as good as his master. Still, the sentiment which -animates young Aaron's efforts is never high. He studies law as some -folk study fencing, his one absorbing thought being to learn how to -defeat an adversary and save himself. His great concern is to make -himself past master of every thrust, parry, and sleighty trick of fence, -whether in attack or guard, with the one object of victory for himself -and the enemy's destruction. Justice, and to assist thereat, is the -thing distant from his thoughts. - -At the end of six months, Judge Smith declares young Aaron able to hold -his own with any adversary. - -"Mark my words, sir," he observes, when speaking of young Aaron to a -fellow gray member of the guild--"mark my words, sir, he will prove one -of the most dangerous men who ever sat down to a trial table. There is, -of course, a right side and a wrong side to every cause. In that luck -which waits upon the practice of the law, he may, as might you or I, be -retained for the wrong side of a litigation. But whether right or wrong, -should you some day be pitted against him, you will find him possessed -of this sinister peculiarity. If he's right, you won't defeat him; if -he's wrong, you must exercise your utmost care or he'll defeat you." - -Pronouncing which, Judge Smith refreshes himself with sardonic snuff, -after the manner of satirical ones who feel themselves delivered of a -smartish quip. - -Following that profound novitiate of six months, young Aaron visits -Albany and seeks admission to the bar. He should have studied three -years; but the benignant judge forgives him those other two years and -more, basing his generosity on the applicant's services as a soldier. - -"And so," says young Aaron, "I at least get something from my soldier -life. It wasn't all thrown away, since now it saves me a deal of -grinding study at the books." - -Young Aaron settles down to practice law in Albany. He prefers New York -City, and will go there when the English leave. Pending that redcoat -exodus, he cheers his spirit and improves his time by carrying Madam -Prevost to church, where the Reverend Bogard declares them man and wife, -after the methods and manners of the Dutch Reformed. - -The boy husband and the faded middle-aged wife remain a year in Albany. -There a daughter is born. She will grow up as the beautiful Theodosia, -and, when the maternal Theodosia is no more, be all in all to her -father. Young Aaron kisses baby Theodosia, calls the stars his brothers, -and walks the sky. For once, in a way, that old innate egotism is -well-nigh dead in his heart. - -About this time the beaten English sail away for home, and young Aaron -gives up Albany. Albany has three thousand; New York-is a pulsating -metropolis of twenty-two thousand souls. There can be no question as to -where the choice of a rising young barrister should fall. - -He goes therefore to New York; and, with the two Theodosias and the two -little Prevost boys, takes a stately mansion in that thoroughfare of -fashion and fine society, Maiden Lane. He opens law offices by the -Bowling Green, to a gathering cloud of clients. - -The Right Reverend Doctor Bellamy of Bethlehem pays him a visit. - -"With your few months of study," observes the reverend doctor dryly, -"I wonder you know enough of law to so much as keep it, let alone going -about its practice." - -"Law is not so difficult," responds young Aaron, quite as dry as the -good doctor. "Indeed, in some respects it is vastly like theology. -That is to say, it is anything which is boldly asserted and plausibly -maintained." - -The good doctor says he will answer for young Aaron's boldness of -assertion. - -"And yet," continues the good doctor, with just a glimmer of sarcasm, -"the last time I saw you, you gave me the catalogue of your virtues, and -declared them the virtues of a soldier. How comes it, then, that in the -midst of battles you laid down steel for parchment, gave up arms for -law?" - -"Washington drove me from the army," responds young Aaron, with -convincing gravity. "As I told you, sir, by nature I am a soldier, and -turned lawyer only through necessity. And Washington was the necessity." - - - - -CHAPTER IX--SON-IN-LAW HAMILTON - - -NOW when young Aaron, in the throbbing metropolis of New York, finds -himself a lawyer and a married man, with an office by the Bowling Green -and a house in fashionable Maiden Lane, he gives himself up to a cool -survey of his surroundings. What he sees is fairly and honestly set -forth by the good Dr. Bellamy, after that dominie returns to Bethlehem -and Madam Bellamy. The latter, like all true women, is curious, and -gives the doctor no peace until he relates his experiences. - -"The city," observes the veracious doctor, looking up from tea and -muffins, "is large; some say as large as twenty-seven thousand. I -walked to every part of it, seeing all a stranger should. There is much -opulence there. The rich, of whom there are many, have not only town -houses, but cool country seats north of the town. Their Broad Way is a -fine, noble street!--very wide!--fairer than any in Boston!" - -"Doctor!" expostulates Madam Bellamy, who is from Massachusetts. - -"Mother, it is fact! They have, too, a new church, which cost twenty -thousand pounds. At their shipyard I saw an East Indiaman of eight -hundred tons--an immense vessel! The houses are grand, being for the -better part painted--even the brick houses." - -"What! Paint a brick house!" - -"It is their ostentation, mother; their senseless parade of wealth. One -sees the latter everywhere. I was to breakfast at General Schuyler's; it -was an elaborate affair. They assured me their best people were present; -Coster, Livingston, Bleecker, Beekman, Jay were some of the names. A -more elegant repast I never ate--all set as it was with a profusion of -massive plate. There were a silver teapot and a silver coffeepot-----" - -"Solid silver?" - -"Ay! The king's hall-mark was on them; I looked. And finest linen, -too--white as snow! Also cups of gilt; and after the toast, plates of -peaches and a musk melon! It was more a feast than a breakfast." - -"Why, it is a tale of profligacy!" - -"Their manners, however, do not keep pace with their splendid houses and -furnishings. There is no good breeding; they have no conversation, no -modesty. They talk loud, fast, and all together. It is a mere theater -of din and witless babble. They ask a question; and then, before you can -answer, break in with a stream of inane chatter. To be short, I met but -one real gentleman------" - -"Aaron!" - -"Ay, mother; Aaron. I can say nothing good of his religious side; since, -for all he is the grandson of the sainted Jonathan Edwards, he is no -better than the heathen that rageth. But his manners! What a polished -contrast with the boorishness about him! Against that vulgar background -he shines out like the sun at noon!" - -Young Aaron, beginning to remember his twenty-seven years, objects to -the descriptive "young." He has ever scorned it, as though it were some -epithet of infamy. Now he takes open stand against it. - -"I am not so young," says he, to one who mentions him as in the morning -of his years--"I am not so young but what I have commanded a brigade, -sir, on a field of stricken battle. My rank was that of colonel! You -will oblige me by remembering the title." - -In view of the gentleman's tartness, it will be as well perhaps to -hereafter drop the "young"; for no one likes to give offense. Besides, -our tart gentleman is married, and a father. Still, "colonel" is but a -word of pewter when no war is on. "Aaron" should do better; and escape -challenge, too, that irritating "young" being dropped. - -As Aaron runs his glance along the front of the town's affairs, he notes -that in commerce, fashion, politics, and one might almost say religion, -the situation is dominated of a quartette of septs. There are the -Livingstons--numerous, rich. There are the Clintons, of whom Governor -Clinton is chief. There are the Jays, led by the Honorable John of that -ilk. Most and greatest, there are the Schuylers, in the van of which -tribe towers the sour, self-seeking, self-sufficient General Schuyler. -Aaron, in the gossip of the coffee houses, hears much of General -Schuyler. He hears more of that austere person's son-in-law, the -brilliant Alexander Hamilton. - -"I shall be glad to make his acquaintance," thinks Aaron, when he is -told of the latter. "I met him after the battle of Long Island, when in -his pale eagerness to escape the English he had left baggage and guns -behind. Yes; I shall indeed be glad to see him. That such as he can come -to eminence in the town possesses its encouraging side." - -There is a sneer on Aaron's face as these thoughts run in his mind; -those praises of son-in-law Hamilton have vaguely angered his selflove. - -Aaron's opportunity to meet and make the young ex-artilleryman's -acquaintance, is not long in coming. The Tories, whom the war stripped -of their property and civil rights, are praying for relief. A conference -of the town's notables has been called; the local great ones are to come -together in the long-room of the Fraunces Tavern. Being together, -they will consider how far a decent Americanism may unbend toward Tory -relief. - -Aaron arrives early; for the Fraunces long-room is his favorite lounge. -The big apartment has witnessed no changes since a day when poor Peggy -Moncrieffe, as the modern Ariadne, wept on her near-by Naxos of Staten -Island, while a forgetful Theseus, in that same longroom, tasted his -wine unmoved. Aaron is at a corner table with Colonel Troup, when -son-in-law Hamilton arrives. - -"That is he," says Colonel Troup, for they have been talking of the -gentleman. - -Already nosing a rival, Aaron regards the newcomer with a curious black -narrowness which has little of liking in it. Son-in-law Hamilton is -a short, slim, dapper figure of a man, as short and slim as is Aaron -himself. His hair is clubbed into an elaborate cue, and profusely -powdered. He wears a blue coat with bright buttons, a white vest, -a forest of ruffles, black velvet smalls, white silk stockings, and -conventional buckled shoes. - -It is not his clothes, but his countenance to which Aaron addresses -his most searching glances. The forehead is good and full, and rife of -suggestion. The eyes are quick, bright, selfish, unreliable, prone to -look one way while the plausible tongue talks another. As for the face -generally: fresh, full, sensual, brisk, it is the face of a flatterer -and a politician, the face of one who will seek his ends by nearest -methods, and never mind if they be muddy. Also, there is much that is -lurking and secret about the expression, which recalls the slanderer and -backbiter, who will be ever ready to serve himself by lies whispered in -the dark. - -Son-in-law Hamilton does not see Aaron and Colonel Troup, and goes -straight to a group the long length of the room away. Taking a seat, he -at once leads the conversation of the circle he has joined, speaking -in a loud, confident tone, with the manner of one who regards his own -position as impregnable, and his word decisive of whatever question is -discussed. The pompous, self-consequence of son-in-law Hamilton arouses -the dander of Aaron. Nor is the latter's wrath the less, when he -discovers that General Schuyler's self-satisfied young relative thinks -the suppliant Tories should be listened to, as folk overharshly dealt -with. - -As Aaron considers son-in-law Hamilton, and decides unfavorably -concerning that young gentleman's bumptiousness and pert forwardness, -the company is rapped to order by General Schuyler himself. Lean, rusty, -arrogant, supercilious, the general explains that he has been asked -to preside. Being established in the chair, he announces in a rasping, -dictatorial voice the liberal objects of the coming together. He submits -that the Tories have been unjustly treated. It was, he says, but natural -they should adhere to King George. The war being over, and King George -beaten, he does not believe it the part of either a Christian or -a patriot to hold hatred against them. These same Tories are still -Americans. Their names are among the highest in the city. Before the -Revolution they were one and all of a first respectability, many with -pews in Trinity. Now when freedom has won its battle, he feels that -the victors should let bygones be bygones, and restore the Tories, -in property and station, to a place which they occupied before that -pregnant Philadelphia Fourth of July in 1776. - -All this and more to similar effect the austere, rusty Schuyler rasps -forth. When he closes, a profound silence succeeds; for there is no one -who does not know the Schuyler power, or believe that the rasping word -of the rusty old general is equal to marring or furthering the fortunes -of every soul in the room. - -The pause is at last broken by Aaron. Self-possessed, steady, his remarks -are brief but pointed. He combats at every corner what the rusty general -has been pleased to advance. The Tories were traitors. They were worse -than the English. It was they who set the Indians on our borders to -torch and tomahawk and scalping knife. They have been most liberally, -most mercifully dealt with, when they are permitted to go unhanged. -As for restoring their forfeited estates, or permitting them any civil -share in a government which they did their best to strangle in its -cradle, the thought is preposterous. They may have been "respectable," -as General Schuyler states; if so, the respectability was spurious--a -mere hypocritical cover for souls reeking of vileness. They may have had -pews in Trinity. There are ones who, wanting pews in Trinity, still hope -to make their worldly foothold good, and save their souls at last. - -As Aaron takes his seat by Colonel Troup, a murmur of guarded agreement -runs through the company. Many are the looks of surprised admiration -cast in his young direction. Truly, the newcomer has made a stir. - -Not that his stir-making is to go unopposed. No sooner is Aaron in his -chair, than son-in-law Hamilton is upon him verbally; even while those -approving ones are admiringly buzzing, he begins to talk. His tones -are high and patronizing, his manner condescending. He speaks to Aaron -direct, and not to the audience. He will do his best, he explains, to be -tolerant, for he has heard that Aaron is new to the town. None the less, -he must ask that daring person to bear his newness more in mind. He -himself, he says, cannot escape the feeling that one who is no better -than a stranger, an interloper, might with a nice propriety remain -silent on occasions such as this. Son-in-law Hamilton ends by declaring -that the position taken by Aaron, on this subject of Tories and what -shall be their rights, is un-American. He, himself, has fought for the -Revolution; but, now it is ended, he holds that gentlemen of honor and -liberality will not be guided by the ugly clamor of partisans, who would -make the unending punishment of Tories a virtue and call it patriotism. -He fears that Aaron misunderstands the sentiment of those among whom he -has pitched his tent, congratulates him on a youth that offers an excuse -for the rashness of his expressions, and hopes that he may live to gain -a better wisdom. Son-in-law Hamilton does himself proud, and the rusty -old general erects his pleased crest, to find himself so handsomely -defended. - -The rusty general exhibits both surprise and anger, when the rebuked -Aaron again signifies a desire to be heard. This time Aaron, following -that orator's example,-talks not to the audience but son-in-law Hamilton -himself. - -"Our friend," says Aaron, "reminds me that I am young in years; and I -think this the more generous on his part, since I have seen quite as -many years as has he himself. He calls attention to the battle-battered -share he took in securing the liberties of this country; and, while -I hold him better qualified to win laurels as a son-in-law than as -a soldier, I concede him the credit he claims. I myself have been a -soldier, and while serving as such was so fortunate as to meet our -friend. He does not remember the meeting. Nor do I blame him; for it was -upon a day when he had forgotten his baggage, forgotten one of his -guns, forgotten everything, in truth, save the English behind him, and -I should be much too vain if I supposed that, under such forgetful -circumstances, he would remember me. As to my newness in the town, and -that crippled Americanism wherewith he charges me, I have little to say. -I got no one's consent to come here; I shall ask no one's permission to -stay. Doubtless I would have been more within a fashion had I gone with -both questions to the gentleman, or to his celebrated father-in-law, who -presides here today. These errors, however, I shall abide by. Also, I -shall content myself with an Americanism which, though it possess none -of those sunburned, West Indian advantages so strikingly illustrated in -the gentleman, may at least congratulate itself upon being two hundred -years old." - -Having returned upon the self-sufficient head of son-in-law Hamilton -those courtesies which the latter lavished upon him, Aaron proceeds to -voice again, but with more vigorous emphasis, the anti-Tory sentiments -he has earlier expressed. When he ceases speaking there is no applause, -nothing save a dead stillness; for all who have heard feel that a feud -has been born--a Burr-Schuyler-Hamilton feud, and are prudently inclined -to await its development before pronouncing for either side. The -feeling, however, would seem to follow the lead of Aaron; for the -resolution smelling of leniency toward Tories is laid upon the table. - - - - -CHAPTER X--THAT SEAT IN THE SENATE - - -WHILE Aaron, frostily contemptuous, but with manners as superfine as -his ruffles, is saying those knife-thrust things to son-in-law Hamilton, -that latter young gentleman's face is a study in black and red. His -expression is a composite of rage colored of fear. The defiance of Aaron -is so full, so frank, that it seems studied. Son-in-law Hamilton is not -sure of its purpose, or what intrigue it may hide. Deeply impressed as -to his own importance, the thought takes hold on him that Aaron's attack -is parcel of some deliberate design, held by folk who either hate him or -envy him, or both, to lure him to the dueling ground and kill him out of -the way. He draws a long breath at this, and sweats a little; for life -is good and death not at all desired. He makes no effort at retort, but -stomachs in silence those words which burn his soul like coals of fire. -What is strange, too, for all their burning, he vaguely finds in them -some chilling touch as of death. He realizes, as much from the grim -fineness of Aaron's manner as from his raw, unguarded words, that he is -ready to carry discussion to the cold verge of the grave. - -Son-in-law Hamilton's nature lacks in that bitter drop, so present in -Aaron's, which teaches folk to die but never yield. Wherefore, in his -heart he now shrinks back, afraid to go forward with a situation grown -perilous, albeit he himself provoked it. Saving his credit with ones who -look, if they do not speak, their wonder at his mute tameness, he says -he will talk with General Schuyler concerning what course he shall -pursue. Saying which he gets away from the Fraunces long-room somewhat -abruptly, feathers measurably subdued. Aaron lingers but a moment after -son-in-law Hamilton departs, and then goes his polished, taciturn way. - -The incident is a nine-days' food for gossip; wagers are made of a -coming bloody encounter between Aaron and son-in-law Hamilton. Those -lose who accept the sanguinary side; the two meet, but the meeting -is politely peaceful, albeit, no good friendliness, but only a wider -separation is the upcome. The occasion is the work of son-in-law -Hamilton, who is presented by Colonel Troup. - -"We should know each other better, Colonel Burr," he observes. - -Son-in-law Hamilton seems the smiling picture of an affability that -of itself is a kind of flattery. Aaron bows, while those affable rays -glance from his chill exterior as from an iceberg. - -"Doubtless we shall," says he. - -Son-in-law Hamilton gets presently down to the serious purpose of his -coming. "General Schuyler," he says gravely, for he ever speaks of his -father-in-law as though the latter were a demi-god--"General Schuyler -would like to meet you; he bids me ask you to come to him." - -Colonel Troup is in high excitement. No such honor has been tendered one -of Aaron's youth within his memory. Wholly the courtier, he looks to see -the honored one eagerly forward to go to General Schuyler--that Jove who -not alone controls the local thunderbolts but the local laurels. He is -shocked to his courtierlike core, when Aaron maintains his cold reserve. - -"Pardon me, sir!" says Aaron. "Say to General Schuyler that his request -is impossible. I never call on gentlemen at their suggestion and on -their affairs. When I have cause of my own to go to General Schuyler, I -shall go. Until then, if there be reason for our meeting, he must come -to me." - -"You forget General Schuyler's age!" returns son-in-law Hamilton. There -is a ring of threat in the tones. - -"Sir," responds Aaron stiffly, "I forget nothing. There is an age cant -which I shall not tolerate. I desire to be understood as saying, and you -may repeat my words to whomsoever possesses an interest, that I shall -not in my own conduct consent to a social doctrine which would invest -folk, because they have lived sixty years, with a franchise to patronize -or, if they choose, insult gentlemen whose years, we will suppose, are -fewer than thirty." - -"I am sorry you take this view," returns son-in-law Hamilton, copying -Aaron's stiffness. "You will not, I fear, find many to support you in -it." - -"I am not looking for support, sir," observes Aaron, pointing the remark -with one of those black ophidian stares. "I do you also the courtesy to -assume that you intend no criticism of myself by your remark." - -There is an inflection as though a question is put. Son-in-law Hamilton -so far submits to the inflection as to explain. He intends only to -say that General Schuyler's place in the community is of such high and -honorable sort as to make his request to call upon him a mark of favor. -As to criticism: Why, then, he criticised no gentleman. - -There is much profound bowing, and the meeting ends; Colonel Troup, a -trifle aghast, retiring with son-in-law Hamilton, whose arm he takes. - -"There could be no agreement with that young man," mutters Aaron, -looking after the retreating Hamilton, "save on a basis of submission to -his leadership. I'll be chief or nothing." - -Aaron settles himself industriously to the practice of law. In the -courts, as in everything else, he is merciless. Lucid, indefatigable, -convincing, he asks no quarter, gives none. His business expands; -clients crowd about him; prosperity descends in a shower of gold. - -Often he runs counter to son-in-law Hamilton--himself actively in the -law--before judge and jury. When they are thus opposed, each is the -other's match for a careful but wintry courtesy. For all his courtesy, -however, Aaron never fails to defeat son-in-law Hamilton in whatever -litigation they are about. His uninterrupted victories over son-in-law -Hamilton are an added reason for the latter's jealous hatred. He and -his rusty father-in-law become doubly Aaron's foes, and grasp at every -chance to do him harm. - -And yet, that antagonism has its compensations. It brings Aaron into -favor with Governor Clinton; it finds him allies among the Livingstons. -The latter powerful family invite him into their politics. He thanks -them, but declines. He is for the law; hungry to make money, he sees no -profit, but only loss in politics. - -In his gold-getting, Aaron is marvelously successful; and, as he -rolls up riches, he buys land. Thus one proud day he becomes master of -Richmond Hill, with its lawn sweeping down to the Hudson--Richmond Hill, -where he played slave of the quill to Washington, and suffered in his -vanity from the big general's loftily abstracted pose. - -Master of a mansion, Aaron fills his libraries with books and his -cellars with wine. Thus he is never without good company, reading the -one and sipping the other. The faded Theodosia presides over his house; -and, because of her years or his lack of them, her manner toward him -trenches upon the maternal. - -The household is a hive of happiness. Aaron, who takes the pedagogue -instinct from sire and grandsire, puts in his leisure drilling the -small Prevost boys in their lessons. He will have them talking Latin and -reading Greek like little priests, before he is done with them. As for -baby Theodosia, she reigns the chubby queen of all their hearts; it is -to her credit not theirs that she isn't hopelessly spoiled. - -In his wine and his reading, Aaron's tastes take opposite directions. -The books he likes are heavy, while his best-liked wines are light. He -reads Jeremy Bentham; also he finds comfort in William Godwin and Mary -Wollstonecraft. - -He adorns his study with a portrait of the lady; which feat in -decoration furnishes the prudish a pang. - -These book radicalisms, and his weaknesses for alarming doctrines, -social and political, do not help Aaron's standing with respectable -hypocrites, of whom there are vast numbers about, and who in its fashion -and commerce and politics give the town a tone. These whited sepulchers -of society purse discreet yet condemnatory lips when Aaron's name is -mentioned, and speak of him as favoring "Benthamism" and "Godwinism." -Our dullard pharisee folk know no more of "Benthamism" and "Godwinism" -in their definitions, than of plant life in the planet Mars; but their -manner is the manner of ones who speak of evils tenfold worse than -murder. Aaron pays no heed; neither does he fret over the innuendoes -of these hypocritical ones. He was born full of contempt for men's -opinions, and has fostered and flattered it into a kind of cold passion. -Occupied with the loved ones at Richmond Hill, careless to the point of -blind and deaf of all outside, he seeks only to win lawsuits and pile up -gold. And never once does his glance rove officeward. - -This anti-office coolness is all on Aaron's side. He does not pursue -office; but now and again office pursues him. Twice he goes to the -legislature; next, Governor Clinton asks him to become attorney general. -As attorney general he makes one of a commission, Governor Clinton -at its head, which sells five and a half million acres of the State's -public land for $1,030,000. The highest price received is three -shillings an acre; the purchasers number six. The big sale is to -Alexander McComb, who is given a deed for three million six hundred -thousand acres at eight-pence an acre. The public howls over these -surprising transactions in real estate. The popular anger, however, is -leveled at Governor Clinton, he being a sort of Caesar. Aaron, who dwells -more in the background, escapes unscathed. - -While these several matters go forward, the nation adopts a -constitution. Then it elects Washington President, and sets up -government shop in New York. Aaron's part in these mighty doings is the -quiet part. He does not think much of the Constitution, but accepts it; -he thinks less of Washington, but accepts him, too. It is within the -rim of the possible that son-in-law Hamilton, invited into Washington's -Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, helps the administration to a -lowest place in Aaron's esteem; for Aaron is a priceless hater, and that -feud is in no degree relaxed. - -When the national government is born, the rusty General Schuyler and -Rufus King are chosen senators for New York. The rusty old general, in -the two-handed lottery which ensues, draws the shorter term. This in no -wise weighs upon him; what difference should it make? At the close of -that short term, he will be reelected for a full term of six years. To -assume otherwise would be preposterous; the rusty old general feels no -such short-term uneasiness. - -Washington has two weaknesses: he loves flattery, and he is a bad judge -of men. Son-inlaw Hamilton, because he flatters best, sits highest -in the Washington esteem. He is the right arm of the big Virginian's -administration; also he is quite as confident, as the rusty General -Schuyler, of that latter personage's reelection. Indeed, if he could be -prevailed upon to answer queries so foolish, he would say that, of -all sure future things, the Senate reelection of the rusty general is -surest. Not a cloud of doubt is seen in the skies. - -And yet there lives one who, from his place as attorney general, is -watching that Senate seat as a tiger watches its prey. Noiselessly, yet -none the less powerfully, Aaron gathers himself for the spring. Both his -pride and his hate are involved in what he is about. To be a senator is -to wear a proudest title in the land. In this instance, to be a senator -means a staggering blow to that Schuyler-Hamilton tribe whose foe he -is. More; it opens a pathway to the injury of Washington. Aaron would be -even for what long ago war slights the big general put upon him, slights -which he neither forgets nor forgives. He smiles a pale, thin-lipped -smile as he pictures with the eye of rancorous imagination the look -which will spread across the face of Washington, when he hears of the -rusty Schuyler's overthrow, and him who brought that overthrow about. -The smile is quick to die, however, since he who would strip his toga -from the rusty Schuyler must not sit down to dreams and castle building. - -Aaron goes silently yet sedulously about his plans. In their execution -he foresees that many will be hurt; none the less the stubborn outlook -does not daunt him. One cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs. - -In his coming war with the rusty Schuyler, Aaron feels the need of two -things: he must have an issue, and he must have allies. It is of vital -importance to bring Governor Clinton to the shoulder of his ambitions. -He looks that potentate over with a calculating eye, making a mental -catalogue of his approachable points. - -The old governor is of Irish blood and Irish temper. His ancestors were -not the quietest folk in Galway. Being of gunpowder stock, he dearly -loves a foe, and will no more forget an injury than a favor. Aaron -shows the old governor that, in his late election, the Schuyler-Hamilton -interest was slyly behind his opponent Judge Yates, and nearly brought -home victory for the latter. - -"You owe General Schuyler," he says, "no help at this pinch. Still less -are you in debt to Hamilton. It was the latter who put Yates in the -field." - -"And yet," protests the old governor, inclined to anger, but not quite -convinced--"and yet I saw no signs of either Schuyler or his son-in-law -in the business." - -"Sir, that is their duplicity. One so open as yourself would be the last -to discover such intrigues. The young fox Hamilton managed the affair; -in doing so, he moved only in the dark, walked in all the running water -he could find." - -What Aaron says is true; in the finish he gives proof of it to the old -governor. At this the latter's Irish blood begins to gather heat. - -"It is as you tell me!" he cries at last; "I can see it now! That West -Indian runagate Hamilton was the bug under the Yates chip!" - -"And you must not forget, sir, that for every scheme of politics -'Schuyler' and 'Hamilton' are interchangeable." - -"You are right! When one pulls the other pushes. They are my enemies, -and I shall not be less than theirs." - -The governor asks Aaron what candidate they shall pit against the -rusty Schuyler. Aaron has thus far said nothing of himself in any toga -connection, fearing that the old governor may regard his thirty-six -years as lacking proper gravity. Being urged to suggest a name, he waxes -discreet. He believes, he says, that the Livingstons can be prevailed -upon to come out against the rusty Schuyler, if properly approached. -Such approach might be more gracefully made if no candidate is pitched -upon at this time. - -"From your place, sir, as governor," observes the skillful Aaron, "you -could not of course condescend to go in person to the Livingstons. My -position, however, is not so high nor my years so many as are yours; I -need not scruple to take up the matter with them. As to a candidate, I -can go to them more easily if we leave the question open. I could tell -the Livingstons that you would like a suggestion from them on that -point. It would flatter their pride." - -The old governor is pleased to regard with favor the reasoning of Aaron. -He remarks, too, that with him the candidate is not important. The main -thought is to defeat the rusty Schuyler, who, with son-in-law Hamilton, -so aforetime played the hypocrite, and pulled treacherous wires against -him, in the hope of compassing his defeat. He declares himself quite -satisfied to let the Livingstons select what fortunate one is to be the -senate successor of the rusty Schuyler. He urges Aaron to wait on the -Livingstons without delay, and discover their feeling. - -Aaron confers with the Livingstons, and shows them many things. Mostly -he shows them that, should he himself be chosen senator, it will -necessitate his resignation as attorney general. Also, he makes it -appear that, if the old governor be properly approached, he will name -Morgan Lewis to fill the vacancy. The Livingston eye glistens; the -mother of Morgan Lewis is a Livingston, and the office of attorney -general should match the gentleman's fortunes nicely. Besides, there -are several ways wherein an attorney general might be of much Livingston -use. No, the Livingstons do not say these things. They say instead that -none is more nobly equipped for the role of senator than Aaron. Finally, -it is the Livingstons who go back to the old governor. Nor do they find -it difficult to convince him that Aaron is the one surest of defeating -the rusty Schuyler. - -"Colonel Burr," say the Livingstons, "has no record, which is another -way of saying that he has no enemies. We deem this most important; it -will lessen the effort required to bring about him a majority of the -legislature." - -The old governor, as Aaron feared, is inclined to shy at the not too -many years of our ambitious one; but after a bit Aaron, as a notion, -begins to grow upon him. - -"He has brains, sir," observes the old governor thoughtfully--"he has -brains; and that is of more consequence than mere years. He has double -the intelligence of Schuyler, although he may not count half his age. I -call that to his credit, sir." The chief of the clan-Livingston shares -the Clinton view. - -And now takes place a competition in encomium. Between the chief of the -clan-Livingston, and the old governor, so many excellences are ascribed -to Aaron that, did he own but the half, he might call himself a model -for mankind. As for Morgan Lewis, who is a Livingston, the old governor -sees in him almost as many virtues as he perceives in Aaron. He gives -the chief of the clan-Livingston hand and word that, when Aaron steps -out of the attorney generalship, Morgan Lewis shall step in. - -Having drawn to his support the two most powerful influences of the -State, Aaron makes search for an issue. He looks into the mouth of the -public, and there it is. Politicians do not make issues, albeit -poets have sung otherwise. Indeed, issues are so much like the poets -themselves that they are born, not made. Every age has its issue; from -it, as from clay, the politicians mold the bricks wherewith they build -themselves into office. The issue is the question which the people ask; -it is to be found only in the popular mouth. That is where Aaron looks -for it, and his quest is rewarded. - -The issue, so much demanded of Aaron's destinies, is one of those -big-little questions which now and then arise to agitate the souls of -folk, and demonstrate the greatness of the small. There are twenty-eight -members in the National Senate; and, since it is the first Senate and -has had no predecessor, there exist no precedents for it to guide by. -Also those twenty-eight senators are puffballs of vanity. - -On the first day of their first coming together they prove the purblind -sort of their conceit, by shutting their doors in the public's face. -They say they will hold their sessions in secret. The public takes this -action in dudgeon, and begins filing its teeth. - -Puffiest among those senate puffballs is the rusty Schuyler. As narrow -as he is arrogant, as dull as vain, his contempt for the herd was -never a secret. As a senator, he declares himself the guardian, not -the servant, of a people too weakly foolish for the safe transaction of -their own affairs. - -It is against this self-sufficient attitude of the rusty Schuyler -touching locked senate doors that Aaron wages war. He urges that, in a -republic, but two keys go with government; one is to the treasury, the -other to the jail. He argues that not even a senate will lock a door -unless it be either ashamed or afraid of what it is about. - -"Of what is our Senate afraid?" he asks. - -"Of what is it ashamed? I cannot answer these questions; the people -cannot answer them. I recommend that those who are interested ask -General Schuyler." - -The public puts the questions to the rusty Schuyler. Not receiving an -answer, the public carries the questions to the legislature, where the -Clinton and Livingston influences come sharply to the popular support. - -"Shall the Senate lock its door?" - -The Clintons say No; the Livingstons say No; the people say No. Under -such overbearing circumstances, the legislature feels driven to say No; -and, as a best method of saying it, elects to the Senate Aaron, who is -a "door-opener," over the rusty Schuyler, who is a "door-closer," by a -majority of thirteen. It is no longer "Aaron Burr," no longer "Colonel -Burr," it is "Senator Burr." The news heaps the full weight of ten years -on the rusty Schuyler. As for son-in-law Hamilton, the blasting word of -it withers and makes sick his heart. - - - - -CHAPTER XI--THE STATESMAN FROM NEW YORK - - -THE shop of government has been moved to Philadelphia. In the brief -space between the overthrow of the rusty Schuyler by Aaron, and -the latter taking his seat, the great ones talk of nothing but that -overthrow. Washington vaguely and Jefferson clearly read in the victory -of Aaron the beginning of a new order. It is extravagantly an hour of -classes and masses; and the most dull does not fail to make out in the -Senate unseating of the rusty but aristocratic Schuyler a triumphant -clutch at power by the masses. - -Something of the sort crops up in conversation about the President's -dinner table. The occasion is informal; save for Vice-President Adams, -those present are of the Cabinet. Washington himself brings up the -subject. - -"It is the strangest news!" says he--"this word of the Senate success of -Colonel Burr." - -Then, appealing to Hamilton: "Of what could your folk of New York have -been thinking? General Schuyler is a gentleman of fortune, the head of -one of the oldest families! This Colonel Burr is a young man of small -fortune, and no family at all." - -"Sir," breaks in Adams with pompous impetuosity, "you go wide. Colonel -Burr is of the best blood of New England. His grandsire was Jonathan -Edwards; on his father's side the strain is as high. You would look -long, sir, before you discovered one who has a better pedigree." - -"Whatever may be the gentleman's pedigree," retorts Hamilton -splenetically, "you will at least confess it to be only a New England -pedigree." - -"Only a New England pedigree!" exclaims Adams, in indignant wonder. -"Why, sir, when you say 'The best pedigree in New England,' you have -spoken of the best pedigree in the world!" - -"Waiving that," returns Hamilton, "I may at least assure you, sir, that -in New York your best New England pedigree does not invoke the reverence -which you seem to pay it. No, sir; the success of Colonel Burr was the -result of no pedigree. No one cared whether he were the grandson -of Jonathan Edwards or Tom o' Bedlam. Colonel Burr won by lies and -trickery; by the same methods through which a thief might win possession -of your horse. Stripping the subject of every polite veneer of phrase, -the fellow stole his victory." At this harshness Adams looks horrified, -while Jefferson, who has listened with interest, shrugs his wide -shoulders. - -Washington appears wondrously impressed. Strong, honest, slow, he is -in no wise keen at reading men. Hamilton--quick, supple, subservient, -a brilliant flatterer--has complete possession of him. He admires -Hamilton, rejoices in him in a large, bland manner of patronage. - -[Illustration: 0173] - -The pair, in their mutual attitudes, are not unlike a huge mastiff and -some small vivacious, spiteful, half-bred terrier that makes himself -the mastiff's satellite. Terrier Hamilton--brisk, busy, overbearing, not -always honest--rushes hither and yon, insulting one man, trespassing on -another. Let the insulted one but threaten or the injured one pursue, at -once Terrier Hamilton takes skulking refuge behind Mastiff Washington. -And the latter never fails Terrier Hamilton. Blinded by his overweening -partiality, a partiality that has no reason beyond his own innate love -of flattery, Washington ever saves Hamilton blameless, whatever may have -been his evil deeds. - -Washington constitutes Hamilton's stock in national trade. In New -York, Hamilton is the rusty Schuyler's son-in-law--heir to his riches, -lieutenant of his name. In the nation at large, however, Hamilton -traffics on that confident nearness to Washington, and his known ability -to pull or haul or lead the big Virginian any way he will. To have -a full-blown President to be your hand gun is no mean equipment, -and Hamilton, be sure, makes the fullest, if not the most honest or -honorable, use of it. - -"Now I do not think it was either the noble New England blood of Colonel -Burr, or his skill as a politician, that defeated General Schuyler." - -The voice--while not without a note of jeering--is bell-like and deep, -the thoughtful, well-assured voice of Jefferson. Washington glances at -his angular, sandy-haired Secretary of State. - -"What was it, then," he asks. - -"I will tell you my thought," replies Jefferson. "General Schuyler was -beaten by that very fortune, added to that very headship of a foremost -family, which you hold should have been unanswerable for his election. -The people are reaching out, sir, for the republican rule that is their -right, and which they conquered from England. You know, as well as I, -what followed the peace of Paris in this country. It was not democracy, -but aristocracy. The government has been taken under the self-sufficient -wing of a handful of families, that, having great property rights, hold -themselves forth as heaven-anointed rulers of the land. The people are -becoming aroused to both their powers and their rights. In the going of -General Schuyler and the coming of Colonel Burr, I find nothing worse -than a gratifying notice that American mankind intends to have a voice -in its own government." - -"You appear pleased, sir," observes Hamilton bitterly. - -"Pleased is but a poor word. It no more than faintly expresses the -satisfaction I feel." - -"You amaze me!" interrupts Adams, as much the aristocrat as either -Washington or Hamilton, but of a different tribe. "Do I understand, sir, -that you will welcome the rule of the mob?" - -"The 'mob,'" retorts Jefferson, "can be trusted to guard its own -liberty.. The mob won that liberty, sir! Who, then, should be better -prepared to stand sentinel over it? Not a handful of rich snobs, surely, -who, in the arrogant idleness which their money permits, play at caste -and call themselves an American peerage." - -"Government by the mob!" gasps Adams, who, in the narrowness of his -New England vanity--honest man!--has passed his life on a self-erected -pedestal. "Government by the mob!" - -"And why not, sir?" demands Jefferson sharply. "It is the mob's -government. Who shall contradict the mob's right to control its own? -Have we but shuffled off one royalty to shuffle on another?" - -Adams, excellent pig-head, can say no more; besides, he fears the -quick-tongued Secretary of State. Hamilton, too, is heedful to avoid -Jefferson, and, following that democrat's declarations anent mob right -and mob rule, glances with questioning eye at Washington, as though -imploring him to come to the rescue. With this the big President begins -to unlimber complacently. - -"Government, my dear Jefferson," he says, wheeling himself like -some great gun into argumentative position, "may be discussed in the -abstract, but must be administered in the concrete. I think a best -picture of government is a shepherd with his flock of sheep. He -finds them a safety and a better pasturage than they could find for -themselves. He is necessary to the sheep, as the sheep are necessary -to him. He can be trusted; since his interest is the interest of the -flock." - -Jefferson grins a hard, angular grin, in which there is wisdom, -patience, courage, but not one gleam of humor. "I cannot," says he, -"accept your simile of sheep and shepherd as a happy one. The people -of this country are far from being addle-pated sheep. Nor do I find -our self-selected shepherds"--here he lets his glance rove cynically -to Adams and Hamilton--"such profound scientists of civil rule. Your -shepherd is a dictator. This republic--if it is a republic--might more -justly be likened to a company of merchants, equal in interests, who -appoint agents, but retain among themselves the control." - -"And yet," observes Hamilton, who can think of nothing but Aaron and his -own hatred for that new senator, "the present question is one, not of -republics or dictatorships, but of Colonel Burr. I know him; know him -well. You will find him a crooked gun." - -"It is ten years since I saw him," observes Washington. "I did not like -him; but that was because of a forward impertinence which ill became -his years. Besides, I thought him egotistical, selfish, of no high aims. -That, as I say, was ten years ago; he may have changed vastly for the -better." - -"There has been no bettering change, sir," returns Hamilton. His manner -is purring, insinuating, the courtier manner, and conveys the impression -of one who seeks only to protect Washington from betrayal by his own -goodness of heart. "Sir, he is more egotistical, more selfish, than when -you parted from him. I think it my duty, since the gentleman will have -his place in government, to speak plainly. I hold Colonel Burr to be -a veriest firebrand of disorder. None knows better than I the peril -of this man. Bold at once and bad, there is nothing too high for his -ambition to fly at, nothing too low for his intrigue to embrace. He -is both Jack Cade and Cromwell. Like the one, he possesses a sinister -attraction for the vulgar herd; like the other, he would not hesitate -to lead the herd against government itself, in furtherance of his vile -projects." - -Neither Adams nor Jefferson goes wholly unaffected by these -malignancies; while Washington, whose credulity is measureless when -Hamilton speaks, drinks them in like spring water. - -"Well," observes the cautious Jefferson, as closing the discussion, "the -gentleman himself will soon be among us, and fairness, if not prudence, -suggests that we defer judgment on him until experience has given us a -basis for it." - -"You will find," says Hamilton, "that he is, as I tell you, but a -crooked gun." - -Aaron takes his oath as senator, and sinks into a seat among his -reverend fellows. As he does so he cannot repress a cynical glance about -him--cynical, since he sees more to despise than respect. It is the -opening day of the session. Washington as President, severe, of an -implacable dignity, appears and reads a solemn address. Later, -according to custom, both Senate and House send delegations to wait upon -Washington, and read solemn addresses to him. - -His colleagues pitch upon Aaron to prepare the address for the Senate, -since he is supposed to have a genius for phrases. The precious -document in his pocket, Vice-President Adams on his arm, Aaron leads the -Senate delegation to the President's house. They find the big Virginian -awaiting them in the long dining room, which apartment has been -transformed into an audience chamber by the simple expedient of carrying -out the table and shoving back the chairs. - -Washington stands near the great fireplace. At his elbow and a step to -the rear, a look of lackey fawning on his face, whispering, beaming, -blandishing, basking, is Hamilton. Utterly the sycophant, wholly the -politician, he holds onto Washington by those before-mentioned tendrils -of flattery, and finds in him a trellis, whereon to climb and clamber -and blossom, wanting which he would fall groveling to the ground. The -big Virginian--and that is the worst of it--is as much led by him as any -blind man by his dog. - -Washington has changed as a figure since he and Aaron, on that far-off -day, disagreed touching leaves of absence without pay. Instead of rusty -blue and buff, frayed and stained of weather, he is clad in a suit of -superb black velvet, with black silk stockings and silver buckles. His -hair, white as snow with powder, is gathered behind in a silken bag. In -one of his large hands, made larger by yellow gloves, he holds a cocked -hat--brave with gold braid, cockade, and plume. A huge sword, with -polished steel hilt and white scabbard, dangles by his side. It is in -this notable uniform our President receives the Senate delegation, -Aaron and Vice-President Adams at the head, as it gathers in a formal -half-circle about him. - -Being thus happily disposed, Adams in a raucous, pragmatic voice reads -Aaron's address. It is quite as hollow and pointless and vacant of -purpose as was Washington's. Its delivery, however, is loftily heavy, -since the mummery is held a most important element of what tinsel-isms -make up the etiquette of our American court. Save that the audience -chamber is less sumptuous, the ceremony might pass for King George -receiving his ministers, instead of President George receiving a -delegation from the Senate. - -No one is more disagreeably aroused by this paltry imitation of royalty -than Aaron. Some glint of his contempt must show in his eyes; for -Hamilton, eager to make the conqueror of the rusty Schuyler as offensive -to Washington as he may, is swift to draw him out. - -"Welcome to the Capitol, Senator Burr!" he exclaims, when Adams has -finished. "This, I believe, is your earliest appearance here. I doubt -not you find the opening of our Congress exceedingly impressive." - -Since Aaron came into the presence of Washington, he has arrived at -divers decisions which will have effect in the country's story, before -the curtain of time descends and the play of government is played out. -His first feeling is one of angry repugnance toward Washington himself. -He liked him little as a general; he likes him less as a president. - -"I shall be no friend to this man," thinks he, "nor he to me." - -Aaron tries to believe that his resentment is due to Washington's all -but royal state. In his heart, however, he knows that his wrath is -personal. He reconsiders that discouraging royalty, and puts his feeling -upon more probable grounds. - -"I distaste him," he decides, "because he meets no man on level terms. -He places himself on a plane by himself. He looks down to everybody; -everybody must look up to him. He is incapable of friendship, and will -either be guardian or jailer to mankind. He told Putnam I was vain, -conceited. Was there ever such blind vanity as his own? No; he will -be no man's friend--this self-discovered demigod! He does not desire -friends. What he hungers for is adulation, incense. He prefers none -about him save knee-crooking sycophants--like this smirking parasitish -Hamilton." - -Aaron, while the pompous Adams thunders forth that empty address, -resolves to hold himself aloof from Washington and all who belt him -round. Being in this high mood, he welcomes the opportunity which -Hamilton's remark affords him, to publicly notify those present of his -position. - -"It will be as well," he ruminates, "to post, not alone these good -people of Cabinet and Senate, but the royal Washington himself. I shall -let them, and let him, know that I am not to be a follower of this -republican king of ours." - -"Yes," repeats Hamilton, with a side glance at Washington, who for the -moment is talking in a courtly way with Adams, "yes; you doubtless -find the opening ceremonies exceedingly impressive. Most newcomers do. -However, it will wear down, sir; the feeling will wear down!" Hamilton -throws off this last with an ineffable air of experience and elevation. - -"Sir," returns Aaron, preserving a thin shimmer of politeness, "sir, -by these ceremonies, through which we have romped so deeply to your -gratification, I confess I have been quite as much bored as impressed. -There is something cheap, something antic and senseless to it all--as -though we were sylvan apes! What are these wondrous ceremonies? Why -then, the President 'addresses> the Senate, the Senate 'addresses' the -President; neither says anything, neither means anything, and the whole -exchange comes to be no more than just an empty barter of bad English." -This last, in view of the fact that Aaron himself is the architect of -the address of the Senate, sounds liberal, and not at all conceited. He -goes on: "I must say, sir, that my little dip into government, confined -as it has been to these marvelous ceremonies, leaves me with a poorer -opinion of my country than I brought here. As for the ceremonies -themselves, I should call them now about as edifying as the banging and -the booming of a brace of Chinese gongs." - -Washington's brow is red, his eye cold, as he bows a formal leave to -Aaron when he departs with the others. Plainly, the views of the young -successor to the rusty Schuyler, concerning addresses of ceremony, have -not been lost upon him. - -"I think," mutters Aaron, icily complacent--"I think I pricked him." - - - - -CHAPTER XII--IDLENESS AND BLACK RESOLVES - - -AARON finds a Senate existence inexpressibly dull. He writes his -Theodosia: "There is nothing to do here. Everybody is idle; and, so far -as I see, the one occupation of a senator is to lie sunning himself in -his own effulgence. My colleague, Rufus King, and others I might name, -succeed in that way in passing their days very pleasantly. For -myself, not having their sublime imagination, and being perhaps better -acquainted with my own measure, I find this sitting in the sunshine of -self a failure." - -Mindful of his issue, Aaron offers a resolution throwing open the Senate -doors. The Senate, whose notion of greatness is a notion of exclusion, -votes it down. Aaron warns his puffball brothers of the toga: - -"Be assured," says he, "you fool no one by such trumpery tricks as this -key-turning. You succeed only in bringing republican institutions -into contempt, and getting yourselves laughed at where you are not -condemned." - -Aaron reintroduces his open-door resolution; in the end he passes it. -Galleries are thrown up in the chamber, and all who will may watch the -Senate as it proceeds upon the transaction of its dignified destinies. -At this but few come; whereupon the Senate feels abashed. It is not, it -discovers, the thrilling spectacle its puffball fancy painted. - -Carked of the weariness of doing nothing, Aaron bursts forth with an -idea. He will write a history of the War of the Revolution. He begins -digging among the papers of the State department, tossing the archives -of his country hither and yon, on the tireless horns of his industry. - -Hamilton creeps with the alarming tale to Washington. "He speaks -of writing a history, sir," says sycophant Hamilton. "That is mere -subterfuge; he intends a libel against yourself." - -Washington brings his thin lips together in a tight, straight line, -while his heavy forehead gathers to a half frown. - -"How, sir," he asks, after a pause, "could he libel me? I am conscious -of nothing in my past which would warrant such a thought." - -"There is not, sir, a fact of your career that would not, if mentioned, -make for your glory." Hamilton deprecates with delicately outspread -hands as he says this. "That, however, would not deter this Burr, who is -Satanic in his mendacities. Believe me, sir, he has the power of making -fiction look more like truth than truth itself. And there is another -thought: Suppose he were to assail you with some trumped-up story. You -could not come down from your high place to contradict him; it would -detract from you, stain your dignity. That is the penalty, sir"--this -with a sigh of unspeakable adulation--"which men of your utter eminence -have to pay. Such as you are at the mercy of every gutter-bred vilifier; -whatever his charges, you cannot open your mouth." - -Aaron hears nothing of this. His first guess of it comes when he is told -by a State department underling that he will no longer be allowed to -inspect and make copies of the papers. - -Without wasting words on the underling, Aaron walks in upon Jefferson. -That secretary receives him courteously, but not warmly. - -"How, sir," begins Aaron, a wicked light in his eye--"how, sir, am I to -understand this? Is it by your order that the files of the department -are withheld from me?" - -"It is not, sir," returns Jefferson, coldly frank. "My own theories of -a citizen and his rights would open every public paper to the inspection -of the meanest. I do not understand government by secrecy." - -"By whose order then am I refused?" - -"By order of the President." - -Aaron ruminates the situation. At last he speaks out: "I must yield," -he says, "while realizing the injustice done me. Still I shall not soon -forget the incident. You say it is the order of Washington; you are -mistaken, sir. It is not the lion but his jackal that has put this -affront upon me." - -Idle in the Senate, precluded from collecting the materials for that -projected history, Aaron discovers little to employ himself about in -Philadelphia. Not that he falls into stagnation; for his business of -the law, and his speculations in land take him often to New York. His -trusted Theodosia is his manager of business, and when he cannot go to -New York she meets him half way in Trenton. - -Aside from his concerns of law and land, Aaron devotes a deal of thought -to little Theodosia--child of his soul's heart! In his pride, he hurries -her into Horace and Terence at the age of ten; and later sends her -voyaging to Troy with Homer, and all over the world with Herodotus. Nor -is this the whole tale of baby Theodosia's evil fortunes. She is taught -French, music, drawing, dancing, and whatever else may convey a glory -and a gloss. Love-led, pride-blinded, Aaron takes up the role of father -in its most awful form. - -"Believe me, my dear," he says to Theodosia mere, who pleads for an -educational leniency--"believe me, I shall prove in our darling that -women have souls, a psychic fact which high ones have been heard to -dispute." - -At the age of twelve, the book-burdened little Theodosia translates -the Constitution into French at Aaron's request; at sixteen, she finds -celebration as the most learned of her sex since Voltaire's Emilie. -Theodosia mere, however, is spared the spectacle of her baby's harrowing -erudition, for in the middle of Aaron's term as senator death carries -her away. - -With that loss, Aaron is more and more drawn to baby Theodosia; she -becomes his earth, his heaven, and stands for all his tenderest hopes. -While she is yet a child, he makes her the head of Richmond Hill, -and gives a dinner of state, over which she presides, to the limping -Talleyrand, and Volney with his "Ruins of Empire." For all her -precocities, and that hothouse bookishness which should have spoiled -her, baby Theodosia blossoms roundly into womanhood--beautiful as -brilliant. - -While Aaron finds little or nothing of public sort to engage him, he -does not permit this idleness to shake his hold of politics. Angry -with the royalties of Washington, he drifts into near if not intimate -relations with the arch-democrat Jefferson. Aaron and the loose-framed -secretary are often together; and yet never on terms of confidence -or even liking. They are in each other's society because they -go politically the same road. Fellow wayfarers of politics, with -"Democracy" their common destination, they are fairly compelled into -one another's company. But there grows up no spirit of comradeship, no -mutual sentiment of admiration and trust. - -Aaron's feelings toward Jefferson, and the sources of them, find setting -forth in a conversation which he holds with his new disciple, Senator -Andrew Jackson, who has come on from his wilderness home by the -Cumberland. - -"It is not that I like Jefferson," he explains, "but that I dislike -Washington and Hamilton. Jefferson will make a splendid tool to destroy -the others with; I mean to use him as the instrument of my vengeance." - -Jefferson, when speaking of Aaron to the wooden Adams, is neither so -full nor so frank. The Bay State publicist has again made mention of -that impressive ancestry which he thinks is Aaron's best claim to public -as well as private consideration. - -"You may see evidence of his pure blood," concludes the wooden one, "in -his perfect, nay, matchless politeness." - - "He is matchlessly polite, as you say," assents Jefferson; "and yet I -cannot fight down the fear that his politeness has lies in it." - -The days drift by, and Minister Gouverneur Morris is recalled from -Paris. Washington makes it known to the Senate that he will adopt any -name it suggests for the vacancy. The Senate decides upon Aaron; a -committee goes with that honorable suggestion to the President. - -Washington hears the committee with cloudy surprise. He is silent for a -moment; then he says: - -"Gentlemen, your proposal of Senator Burr has taken me unawares. I must -crave space for consideration; oblige me by returning in an hour." - -The senators who constitute the committee retire, and Washington seeks -his jackal Hamilton. - -"Appoint Colonel Burr to France!" exclaims Hamilton. "Sir, it would -shock the best sentiment of the country! The man is an atheist, as -immoral as irreligious. If you will permit me to say so, sir, I should -give the Senate a point-blank refusal." - -"But my promise!" says Washington. - -"Sir, I should break a dozen such promises, before I consented to -sacrifice the public name, by sending Colonel Burr to France. However, -that is not required. You told the Senate that you would adopt its -suggestion; you have now only to ask it to make a second suggestion." - -"The thought is of value," responds Washington, clearing. "I am free to -say, I should not relish turning my back on my word." - -The committee returns, and is requested to give the Senate the -"President's compliments," and say that he will be pleased should that -honorable body submit another name. Washington is studious to avoid any -least of comment on the nomination of Aaron. - -The committee is presently in Washington's presence for the third time, -with the news that the Senate has no name other than Aaron's for the -French mission. - -"Then, gentlemen," exclaims Washington, his hot temper getting the -reins, "please report to the Senate that I refuse. I shall send no one -to France in whom I have not confidence; and I do not trust Senator -Burr." - -"What blockheads!" comments Aaron, when he hears. "They will one day -wish they had gotten rid of me, though at the price of forty missions." - -[Illustration: 0197] - -The wooden Adams is elected President to succeed Washington. Aaron's -colleague, Rufus King, offers a resolution of compliment and thanks -to the retiring one, extolling his presidential honesty and patriotic -breadth. A cold hush falls upon the Senate, when Aaron takes the floor -on the resolution. - -Aaron's remarks are curt, and to the barbed point. He cannot, he says, -bring himself to regard Washington's rule as either patriotic or broad. -That President throughout has been subservient to England, who was our -tyrant, is our foe. Equally he has been inimical to France, who was our -ally, is our friend. More; he has subverted the republic and made of -it a monarchy with himself as king, wanting only in those unimportant -embellishments of scepter, throne, and crown. He, Aaron, seeking -to protest against these almost treasons, shall vote against the -resolution. - -The Senate sits aghast. Aaron's respectable colleague, Rufus King, -cannot believe his Tory ears. At last he totters to his shocked feet. - -"I am amazed at the action of my colleague!" he exclaims. "I----" - -Before he can go further, Aaron is up with an interruption. "It is my -duty," says Aaron, "to warn the senior senator from New York that he -must not permit his amazement at my action to get beyond his control. I -do not like to consider the probable consequences, should that amazement -become a tax upon my patience; and even he, I think, will concede -the impropriety, to give it no sterner word, of allowing it any -manifestation personally offensive to myself." - -As Aaron delivers this warning, so dangerous is the impression he throws -off, that it first whitens and then locks the condemnatory lips of -colleague King. That statesman, rocking uneasily on his feet, waits a -moment after Aaron is done, and then takes his seat, swallowing at a -gulp whatever remains unsaid of his intended eloquence. The roll is -called; Aaron votes against that resolution of confidence and thanks, -carrying a baker's dozen of the Senate with him, among them the lean, -horse-faced Andrew Jackson from the Cumberland. - -Washington bows his adieus to the people, and retires to Mount Vernon. -Adams the wooden becomes President, while Jefferson the angular wields -the Senate gavel as Vice-President. Hamilton is more potent than -ever; for Washington at Mount Vernon continues the strongest force in -government, and Hamilton controls that force. Adams is President in -nothing save name; Hamilton--fawning upon Washington, bullying Adams and -playing upon that wooden one's fear of not succeeding himself--is the -actual chief magistrate. - -As Aaron's term nears its end, he decides that he will not accept -reelection. His hatred of Hamilton has set iron-hand, and he is resolved -for that scheming one's destruction. His plans are fashioned; their -execution, however, is only possible in New York. Therefore, he will -quit the Senate, quit the capital. - -"My plans mean the going of Adams, as well as the going of Hamilton," -he says to Senator Jackson from the Cumberland, when laying bare his -purposes. "I do not leave public life for good. I shall return; and on -that day Jefferson will supplant Adams, and I shall take the place of -Jefferson." - -"And Hamilton?" asks the Cumberland one. - -"Hamilton the defeated shall be driven into the wilderness of -retirement. Once there, the serpents of his own jealousies and envies -may be trusted to sting him to death." - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--THE GRINDING OF AARON'S MILL - - -AARON tells his friends that he will not go back to the Senate. He puts -this resolution to retire on the double grounds of young Theodosia's -loneliness and a consequent paternal necessity of his presence at -Richmond Hill, and the tangled condition of his business; which last -after the death of Theodosia mere falls into a snarl. Never, by the -lifting of an eyelash or the twitching of a lip, does he betray any -corner of his political designs, or of his determination to destroy -Hamilton. His heart is a furnace of white-hot throbbing hate against -that gentleman of diagonal morals and biased veracities; but no sign of -the fires within is visible on the arctic exterior. - -Polite, on ceaseless guard, Aaron even becomes affable when Hamilton -is mentioned. He goes so far with his strategy, indeed, as to imitate -concern in connection with the political destinies of the rusty -Schuyler, now exceedingly on the shelf. Aaron has the rusty Schuyler -down from his shelved retirement, brushes the political dust from his -cloak, and declares that, in a spirit of generosity proper in a young -community toward an old, tried, even if rusty servant, the State ought -to send the rusty one to fill the Senate seat which he, Aaron, is giving -up. To such a degree does he work upon the generous sensibilities -of mankind, that the rusty Schuyler is at once unanimously chosen to -reassume those honors which he, Aaron, stripped from him six years -before. - -Hamilton falls into a fog; he cannot understand the Aaronian liberality. -Aaron's astonishing proposal, to return the rusty one to the Senate, -smells dangerously like a Greek and a gift. In the end, however, -Hamilton's enormous vanity gets the floor, and he decides that -Aaron--courage broken--is but cringing to win the Hamilton friendship. - -"That is it," he explains to President Adams. "The fellow has lost -heart. This is his way of surrendering, and begging for peace." - -There are others as hopelessly lost in mists of amazement over Aaron's -benevolence as is Hamilton; one is Aaron's closest friend Van Ness. - -"Schuyler for the Senate!" he exclaims. "What does that mean?" - -"It means," whispers Aaron, with Machiavellian slyness, "that I want to -get rid of the old dotard here. I am only clearing the ground, sir!" - -"And for what?" - -"The destruction of Hamilton." - -As Aaron speaks the hated name it is like the opening of a furnace door. -One is given a flash of the flaming tumult within. Then the door closes; -all is again dark, passionless, inscrutable. - -Aaron runs his experienced eye along the local array. The Hamilton -forces are in the ascendant. Jay is governor; having beaten -North-of-Ireland Clinton, who was unable to explain how he came to sell -more than three millions of the public's acres to McComb for eightpence. - -And yet, for all that supremacy of the Hamilton influence--working -out its fortunes with the cogent name of Washington--Aaron's practiced -vision detects here and there the seams of weakness. Old Clinton is as -angry as any sore-head bear over that gubernatorial beating, which he -lays to Hamilton. The clan-Livingston is sulking among its hills because -its chief, the mighty chancellor, was kept out of the President's -cabinet by the secret word of Hamilton--whose policies are ever jealous -and double-jointed. Aaron, wise in such coils, sees all about him the -raw materials wherefrom may be constructed a resistless opposition to -the Party-of-things-as-they-are--which is the party of Hamilton. - -One thing irks the pride of Aaron--a pride ever impatient and ready -for mutiny. In dealing with the Livingstons and the Clintons, these -gentry--readily eager indeed to take their revenges with the help of -Aaron--never omit a patrician attitude of overbearing importance. They -make a merit of accepting Aaron's aid, and proceed on the assumption -that he gains honor by serving them. Aaron makes up his mind to remedy -this. - -"I must have a following," says he. "I will call about me every free -lance in the political hills. There shall be a new clan born, of which -I must be the Rob Roy. Like another McGregor, I with my followers shall -take up position between the Campbell and the Montrose--the Clintons and -the Livingstons. By threatening one with the other, I can then control -both. Given a force of my own, the high-stomached Livingstons and the -obstinate Clintons must obey me. They shall yet move forward or fall -back, march and countermarch by my word." - -When Aaron sets up as a Rob Roy of politics, he is not compelled to -endless labors in constructing a following. The thing he looks for lies -ready to his hand. In the long-room of Brom Martling's tavern, at Spruce -and Nassau, meets the "Sons of Tammany or the Columbian Order." The name -is overlong, and hard to pronounce unless sober; wherefore the "Sons of -Tammany or the Columbian Order," as they sit swigging Brom Martling's -cider, call themselves the "Bucktails." - -The aristocracy of the Revolution--being the officers--created -unto themselves the Cincinnati. Whereupon, the yeomanry of the -Revolution--being the privates--as a counterpoise to the perfumed, not -to say gilded Cincinnati, brought the Sons of Tammany or the Columbian -Order, otherwise the Bucktails, into being. - -The Bucktails, good cider-loving souls, are solely a charitable-social -organization, and have no dreams of politics. Aaron becomes one of -them--quaffing and exalting the Martling cider. He takes them up into -the mountaintop of the possible, and shows them the kingdoms of the -political world and the glories thereof. Also, he points out that -Hamilton, the head of the hated Cincinnati, is turning that organization -of perfume and purple into a power. The Bucktails hear, see, believe, -and resolve under the chiefship of Aaron to fight their loathed rivals, -the Cincinnati, in every ensuing battle of the ballots to the end of -time. - -The word that Aaron has brought the Buck-tails to political heel is not -long in making the rounds. It is worth registering that so soon as the -Clintons and the Livingstons learn the political determinations of this -formidable body of cider drinkers--with Aaron at its head--they conduct -themselves toward our young exsenator with profoundest respect. They -eliminate the overbearing element in their attitudes, and, when they -would confer with him, they go to him not he to them. Where before they -declared their intentions, they now ask his consent. It falls out as -Aaron forethreatened. Our Rob Roy at the head of his bold Bucktails is -sought for and deferred to by both the Clintons and the Livingstons--the -Campbell and the Montrose. - -Some philosopher has said that there are three requisites to successful -war: the first gold, the second gold, the third gold. That deep one -might have said the same of politics. Now, when he dominates his Tammany -Bucktails--who obey him with shut eyes--and has brought the perverse -Clintons and the stiff-necked Livingstons beneath his thumb, Aaron -considers the question of the sinews of war. Politics, as a science, -has already so far progressed that principle is no longer sufficient to -insure success. If he would have a best ballot-box expression, he must -pave the way with money. The reasons thereof cry out at him from all -quarters. There is such a commodity as a campaign. No one is patriotic -enough to blow a campaign fife or beat a campaign drum for fun. Torches -are not a gift, but a purchase; neither does Mart-ling's cider flow -without a price. Aaron, considering this ticklish puzzle of money, sees -that his plans as well as his party require a bank. - -There are two banks in the city, only two; these are held in the hollow -of the Hamilton hand. Under the Hamilton pressure these banks act -coercively. They make loans or refuse them, as the applicant is or is -not amenable to the Hamilton touch. Obedience to Hamilton, added to -security even somewhat mildewed, will obtain a loan; while rebellion -against Hamilton, plus the best security beneath the commercial sun, -cannot coax a dollar from their strong boxes. - -Aaron resolves to bring about a break in these iron-bound conditions. -The best forces of the town are thereby held in chains to Hamilton. -Aaron must free these forces before they can leave Hamilton and follow -him. How is this freedom to be worked out? Construct another bank? -It presents as many difficulties as making a new north star. Hamilton -watches the bank situation with the hundred eyes of Argus; every effort -to obtain a charter is knocked on the head. - -Those armed experiences, which overtook Aaron as he went from Quebec to -Monmouth, and from Monmouth to the Westchester lines, left him full -of war knowledge. He is deep in the art of surprise, ambuscade, flank -movement, night attack; and now he brings this knowledge to bear. To -capture a bank charter is to capture the Hamilton Gibraltar, and, -while all but impossible of accomplishment, it will prove conclusive if -accomplished. Aaron wrinkles his brows and racks his wits for a way. - -Gradually, like the power-imp emerging from Aladdin's bottle, a scheme -begins to take shape before his mental eye. Yellow fever has been -reaping a shrouded harvest in the town. The local wiseacres--as -usual--lay it to the water. Everybody reveres science; and, while -everybody knows full well that science is nothing better than just the -accepted ignorance of to-day, still everybody is none the less on his -knees to it, and to the wiseacres, who are its high priests. Science and -the wiseacres lay yellow fever to the water; the kneeling town, taking -the word from them, does the same. The local water is found guilty; the -popular cry goes up for a purer element. The town demands water that is -innocent of homicidal qualities. - -It is at this crisis that Aaron gravely steps forward. He talks of -Yellow Jack and unfurls a proposal. He will form a water company; it -shall be called "The Manhattan Company." - -With "No more yellow fever!" for a war-cry, Aaron lays siege to Albany. -What he wants is incorporation, what he seeks is a charter. With -the fear of yellow fever curling about their heart roots, the -Albany authorities--being the Hamilton Governor Jay and a Hamilton -Legislature--comply with his demands. The Manhattan Company is -incorporated, capital two millions. - -Aaron goes home with the charter. Carrying out the charter--which -authorizes a water company--he originates a modest well near the City -Hall. It is not a big well, and might with its limpid output no more -than serve the thirst of what folk belong with any city block. - -Well complete and in operation, the Manhattan Company abruptly opens a -bank, vastly bigger than the well. Also, the bank possesses a feature in -this; it is anti-Hamilton. - -Instantly, every man or institution that nurses a dislike for Hamilton -takes his or its money to the Manhattan Bank. It is no more than a -matter of days when the new bank, in the volume of its business and -the extent of its deposits, overtops those banks which fly the Hamilton -flag. And Aaron, the indefatigable, is in control. At the new -Manhattan Bank, he turns on or shuts off the flow of credit, as Brom -Mart-ling--spigot-busy in the thirsty destinies of the Bucktails--turns -on or shuts off the flow of his own cider. - -After the first throe of Hamiltonian horror, Governor Jay sends his -attorney general. This dignitary demands of Aaron by what authority -his Manhattan Company thus hurls itself upon the flanks of a surprised -world, in the wolfish guise of a bank? The company was to furnish the -world with water; it is now furnishing it with money, leaving it to fill -its empty water buckets at the old-time spouts. Also, it has turned its -incorporated back on yellow fever, as upon a question in which interest -is dead. - -The Jay attorney general puts these queries to Aaron, who replies with -the charter. He points with his slim forefinger; and the Jay attorney -general--first polishing his amazed spectacles--reads the following -clause: - -"The surplus capital may be employed in any way not inconsistent with -the laws and Constitution of the United States or of the State of New -York." - -The Jay attorney general gulps a little; his learned Adam's apple goes -up and down. When the aforesaid clause is lodged safe inside his mental -stomach, Aaron assists digestion with an explanation. It is short, but -lucidly sufficient. - -"The Manhattan Company, having completed its well and acting within the -authority granted by the clause just read, has opened with its surplus -capital the Manhattan Bank." - -The Jay attorney general stares blinkingly, like an owl at noon. - -"And you had the bank in mind from the first!" he cries. - -"Possibly," says Aaron. - -"Let me tell you one thing, Colonel Burr," and the Jay attorney general -cracks and snaps his teeth in quite an owlish way; "if the authorities -at Albany had guessed your purpose, you would never have received -your charter. No, sir; your prayer for incorporation would have been -refused." - -"Possibly!" says Aaron. - -All these divers and sundry preparational matters, the subjection of the -Clintons and the Livingstons, the political alignment of the Buck-tails -swigging their cider at Martlings, and the launching of the Manhattan -Bank to the yellow end that a supply of gold be assured, have in their -accomplishment taken time. It is long since Aaron looked in at the -Federal capitol, where the Hamilton-guided Adams is performing as -President, with all those purple royalties which surrounded Washington, -and Jefferson is abolishing ruffles, donning pantaloons, introducing -shoelaces, cutting off his cue, and playing the democrat Vice-President -at the other end of government. Aaron resolves upon a visit to these -opposite ones. Jefferson must be his candidate; Adams will be the -candidate of the foe. He himself is to manage for the one, while -Hamilton will lead for the other. Such the situation, he holds it the -part of a cautious sagacity to glance in at these worthies, pulling -against one another, and discover to what extent and in what manner -their straining and tugging may be used to make or mar the nation's -future. Hamilton is to be destroyed. To annihilate him a battle must be -fought; and Aaron, preparing for that strife, is eager to discover aught -in the present conduct or standing of either Adams or Jefferson which -can be molded into bullets to bring down the enemy. - -Aaron's friend Van Ness goes with him, sharing his seat in the coach. -Some worth-while words ensue. They begin by talking of Hamilton; as -talk proceeds, Aaron gives a surprising hint of the dark but unsuspected -bitterness of his feeling--a feeling which goes beyond politics, as the -acridities of that savage science are understood and recognized. - -Van Ness is wonder-smitten. - -"Your enmity to Hamilton," he says tentatively, "strikes deeper then -than mere politics." - -"Sir," returns Aaron slowly, the old-time black, ophidian sparkle -flashing up in his eyes, "the deepest sentiment of my nature is my -hatred for that man. Day by day it grows upon me. Also, it is he who -furnishes the seed and the roots of it. Everywhere he vilifies me. I -hear it east, north, west, south. I am his mania--his 'phobia'. In his -slanderous mouth I am 'liar,' 'thief,' and 'scoundrel rogue.' In such -connection I would have you to remember that I, on my side, give him, -and have given him, the description of a gentleman." - -"To be frank, sir," returns Van Ness thoughtfully, "I know every word -you speak to be true, and have often wondered that you did not parade -our epithetical friend at ten paces, and refute his mendacities with -convincing lead." - -Aaron's look is hard as granite. There is a moment of silence. "Kill -him!" he says at last, as though repeating a remark of his companion; -"kill him! Yes; that, too, must come! But it must not come too soon for -my perfect vengeance! First I shall uproot him politically; every hope -he has shall die! I shall thrust him from his high places! When he -lies prone, broken, powerless!--when he is spat upon by those in whose -one-time downcast, servile presence he strutted lord paramount!--when -his past is scoffed at, his future swallowed up!--when his word is -laughed at and his fame become a farce!--then, when every fang of -defeat pierces and poisons him, then I say should be the hour to talk of -killing! That hour is not yet. I am a revengeful man, Van Ness--I am an -artist of revenge! Believing as I do that with the going of the breath, -all goes!--that for the Man there is no hereafter as there has been no -past!--I must garner my vengeance on earth or forever lose it. So I take -pains with my vengeance; and having, as I tell you, a genius for it, my -vengeful pains shall find their dark and full-blown harvest. Hamilton, -for whom my whole heart flows away in hate!--I shall build for him a -pyramid of misery while he lives; and I shall cap that pyramid with his -death--his grave! I can see, as one who looks down a lane, what lies -before. I shall take from him every scrap of that power which is his -soul's food--strip him of each least fragment of position! When he has -nothing left but life, I'll wrest that from him. Long years after he is -gone I'll walk this earth; and I shall find a joy in his absence, and -the thought that by my hand and my will he was made to go, beyond what -the friendship of man or the favor of woman could bring me. Kill him! -There is a grist in the hopper of my purposes, friend, and the mill -stones of my plans are grinding!" - -Aaron does not look at Van Ness as he thus brings the secrets of his -soul to the light of day, but wears the manner of one preoccupied and in -the spell of self. Van Ness shudders as he listens; and, while the slow -words follow one another in hateful swart procession, a chill creeps -over him, as from the evil monstrous nearness of something elemental, -abnormal, fearsome. A sweat breaks out on his face. Neither his wits nor -his tongue can frame remark for either good or ill. The brooding Aaron -seems not to notice, but falls into a black muse. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--THE TRIUMPH OF AARON - - -IT is the era of bad feeling, and the breasts of men are reservoirs of -poison. Jefferson and Adams, while known admitted rivals, deplore these -wormwood conditions and strive against them. It is as though they strove -against the tides; party lines were never more fiercely drawn. Some -portrait of the hour may be found in the following: - -Adams gives a dinner; and, because he cannot get over the Jonathan -Edwards emanation of Aaron, he invites him. Also, Van Ness being with -Aaron, the invitation includes Van Ness. Hamilton and Jefferson will be -there; since it is one of the hypocritical affectations of these good -people to keep up a polite appearance of friendship, by way of example, -if not rebuke, to warring followers, who are hopefully fighting duels -and shedding blood and taking life in their interests. On the way to the -President's house Van Ness, to whom Adams is new, queries Aaron: - -"What sort of a man is Adams?" - -"He is an honest, pragmatic, hot-tempered thick-skull," says Aaron--"a -New England John Bull!--a masculine Mrs. Malaprop whom Sheridan would -love. You can have no better description of him than was given me but -yesterday by a member of his Cabinet. 'Adams,' says the cabineteer, -'is a man who whether sportful, witty, kind, cold, drunk, sober, angry, -easy, stiff, jealous, careless, cautious, confident, close or open, is -so always in the wrong place and with the wrong man!'" - -"Is he a good executive?" - -"Bad! By nature he is no more in touch with the spirit of a democracy -than with the maritime policies of the Ptolemies. His pet picture of -government is England, with the one amendment that he would call the -king a president. As to his executive labors: why, then, he touches only -to disarrange, talks only to disturb. And all without meaning to do so." - -The dinner is neither large nor formal. Aaron sits on the right hand of -Adams, while Jefferson has Van Ness and Hamilton at either elbow. In the -cross fire of conversation comes the following: The topic is government. - -"Speaking of the British constitution," says Adams, "purge that -constitution of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality -of representation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever -devised by the wit of man." - -Hamilton cocks his ear. "Sir," says he, "purge the British constitution -of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of -representation, and it would become an impracticable government. As -it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most -powerful government that ever existed." - -Presently, the currents of converse shift, and the torrid heats of party -are considered. It is now that Jefferson is heard from. - -"The situation is deplorable!" he exclaims. "You and I, sir"--looking -across at Adams--"have seen warm debates and high political passions. -But gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other, and -separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not -so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives cross the street to -avoid meeting, and turn their heads another way lest they be obliged -to touch their hats. Men's passions are boiling over; and one who keeps -himself cool, and clear of the contagion, is so far below the point of -ordinary conversation that he finds himself socially cast away. More; -there is a moral breaking down. The interruption of letters is becoming -so notorious"--here he looks hard at Hamilton, whose followers are -supposed to peep into letters not addressed to them--"that I am forming -a resolution of declining correspondence with my friends through the -channels of the post office altogether." - -Even during Aaron's short stay at the Capitol, fresh fuel is heaped upon -the fires of his Hamilton hates. A cloud blows up in the sky; war -with France is threatened. Washington at Mount Vernon is commissioned -commander in chief; Hamilton--the active--is placed next to him. Aaron's -name, sent in for a general's commission, is secretly vetoed by Hamilton -whispering in the Adams ear. - -Adams does not like the veto; he thinks he should name Aaron, and says -so. - -"If you do," declares Hamilton warningly, "it will defeat your -reelection." - -Adams groans and gives way. It is the argument wherewith Hamilton never -fails to drive him or curb him as he will. Aaron hears of this new -offense; he says nothing, but lays it away with the others. - -Candidate Jefferson and Manager Aaron are far apart in their hopes -and fears, the former taking the gloomy view. They come together -confidentially. - -"I have looked over the field," says Jefferson, "and we are already -beaten." - -"Sir," returns Aaron with grim point, "you should look again. I think -you see things wrong end up." - -"My hatred of Hamilton," observes Aaron to Van Ness, as their coach -rolls north for home, "is the good fortune of Jefferson. I shall be -fighting my own fight, and so I shall win. If I were fighting only for -Jefferson, I can well see how the strife might have another upcome." - -[Illustration: 0223] - -The campaign draws down; it is Adams against Jefferson, Federal against -Republican. Hamilton leaves the seat of government, and comes to New -York to take personal charge. At that his designs are Janus-faced. He -says "Adams," but he means "Pinckney." He foresees that, if Adams be -given another term, he will defy control. Wherefore he is publicly for -Adams, and privately for Pinckney--he looks at Massachusetts but -sees only South Carolina. This collision of pretense and purpose, on -Hamilton's false part, gets vastly in the Federal way. That it should -do so will instantly occur to curious ones, if they will but seek to go -south by heading north. - -As Hamilton sets out to take presidential possession of New York, he -has no misgivings. He knows little or nothing of Aaron's designs or what -that ingenious gentleman has been about. - -"There is the Manhattan Bank of course; but what can it do? There are -the Bucktails--who are vulgar clods! There are the Livingstons and the -Clintons--he has beaten them before!" - -Thus run the reflections of the confident Hamilton. No; he sees only -triumph ahead. He gives Aaron and his candidate Jefferson--with their -borrel issue of Alien and Sedition--not half the thought that he devotes -to ways and means by which he hopes finally to steal the electors from -Adams, and produce Pinckney in the White House. That is Hamilton's dream -of power--Pinckney! - -Everything pivots on the legislature; since it is the legislature which -will select the electors. - -Hamilton, bearing in mind his intended steal of the State, prepares his -list of candidates for Albany. He does not pick them for either wisdom -or moral worth; what he is after are legislators whom he can certainly -manhandle to match his designs, and who will give him electors--he -himself will furnish the names--of a Pinckney not an Adams complexion. -He makes up his slate to that treasonable end; and the swift Aaron gets -a copy before the ink is dry. - -Aaron smiles when he runs down the ignoble muster of Hamilton's boneless -nonentities. - -"They are the least in the town!" he mutters. "I shall pit against them -the town's greatest." - -Aaron with his Bucktails, now makes ready his own legislative ticket. -At the head he places old North-of-Ireland Clinton--a local Whittington, -ten times governor of the State. General Gates--for whom Aaron, when -time was, plotted the downfall of Washington, and who received the sword -of the vanquished Burgoyne and sent that popinjay back to England to -fail at play-writing--comes next. After General Gates the wily Aaron -writes "Samuel Osgood"--who was Washington's postmaster general--"Henry -Rutgers, Elias Neusen, Thomas Storms, George Warner, Philip Arcularius, -James Hunt, Ezekiel Robbins, Brockholst Livingston, and John -Swartwout"--every name a tower of strength. - -Hamilton cannot repress a flutter of fear as he reads the noble roster; -but his unflagging vanity, which serves him instead of a more reasonable -optimism, rushes to his rescue. None the less it jars on him a bit -strangely, albeit, he laughs at it for a jest, that the best regarded -of the town should make up the ticket of the yeomanry and the -crude Bucktails, while the aristocratical Federals and the -equally aristocratical Cincinnati--that coterie of perfume and -patricianism!--search the gutters for theirs. - -Seeing himself on the Jefferson ticket, old North-of-Ireland Clinton -makes trouble. He sends for Aaron and his committee, and notifies them -that he cannot consent to run. - -"If you, Colonel Burr, were the candidate," he says, "I should run -gladly; but Jefferson I hate." - -In his hope's heart, old North-of-Ireland Clinton---who, for all his -North-of-Ireland blood, was born in America--thinks he himself may be -struck by the presidential lightning, and does not intend to place any -deflecting obstruction in the path of such descending bolt. - -Aaron has forestalled the Clinton refusal in his thoughts, and is not -surprised by the high Clintonian attitude. He tries persuasion; the -old ex-governor and would-be president only plants himself more firmly. -Under no circumstances shall he agree to run; his honored name must not -be used. - -It is now that Aaron shows his teeth: "Governor Clinton," says he, "when -it comes to that, our committee's appearance before you, preferring the -request that you run, is a ceremony rather of courtesy than need. With -the last word, regardless of either your plans or your preferences, the -public we represent is perfect in its right to name you, and compel you -to run. And, sir, making short what might become long, and so saving -time for us all, I must now notify you that, should you continue to -withhold your consent, we stand already determined to retain and use -your name despite refusal, as a course entirely within the lines of -popular right." - -In the looks and tones of Aaron, the old North-of-Ireland governor -reads decision not to be revoked, and for once in his obstinate life -surrenders gracefully. - -"Gentlemen," says he, with a bland wave of the hand to Aaron and his -Bucktail committee, "since you put it in that way, refusal is out of -my power. Also let me add, that no man could take a nomination from a -higher, a more honorable, a more patriotic source." - -The campaign, on in earnest, goes forward with a roar. Not a screaming -item is omitted. Guns boom; flags flaunt; bands of music bray; gay -processions go marching; crackers splutter and snap; orators with iron -throats sweep down on spellbound crowds in gales of red-faced eloquence; -flaming rockets, when the sun goes down, streak the night with fire; the -bold Buck-tails, cidered to the brim, cause Brom Martling's long-room -to ring again, and make the intersection of Spruce and Nassau a Bedlam -crossroads. - -This is well; yet Aaron desires more. The issue is Alien and Sedition; -he yearns for an overt expression of what villain work may be done by -that black statute. - -Aaron's strength, as a captain of politics, lies in his intuitive -knowledge of men. He is never popular--never loved while ever admired. -Men may no more love him than they may love a diamond, or a Damascus -sword blade, or a tallest, sun-kissed, snow-capped mountain peak. Still -that innate grasp of men, and what motives will move them, is as an -edged tool in his hands wherewith to carve out triumph. This gift of -man-reading comes in play when now he would exhibit Alien and Sedition -in its baleful workings. - -There is a Judge Yates; his home is in Otsego. As though he had builded -him, Aaron is aware of Yates in his elements. That honest man is of your -natural-born martyrs. Is there a headsman's block, there he lays his -neck; given a scaffold, he instantly mounts it; into every pillory he -thrusts his head and hands, into every stocks his heels; by every stake -he takes his stand as soon as it is put up; and he would sooner meet a -despot than a friend. And yet--to defend Yates--that bent for martyrdom -is nothing less than a bent to be noble; for a martyr is but a hero -reversed. The two are brothers; a hero is only a martyr who succeeds, a -martyr only a hero who fails. - -Aaron sends for the oppression-thirsty Yates. "Here is a pamphlet -flaying Adams," says he. "It is raw and ferocious. Take it home and -circulate it." - -"Why?" asks Yates. - -"Because the Federalists will arrest you. They are fools enough to do -it." - -"Doubtless!"--this dryly. "But what advantage do you discover in having -me locked up?" - -"Man! can't you see? It will illustrate their tyranny! Your seizure -will be on a United States warrant. That means they must bring you -from Otsego to New York. Think what a triumph that should be--you, the -paraded victim of the monarchical Adams!" - -Yates goes home to Otsego with a gay, elate heart, and publishes Aaron's -blood-raw pamphlet. He is seized and paraded, as the astute Aaron has -foreseen. The flocking farmers fringe the captive's line of march. Yates -is a martyr, and makes his journey through double ranks of sympathy for -himself and curses for the despotic Adams. The martyrdom of Yates is -worth a thousand votes. - -"It is the difference between the eye and the ear," says Aaron to -his aide, Swartwout. "You might explain the iniquities of Alien and -Sedition, and never rouse the people. Show them those iniquities, and -they take fire. It is quite natural enough. I tell you of a man crushed -by a falling tree; you feel a conventional shock that lasts a minute. -Should you some day _see_ a man crushed by a falling tree, you will -start in your sleep for a twelvemonth with the pure horror of it. -Wherefore, never address the ear when you can appeal to the eye. The -gateway to the imagination is the eye." - -The campaign wags to a close; the day of the ballot has its dawning. To -the amazed chagrin of Hamilton, Aaron and his Bucktails go over him -at the polls with a rousing majority of four hundred and ninety; he -is beaten, Aaron is dominant, New York is Jefferson's. The blow shakes -Hamilton to the heart, and for the moment he can neither plan nor act. -In the face of such disaster, he sits stricken. - -Presently, as though the bad in him is more vivid than the good and -quicker at recovery, that old instinct of larceny struggles to its -feet. He will steal the State; not from Adams as he planned, but from -Jefferson. He scribbles a note to Jay, who is in town at his home, -urging him as governor to call a special session of the legislature, a -Federal Legislature, and go about the crime. He feels the necessity -of justification; for Jay is of a skittish honor. This on his mind, he -closes with: "It is the only way by which we can prevent an atheist in -religion and a fanatic in politics from getting possession of the helm -of government." - -Jay reads, and draws down his brows in a frown. Hamilton's messenger is -waiting. - -"Governor," says the messenger, "General Hamilton bid me get an answer." - -"Tell General Hamilton there is no answer." Jay rereads the note. Then -he takes quill, writes a sentence on the back, and files it away in a -pigeonhole. Years later, when Jay and Hamilton and Adams and Jefferson -and Aaron are dead and under the grass roots, hands yet unformed will -draw the letter forth and unborn eyes will read: "Proposing a measure -for party purposes which I do not think it would become me to adopt. J. -J." - - - - -CHAPTER XV--THE INTRIGUE OF THE TIE - - -HAMILTON writhes and twists like a hurt snake. Helpless in that first -effort before the adamantine honesty of Jay, when the breath of his -courage returns, he bends himself to consider, whether by other means, -fair or foul, the election may not yet be stolen for Pinckney. He sends -out a flock of letters to the Federal leaders, whom he addresses loftily -as their commander in chief of party. - -It is now he receives a fresh stab. By their replies, and rather in the -cool tone than in the substance, the Federal chiefs show that his -bare word is no longer enough to move them. Washington is dead; that -potential name no more remains to conjure with. And now, to the passing -of Washington, has been added his own defeat. The two disasters leave -his voice of scanty consequence in the parliaments of the Federalists. -He finds this out from such as Cabot of Massachusetts, Cooper of -New York and Bayard of Delaware, who peremptorily decline a Pinckney -intrigue as worse than hopeless. They propose instead--and therein lurks -horror--that the Federal electors be asked to abandon Adams for Aaron. -They can take the Adams electors, they argue, and, with what may -be coaxed from the Jefferson strength, make Aaron President--their -President--the President of the Federalists. - -The suggestion to take up Aaron shocks Hamilton even more than does his -discovered loss of power--which latter, of itself, is as a blade of ice -through his heart. It is bitter to lose the election; more bitter to -learn that his decree is no longer regarded; most bitter to hear of -Aaron as a possible President, and by Federal votes at that. Broken -of heart and hope, the deposed king retires to his country seat, the -Grange, and sits in mourning with his soul. - -Meanwhile, Aaron, as though a presidency in his personal favor possesses -but minor interest, devotes himself to the near nuptials of baby Theo, -who is to marry Joseph Alston, a rich young rice planter of South -Carolina. - -Having turned the shoulder of their disregard to Hamilton, the Federal -chiefs confer among themselves by letter and word of mouth. Their great -purpose is to save themselves from Jefferson, whom they fear and hate. -They would sooner have Aaron, as not so much the stark democrat as -is the Man of Monticello. There be folk to whom nothing is so full of -terror in a democracy as a democrat; and our Federalists are white at -the thought of Jefferson. Aaron would suit them better; they think him -less of a leveler. Still they must know his feelings. They will bind him -with promises; for they, cautious gentlemen, have no notion of buying a -pig in a poke. They seek out Aaron, who has left off politics for orange -wreaths and is up to the ears in baby Theo's wedding. As a preliminary -they send his lieutenant, Swartwout, to take soundings. - -"If the presidency be tendered, will you accept?" asks Swartwout. - -"Assuredly! There are two things, sir, no gentleman may decline--a lady -and a presidency." - -Aaron sobers a bit after this small flippancy, and tells Swartwout that, -should he be chosen, he will serve. - -"There can be no refusal," he says. "The electors are free to make their -choice, and he on whom they pitch must serve. Mark this, however," he -goes on, warningly; "I shall lift neither hand nor head in the business; -the thing must come to me unsought and uninvited. Also, since you, -yourself, are of those who will select the electors for our own State, -I tell you, as you value my friendship, that New York must go to -Jefferson. We carried the State for him, and he shall have it." - -Following Swartwout's visit, Federalists Cabot and Bayard wait upon -Aaron. They point out that he can be President; but they seek to -condition it upon certain promises. - -"Gentlemen," returns Aaron, "I know not what in my past has led you to -this journey. I've no promises to make. Should I ever be President, I -shall be no man's president but my own." - -"Think of the honor, sir!" says Federalist Bayard. - -"Honor?" repeats Aaron. "Now I should call it disgrace indeed if I went -into the White House in fetters to you. Believe me, I can see my own way -to honor, sir; you need hold no candle to my feet." - -Although rebuffed by Aaron, the Federal chiefs--all save the broken -Hamilton, eating out his baffled heart at the Grange--none the less go -forward with their designs. They call away from Adams what electors will -follow them, and gain a handful from Jefferson besides. The law-demanded -vote is finally taken and the count shows Jefferson seventy-three, Aaron -seventy-three, Adams sixty-five, Jay one. - -No name having received a majority, the ejection must go to the -House. The sixteen States, expressing themselves through their House -delegations and owning each one vote, are now to pick the world a -president. At this the campaign is all to fight over again. But in a -different way, on different ground, and the two candidates Jefferson and -Aaron. - -In the weeks which pass before the House convenes, Federalist Bayard, -in the heat of the pulling and hauling among House men, makes a second -pilgrimage to Aaron. The latter, baby Theo being by this time safely -married and abroad upon her honeymoon, has leisure to talk. - -Federalist Bayard lays open the situation, "As affairs are," he -explains--he has made a count of noses--"Jefferson, when the House -convenes, will have New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, -Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and his home State of Virginia. You, -for your side, will have New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, -Connecticut, South Carolina, and my own State of Delaware. The -delegations of Maryland and Vermont, being evenly divided between -yourself and Jefferson, will have no voice. The tally will show eight -for Jefferson, six for you, two not voting. None the less, in the face -of these figures the means of electing you exist. By deceiving one -man--a great blockhead--and tempting two--not incorruptible--you can -still secure a majority of the States. I----" - -"You have said enough, sir," breaks in Aaron. "I shall deceive no one, -tempt no one; not even you. Go, sir; carry what I say to what ring of -Federalists you represent. Also, you may consider yourself personally -fortunate that I do not ask how far your conduct should have -construction as an insult." - -Federalist Bayard hurries away with a red face and a flea in his ear. -Gulping his chagrin, he tells his fellow chiefs that the obdurate Aaron -will do nothing, consent to nothing, to help himself. - -Jefferson does not share Aaron's chill indifference. While the latter -comports himself as carelessly as though a White House is an edifice of -every day, the Man of Monticello goes as far the other way, and feels -all the uneasy anger of him who is on the brink of being robbed. He -calls on the wooden Adams, and demands that the wooden one exert his -influence with his party in favor of Aaron's defeat. - -"It is I, sir," says Jefferson, "whom the people elected; and you should -see their will respected." - -Adams grows warm. "Sir," he retorts, "the event is in your power. Say -that you will do justice to the Federalists, and the government will -instantly be put into your hands." - -"If such be your answer, sir," returns Jefferson, equaling, if not -surpassing the Adams heat, "I have to tell you that I do not intend to -come into the presidency by capitulation." - -Jefferson leaves the White House, while Adams--who is practical, even if -high-tempered--begins his preparations to create and fill twenty-three -life judgeships, before his successor shall take possession. - -As much as the Man of Monticello, however, our wooden Adams is afire at -the on-end condition of the times. Only his wrath arises, not over the -war between Jefferson and Aaron, but because he himself is to be ousted. -The action of the people, in its motive, is beyond his understanding. As -unrepublican in his hidebound instincts as any royal Charles, he cannot -grasp the reason of his overthrow. - -Speaking with Federalist Cabot, he furnishes his angry meditations -tongue. "What is this mighty difference," he cries, "which the public -discovers between Jefferson and myself? He is for messages to Congress, -I am for speeches; he is for a little White House dinner every day, I -am for a big dinner once a week; I am for an occasional reception, he is -for a daily levee; he is for straight hair and liberty, while I think -a man may curl or cue his hair and still be free. Their Jefferson -preference, sir, convinces me that, while men are reasoning, they are -not reasonable creatures. The one difference between Jefferson and -myself is this: I appeal to men's reason, he flatters their vanity. -The result--a mob result--is that he stands victorious, while I -lie prostrate." Saying which the wooden, angry Adams resumes his -arrangements for creating and filling those twenty-three life -judgeships--being resolved, in his narrow breast, to make the most of -his dying moments as a president. - -The day of White House fate arrives; the House comes together. Seats are -placed for President and Senate. Also lounges are brought in; for there -are members too ill to occupy their regular seats--one is even attended -by his wife. Before a vote is taken, the House adopts an order which -forbids any other business until a President is chosen and the White -House tie determined. - -The voice of the House is announced by States; the ballot falls as -foreseen by Federalist Bayard. It runs eight for Jefferson, six for -Aaron, with Maryland and Vermont voiceless, because of their evenly -divided delegations, and a refusal on the part of the House to count -half votes for any name. There being no choice--since no name possesses -a majority of all the States--another vote is called. The upcome is the -same: eight Jefferson, six Aaron, two mute. And so through twenty-nine -hours of ceaseless balloting. - -Seven House days go by; the vote continues unchanged. At the close of -the seventh day, Federalist Bayard--who is the entire delegation from -his little State of Delaware, and until then has been casting its vote -for Aaron--beholds a light. No one may know the sort of light he sees. -It is, however, altogether a Bayard and in no wise a Jefferson light; -for the Man of Monticello is of too rigid a probity to entertain so -much as the ghost of a bargain. On the seventh day, by that new light, -Federalist Bayard changes his vote. Jefferson is named President, with -Aaron Vice-President, and that heartbreaking tie is at an end. - -The result leaves Aaron as coolly the picture of polished, icy -indifference as ever during his icily polished days. The Man of -Monticello, who has been gloom one moment and angry impatience the next, -feels most a burning hatred of the imperturbable Aaron, whom he blames -for what he has gone through. The color of this hatred will deepen, not -fade, until a day when it gets trippingly in front of Aaron's plans to -send them sprawling. There is, however, no present hateful indications; -for Jefferson, reared in an age of secrets, can lock his breast against -the curious and prying. President and Vice-President, he and Aaron go -about their duties upon terms which mingle a deal of courtesy with -little friendly warmth. This excites no wonder; friendships between -President and Vice-President have never been the habit. - -In wielding the Senate gavel, Aaron is an example of the lucidly just. -He refuses to be partisan, and presides for the whole Senate, not a -half. He knows no friend, no foe, and adds another coat of black to -the Jefferson hate, by voting when a tie occurs with the Federalists, -against the repeal of those twenty-three engaging life judgeships, which -the practical Adams created and filled in his industrious last days. - -Not alone does Aaron shine out as the north star of Senate guidance, but -his home rivals the White House--which leans toward the simple-severe -under Jefferson--as a polite center of society; for baby Theo comes -up from South Carolina to preside over it--Theo, loving and lustrous! -Aaron, with the lustrous Theo, entertains Jerome Bonaparte, on his way -to a Baltimore bride. Also, Theo, during moments informal, lapses into -gossip with Dolly Madison, the pair privily deciding that Miss Patterson -has no bargain in the Franco-Corsican. - -[Illustration: 0245] - -On the lustrous Theo's second visit to her Vice-Presidential parent, she -brings in her arms a small, red-faced, howling bundle, and, putting it -proudly into his arms, tells him it bears the name of Aaron Burr Alston. -Aaron receives the small red-faced howling bundle even more proudly than -it is offered, and hugs it to his heart. From this moment, until a dark -one that will come later, little Aaron Burr Alston is to live the focus -and central purpose of all his ambitions. It is for this little one he -will make his plots, and lay his plans, to become a western Bonaparte -and swoop at empire. - -During these days of Aaron's eminence and triumph, the broken, beaten -Hamilton mopes about his Grange. Vain, resentful, since politics has -turned its fickle back upon him, he does his best to turn his back on -politics. For all that, his mortification, while he plays farmer and -pretends retirement, finds voice at every chance. - -He receives his friend Pinckney, and shows him about his shaven acres. -"And when you return home," he says, imitating the lightsome and doing -it poorly, "send me some of your Carolina paroquets. Also a paper of -Carolina melon seed for my garden. For a garden, my dear -Pinckney"--this, with a sickly smile--"is, as you know, a very usual -refuge for your disappointed politician." It is now, his acute -bitterness coming uppermost, he breaks into not over-manly -complaint--the complaint of selflove wounded to the heart. "What an odd -destiny is mine! No man has done more for the country, sacrificed more -for it, than have I. No man than myself has stood more loyally by the -Constitution--that frail, worthless fabric which I am still striving to -prop up! And yet I have the murmurs of its friends no less than the -curses of its foes to pay for it. What can I do better than withdraw -from the arena? Each day proves more and more that America, with its -republics, was never meant for me." - - - - -CHAPTER XVI--THE SWEETNESS OF REVENGE - - -WHILE Aaron flourishes with Senate gavel, and Hamilton mourns his -downfall at the Grange, new men are springing up and new lines forming. -The Federalists disappear in the presidential going down of the wooden -Adams; Aaron, by that one crushing victory, annihilated them. The new -alignment in New York is personal rather than political, and becomes the -merest separation of Aaron's friends from Aaron's enemies. - -At the head of the latter, De Witt Clinton, nephew to old -North-of-Ireland Clinton, takes his stand. Being modern, Clinton starts -a newspaper, the _American Citizen_, and places a scurrilous dog named -Cheetham in charge. As a counterweight, Aaron launches the _Morning -Chronicle_, with Peter Irving editor, and his brother, young Washington -Irving, as its leading writer. Now descends a war of ink, that is -recklessly acrimonious and not at all merry. - -Under that spur of feverish ink, the two sides fall to dueling with -the utmost assiduity. Hamilton's son Philip insults Mr. Eaker, a lawyer -friend of Aaron; and the insulted Mr. Eaker gives up the law for one day -to parade young Hamilton at the conventional ten paces. It is all highly -honorable, all highly orthodox; and young Hamilton is killed in a way -which reflects credit on those concerned. - -Aaron's lieutenant, John Swartwout, fastens a quarrel upon De Witt -Clinton, for sundry ink utterances of the latter's dog-of-types, -Cheetham. The two cross the river to a spot of convenient seclusion. - -"I wish it were your chief instead of you!" cries Clinton, who is not -fine in his politenesses. - -"So do I," responds Swartwout, being of a rudeness to match Clinton's. -"For he is a dead shot, and would infallibly kill you; while I am the -poorest hand with a pistol among the Buck-tails." - -The bickering pair are placed. They fire and miss. A second, and yet a -third time their lead flies shamefully wide. At the fourth shot -Clinton saves his credit by wounding Swartwout in the leg. The stubborn -Swartwout demands a fifth fire, and Clinton plants a second bullet -within two inches of the first. - -"Are you satisfied?" asks Mr. Riker, who acts for Clinton. - -"I am not," returns Swartwout the stubborn. "Your man must retract, or -continue the fight. Kill or be killed, I am prepared to shoot out the -afternoon with him." - -At this, both Clinton's fortitude and manners break down together, and, -refusing to either fight on or apologize, he walks off the field. -This nervous extravagance creates a scandal among our folk of hectic -sensibilities, and shakes the Clinton standing sorely. He is promptly -challenged by Senator Dayton--an adherent of Aaron's--but evades that -statesman at further loss to his reputation. - -Meanwhile Robert Swartwout, brother to the wounded Swartwout, calls out -Mr. Riker, who acted for Clinton against the stubborn one, and has the -pleasure of dangerously wounding that personage. Also, Editor Coleman -of the Evening Post, weary with that felon scribe, goes after type-dog -Cheetham of Clinton's American Citizen; whereat dog Cheetham flies -yelping. - -This last so disturbs Harbor Master Thompson of the Clinton forces, -that he offers to take type-dog Cheetham's place. Editor Coleman -being agreeable, they fight in a snowstorm in (inappropriately) Love's -Lane--it will be University Place later--and the port loses a harbor -master at the first fire. - -Aaron, gaveling the Senate in the way it should legislatively go, pays -no apparent heed to the smoky doings of his warlike subordinates. -He never takes his eyes from Hamilton, however; and, if that retired -publicist, complaining in his garden, would but cast his glance that -way, he might read in their black ophidian depths a saving warning. But -Hamilton is blind or mad, and thinks only on what he may do to injure -Aaron, and never once on what that perilous Vice-President might be -carrying on the shoulder of his purposes. - -Hamilton devotes his garden leisure to vilifying Aaron. He goes stark -staring raving Aaron-mad; at the mention of the name he pours out a -muddy stream of slander. In talk, in print, in what letters he indites, -Aaron is accused of every infamy. There is nothing so preposterously -vile that he does not charge him with it. Aaron looks on and listens -with a grim, evil smile, saying nothing. It is as though he but waits -for Hamilton's offenses to ripen in their accumulation, as one waits for -apples to ripen on a tree. - -At last the hour of harvest comes; Aaron leaves Washington for Richmond -Hill, and sends for his friend Van Ness. - -"You once marveled at my Hamilton moderation--wondered that I did not -stop his slanders with convincing lead?" - -"Yes," says Van Ness. - -"You shall wonder no longer, my friend. The hour of his death is about -to strike." - -Van Ness breaks into a gale of protest. Hamilton, beaten, disgraced, -deposed, is in political exile! Aaron, powerful, victorious, is on the -crest of fortune! There is no fairness, no equality in an exchange of -shots under such circumstances! Thus runs the opposition of Van Ness. - -"In short," he concludes, "it would be a fight downhill--a fight that -you, in justice to yourself, have no right to make. Who is Alexander -Hamilton? Nobody--a beaten nobody! Who is Aaron Burr? The second officer -of the nation, on his sure way to a White House! Let me say, sir, that -you must not risk so much against so little." - -"There is no risk; for I shall kill the man. I shall live and he shall -die." - -"Cannot you see? There is the White House! Adams went from -the Vice-Presidency to the Presidency; Jefferson went from the -Vice-Presidency to the Presidency; you will do the same. It's as though -the White House were already yours. And you would throw it away for a -shot at this broken, beaten, disregarded man! For let me tell you, sir; -kill Hamilton and you kill your chance of being President. No one may -hope to go into the White House on the back of a duel." - -About Aaron's mouth twinkles a pale smile. It lights up his face with a -cold dimness, as a will-o'-the-wisp lights up the midnight blackness of -a wood. - -"You have a memory only for what I lose. You forget what I gain." - -"What you gain?" - -"Ay, friend, what I gain. I shall gain vengeance; and I would sooner be -revenged than be President." - -"Now this is midsummer madness!" wails Van Ness. "To throw away a career -such as yours is simple frenzy!" - -"I do not throw away a career; I begin one." - -Van Ness stares; Aaron goes slowly on, as though he desires every word -to make an impression. - -"Listen, my friend; I've been preparing. Last week I closed out all my -houses and lands! to John Jacob Astor for one hundred and forty thousand -dollars. The one lone thing I own is Richmond Hill--the roof we sit -beneath. I'd have sold this, but I did not care to attract attention. -There would have come questions which I'm not ready to answer." - -Van Ness fills a glass of Cape, and settles himself to hear; he sees -that this is but the beginning. - -Aaron proceeds: "As we sit here to-night, Napoleon has been declared -hereditary Emperor of the French. It has been on its way for months, and -the next packet will bring us the news." - -"And what have the Corsican and his empire to do with us?" - -"A President," continues Aaron, ignoring the question, "is not -comparable to an emperor. The Presidential term is but a stunted -thing--in four years, eight at the most, your President comes to -his end. And what is an ex-President? Look at Adams, peevish, -disgruntled--unhappy in what he is, because he remembers what he was. -To be a President is well enough. To be an ex-President is to seek to -satisfy present hunger with the memories of banquets eaten years ago. -For myself, I would sooner be an emperor; his throne is his for life, -and becomes his son's or his grandson's after him." - -"What does this lead to?" asks Van Ness, vastly puzzled. "Admitting your -imperial preferences, how are they applicable here and now?" - -"Let me show you," responds Aaron, still slow and measured and -impressive. "What is possible in the East is possible in the West; -what has been done in Europe may be done in America. Napoleon comes to -Paris--lean, epileptic, poor, unknown, not even French. To-day he is -emperor. Also"--this with a laugh which, however, does not prevent Van -Ness from seeing that Aaron is deeply serious--"also, he is two inches -shorter than myself." - -Van Ness leans back and makes a little gesture with his hand, as who -should say: "Continue!" - -"Very well! Would it be a stranger story if I, Aaron Burr, were to found -an empire in the West--if I became Aaron I, as the Corsican has become -Napoleon I?" - -"You do not talk of overturning our government?" This in tones of -wonder, and not without some flash of angry horror. - -"Don't hold me so dull. The people of this country are unfitted for king -or emperor. They would throw down a thousand thrones while you set up -one. I've studied races and peoples. Let me give you a word; it will -serve should you go to nation building. Never talk of crowns or thrones -to blue-eyed or gray-eyed men. They are inimical, in the very seeds of -their natures, to thrones and crowns." - -"England?" - -"England, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland are monarchies only in name. -In fact and spirit they are republics. If you would have king or emperor -in very truth, you must go to your black-eyed folk. Setting this country -aside, if you cast a glance toward the southwest, you will behold a -people who should be the very raw materials of an empire." - -"Mexico!" exclaims the astonished Van Ness. - -"Ay, Mexico! There is nothing which Napoleon Bonaparte has done in -France, which Aaron Burr may not do in Mexico. I would have the flower -of this country at my back. Indeed, it should be easier to ascend the -throne of the Montezumas than of the Bourbons. I believe, too--for I -think he would feel safer with a brother emperor in the West--I might -count on Napoleon's help for that climbing. However, we overrun the -hunt"--Aaron seems to recall himself like one who comes out of a -dream--"I am thinking not on empire, but vengeance. I have thrown out a -rude picture of my plans, however, because I hope to have your company -in them. Also, I wanted to show how utterly in my heart I have given -up America and an American career. It is Mexico and the throne of an -emperor, not Washington and the chair of a President, at which I aim. I -am laying my foundations, not for four years, not for eight years, but -for life. I shall be Aaron I, Emperor of Mexico; with my grandson, Aaron -Burr Alston, to follow me as Aaron II. There; that should do for 'Aaron -and empire.'" This, with a return to the cynical: "Now let us get to -Hamilton and vengeance. The scoundrel has spat his toad-venom on my name -and fame for twenty years; the turn shall now be mine." - -Van Ness is silent; the glimpses he has been given of Aaron's high -designs have tied his tongue. - -Aaron gets out a letter. "Here," he says; "you will please carry that -to Hamilton. It marks the beginning of my revenge. I base it on excerpts -taken from a printed letter written by Dr. Cooper, who says: 'General -Hamilton and Judge Kent have declared in substance that they look upon -Colonel Burr as a dangerous man, and one who ought not to be trusted -with the reins of government. I could detail a still more despicable -opinion which General Hamilton has expressed of Colonel Burr.' I -demand," concludes Aaron, "that he explain or account to me for having -furnished such an 'opinion' to Dr. Cooper." - -Van Ness purses up his lips, and knots his forehead cogitatively. - -"Why pitch upon this letter of Cooper's as a _casus belli?_" he asks at -last. "It is ambiguous, and involves a question of Cooper's construction -of English. If we had nothing better it might do; but there is no such -pressure. Hamilton, on many recent occasions, in speeches and in print, -has applied to you the lowest epithets." - -"You may recall, sir, that I once told you I was an artist of revenge. -It is this very ambiguity I'm after. I would hook the fellow--hook him -and play him as I would a fish! The man's a coward. I saw it written on -his face that day when, following 'Long Island,' he threw away his gun -and stores. By coming at him with this ambiguity, he will hope in the -beginning to secure himself by evasions. He will write; I shall respond; -there will be quite a correspondence. Days will drag along in agony and -torment to him. And all the time he cannot escape. From the moment I -send him that letter he is mine. It is as if I had him in a narrow -lane; he cannot get by me. On the other hand, if I come upon him, as you -suggest, with some undeniable charge, it will all be over in a moment. -He will be obliged at once to toe the peg. You now understand that I -design only in this letter to hook him hard and fast. When I have so -played him as to satisfy even my hatred, rest secure I'll reel him in. -He can no more avoid meeting me than he can avoid trembling when he -contemplates the dark promise of that meeting. His wife would despise -him, his very children cut him dead were he to creep aside." - -Van Ness goes with Aaron's letter to Hamilton. The latter, as he reads -it, cannot repress a start. The blood rushes from his face to his heart -and back again; for, as though the blind were made to see, he realizes -the snare into which he has walked--a snare that he himself has spread -to his own undoing. - -With an effort he commands his agitation. "You shall have my answer by -the hand of Mr. Pendleton," he says. - -Hamilton's reply, long and wordy, is two days on its way. As Aaron -foretold, it is wholly evasive, and comes in its analysis to be nothing -better than a desperate peering about for a hole through which its -author may crawl, and drag with him what he calls his honor. - -Aaron's reply closes each last loophole of escape. "Your letter," he -says, "has furnished me new reasons for requiring a definite reply." - -Hamilton reads his doom in this; and yet he cannot consent to the -sacrifice, but struggles on. He makes a second response, this time at -greater length than before. - -Aaron, implacable as Death, reads what Hamilton has written. - -"I think we should close the business," he says to Van Ness, as he gives -him Hamilton's letter. "It has been ten days since I sent my initial -note, and I have had enough of vengeance in anticipation. And so for the -last act." Aaron dispatches Van Ness with a peremptory challenge. There -being no gateway of relief, Hamilton is driven to accept. Even then -comes a cry for time; Hamilton asks that the hour of final meeting be -fixed ten further days away. Aaron smiles that pale smile of hatred made -content, and grants the prayed-for delay. - -The morning following the challenge and its acceptance, Pendleton -appears with another note from Hamilton--who obviously prefers pens to -pistols for the differences in hand. Aaron, smiling his pale smile of -contented hate, refuses to receive it. - -"There is," he observes, "no more to be said on either side, a challenge -having been given and accepted. The one thing now is to load the pistols -and step off the ground." - -It is four days later, and the fight six days away. Aaron and Hamilton -meet at a dinner given on Independence Day. Hamilton is hysterically -gay, and sings his famous song, "The Drum." Also, he never once looks at -Aaron, who, dark and lowering and silent, the black serpent sparkle -in his eye, seldom shifts his gaze from Hamilton. Aaron's stare, -remorseless, hungrily steadfast, is the stare of the tiger as it sights -its prey. - -Dr. Hosack calls on Aaron, where the latter sits alone at Richmond Hill. -Wine is brought; the good doctor takes a nervous glass. He has a rosy, -social face, has the good doctor, a face that tells of friendships and -the genial board. Just now, however, he is out of spirits. Desperately -setting down his wineglass, he flounders into the business that has -brought him. - -"I can hardly excuse my coming," he says, "and I apologize before I -state my errand. I would have you believe, too, that my presence here is -entirely by my own suggestion." - -Aaron bows. - -The good doctor explains that he has been called upon to go, -professionally, to the fighting ground with Hamilton. - -"That is how I became aware," he concludes, "of what you have in train. -I resolved to see you, and make one last effort at a peaceful solution." - -Aaron coldly shakes his head: "There can be no adjustment." - -"Think of his family, sir! Think of his wife and his seven children!" - -"Sir, it is he who should have thought of them. You should have gone to -him when he was maligning me. What? You know how this man has slandered -me! He has spoken to you as he has to hundreds of others!" The good -doctor looks guiltily uneasy. "And now I am asked to sit down with the -scorn he has heaped upon me, because he has a family! Does it not occur -to you, sir, that I, too, have a family? But with this difference: -Should he fall, there will be eight to share the loss among them. If I -fall, the blow descends on but one pair of loving shoulders, and those -the slender shoulders of a girl." - -There is no hope: The good doctor goes his disappointed way. - -The fighting grounds are a flat, grassy shelf of rock, under the heights -of Weehawken. The morning is bright, with the July sun coming up over -the bay. Hamilton, pale, like a man going open-eyed to death, takes -his barge at the landing near the Grange. The good Dr. Hosack and his -friend Pendleton are with him. The barge is pulled across to the grassy -shelf, under the somber Weehawken heights. - -The good doctor remains by the barge, while Hamilton, with friend -Pendleton, ascends the rocky, shelving, shingly twenty feet to the place -of meeting. They find Aaron and Van Ness awaiting them. Aaron touches -his hat stiffly, and walks to the far end of the narrow grassy shelf. - -Seconds Pendleton and Van Ness toss a dollar piece. Pendleton wins word -and choice of position. - -Ten paces are stepped off. Second Pendleton places his man at the -up-the-river end of the six-foot grassy shelf. Aaron, pistol in hand, is -given the other end. The word is to be: - -"Present!--one--two--three--stop!" As the two stand in position, Aaron -is confident, deadly, implacable; Hamilton looks the man already lost. - -Seconds Pendleton and Van Ness retire out of range. - -"Gentlemen, are you ready?". - -"Ready!" says Aaron. - -"Ready!" says Hamilton. - -There is a pause, heavy with death. Then comes: - -"Present!-------" - -There is a flash and a roar!--a double flash, a double roar! The smoke -curls, the rocks echo! Hamilton, with a stifled moan, reels, clutches at -nothing, and pitches forward on his face--shot through and through. The -Hamilton lead, wild and high, cuts a twig above Aaron's head. - -Aaron takes a step toward his slain foe, and looks long and deep, like -a man drinking. Van Ness comes up; Aaron tosses him the pistol, as folk -toss aside a tool when the work is done--well done. Then he walks down -to his barge, and shoves away for Richmond Hill, whose green peaceful -cedars are smiling just across the river. - -"It was worth the price, Van Ness," says Aaron. "The taste of that -immortal vengeance will never perish on my lips, nor its fragrance die -out in my heart." - - - - -CHAPTER XVII--AARON I, EMPEROR OF MEXICO - - -AARON sits placidly serene at Richmond Hill. Over his wine and his -cigar, he reduces those dreams of empire to ink and paper. He maps out -his design as architects draw plans and specifications for a house. His -friends call--Van Ness, the stubborn Swart-wout, the Irvings, Peter and -Washington. - -Outside the serene four walls of Richmond Hill there goes up a -prodigious hubbub of mourning--demonstrative if not deeply sincere. -Hamilton, broken as a pillar of politics, was still a pillar of fashion. -Was he not a Schuyler by adoption? Had he not a holding in Trinity? -Therefore, come folk of powdered hair and silken hose, who deem it -an opportunity to prove themselves of the town's Vere de Veres. There -dwells fashionable advantage in tear-shedding at the going out of an -illustrious name. Such tear-shedding provides the noble inference -that the illustrious one was "of us." Alive to this, those of would-be -fashion lapse into sackcloth and profound ashes, the sackcloth silk and -the ashes ashes of roses. Also they arrange a public funeral at Trinity, -and ask Gouverneur Morris, the local Mark Antony, to deliver an oration. - -To the delicate sobbing of super-fashionable ones is added the pretended -grief of Aaron's Clintonian foes. They think to use the death of -Hamilton for Aaron's political destruction. - -At no time does Aaron, serene with his wine and his cigar and his -empire-planning, interpose by word or act to stem the current of real or -spurious feeling. He heeds it no more, dwells on it no more than on -the ebbing or flowing of the tides, muttering about the lawn's shaven -borders in front of Richmond Hill. - -The duel is eleven days old. Aaron, accompanied by the faithful, -stubborn Swartwout, takes barge for Perth Amboy. The stubborn, faithful -one says "Good-by!" and returns; Aaron is received by his friend -Commodore Truxton. With Truxton he talks "empire" all night. He counts -on English ships, he says; being promised in secret by British Minister -Merry in Washington. Truxton shall command that fleet. - -Having set the sea-going Truxton to hoping, Aaron pushes on for -Philadelphia. He meets a beautiful girl whom he calls "Celeste," and to -whom he does not speak of conquest or of empire. He remains a week in -Philadelphia where, by word of Clinton's scandalized _American Citizen_: -"He walks openly about the streets!" - -Then to St. Simon's off the Georgia coast, guest of honor among polite -Southern circles; and, from St. Simon's across to South Carolina and -the noble Alston mansion, to be welcomed by the lustrous Theo. Thus the -summer wears into fall, full of honor and ease and love. - -With the first light flurry of snow, Aaron, gavel in hand, calls the -grave togaed ones to order. It is to be his last session; with the going -out of Congress, his Vice-Presidential term will have its end. During -those three Washington months which ensue, he dines with the President, -goes among friends and enemies as of yore, and never is brow arched or -glance averted. Instead, there is marked regard for him; folk compete -to do him honor. On the last Senate day he delivers his address of -farewell, and men pronounce it a marvel of dignity, wisdom, and polish. -So he steps down from American official life; but not from American -interest. - -Aaron, throughout this last Washington winter, presses his plans of -empire. He attaches to them scores of his Bucktail followers--the -Swartwouts, Dr. Erick Bollman, the Ogdens, Marinus Willet, General Du -Puyster. Among those of Congress who lend their ears and give their -words are Mathew Lyon, and Senators Dayton and Smith.. These are weary -of civilization and the peace that rusts. Their hearts are eager for -conquest, and a clash with the rough, wilderness conditions of the West -beyond the Mississippi. - -It is evening; Aaron sits in his rooms at the Indian Queen. Outside -the rain is falling; Pennsylvania Avenue wallows a world of mire. Slave -Peter intrudes his black face to announce: - -"Gen'man comin'-up, sah!" - -Peter, the privileged, would introduce Guy of Warwick, or the great Dun -Cow, with as little ceremony. - -As Peter withdraws, a burly figure fills the doorway. - -"Come in, General," says Aaron. - -General Wilkinson is among Aaron's older acquaintances. They were -together at Quebec. They were fellow cabalists against Washington in -an hour of Valley Forge. Now they are hand to hilt for Mexico, and that -throne-building upon which Aaron has fixed his heart. Also, Wilkinson -is in present command of the military forces of the United States in the -Southwest, with headquarters at Natchez and New Orleans; and, because of -that army control, he is the keystone to the arch of Aaron's plans. - -The broad Wilkinson face glows at Aaron's genial "Come in." Its owner -takes advantage of the invitation to draw a chair near the log fire, -which the wet March night makes comfortable. Then he pours himself a -glass of whisky. - -Wilkinson is worth considering. He is paunchy, gross, noisy, vain, -bragging, shallow, with a red, sweat-distilling face, and a nose that -tells of the bottle. He wears to-night the uniform of his rank. His coat -exhibits an exuberance of epaulette and an extravagance of gold braid -that speak of tastes for coarse glitter. His iron-gray hair, shining -with bear's grease, matches his fifty years. In conversation he becomes -a composite of Rabelais and Munchausen. As for holding wine or stronger -liquor, he rivals the Great Tun of Heidelberg. - -The stubborn Swartwout doesn't like him. On a late occasion he expresses -that dislike. - -"To be frank, Chief," observes the blunt Bucktail, who, because of -Aaron's headship of the Tammany organization, always addresses him as -"Chief"--"to be frank, I believe your friend Wilkinson to be as crooked -as a dog's hind leg." - -"You are right, sir," says Aaron; "he is both dishonest and treacherous. -It was he who uncovered our plans to unhorse Washington, by 'blabbing' -them, as Conway called it, to Lord Stirling. Yes; dishonest and -treacherous is Wilkinson." - -[Illustration: 0273] - -"Why, then, do you trust him?" - -"Why do I trust him?" repeats Aaron. "For several sufficient reasons. He -has been in and out of Mexico, and is as familiar with the country as -I am with Richmond Hill. He is cheek and jowl with the Bishop of New -Orleans; and I hope to attach the church to my enterprise. Most of all, -he commands the United States forces in the Southwest. Moreover, I count -his dishonesty and genius for double dealing as virtues. They should -become of importance in my enterprise. - -"As how?" demands the mystified Buck-tail. - -"As follows: Mexico is rich in gold; I argue that his dishonest avarice -will take him loyally with me, hand and glove, in the hope of loot. His -treacherous talents should come finely into play in certain diplomacies -that must be entered upon with Mexican officials, who will favor -me. Likewise he should find them exercise in dealings with the war -department here in Washington; for you can see, sir, that, in his dual -roles of filibusterer and military commander of the Southwest for this -government, he is certain to be often in collision with himself." - -The stubborn Bucktail says no more, being too well drilled in deference -to Aaron's will and word. It is clear, however, that his distrust of the -whisky-faced Wilkinson has not been put to sleep. - -Wilkinson, as he swigs his whisky by Aaron's fire, sits in happy -ignorance of the distrustful Bucktail's views. Confident as to his own -high importance, he plunges freely into Aaron's plans. - -"Five hundred," says Aaron, "full five hundred are agreed to go; and -I have lists of five thousand stout young fellows besides, who should -crowd round our standard at the whistle of the fife. The move now is -to purchase eight hundred thousand acres on the Washita, as a base from -which to operate and a pretext for bringing our people together. My -excuse for recruiting them, you understand, will be that they are to -settle on those eight hundred thousand Washita acres." - -"Eight hundred thousand acres!" This, between sips of whisky: "That -should take a fortune! Where do you think to find the money?" - -"It will come from New York, from Connecticut, from New Jersey, from -everywhere--but most of it from my son-in-law, Alston, who is to -mortgage his plantation and crops. He is worth a round million." - -"How do you succeed with the English?" asks Wilkinson, taking a new -direction. - -"It is as good as done. Merry, the British Minister, was with me -yesterday. He has sent Colonel Williamson of his legation to London, -to return by way of Jamaica and bring the English fleet to New Orleans. -Truxton is to be given temporary command, and sail against Vera Cruz, -where you and I must meet him with an army. When we have reduced Vera -Cruz, and secured a port, we shall march upon the city of Mexico." - -Wilkinson helps himself to another glass. - -Then he rubs his encarmined nose with a ruminative forefinger. - -"Well," he observes, "it will be a great venture! In New Orleans I'll -make you acquainted with Daniel Clark, an Englishman, who has the riches -and almost the wisdom of Solomon. He'll embrace the enterprise; once he -does he'll back it with his dollars. Clark himself is strong in ships; -with his merchant fleet and his warehouses, he should keep us in -provisions in Vera Cruz." - -"That is well bethought," cries Aaron, eyes a-sparkle. - -"Clark's relations with the bishop are likewise close," adds Wilkinson. - -Taking a pull at the whisky, he runs off in a fresh direction. - -"Give me your scheme in detail. We are not, I trust, to waste time -with a claptrap democracy, nor engage in the popular tomfoolery of a -republic?" - -"The government, imperial in form, shall be styled the 'Empire of -Mexico.' I shall be crowned Emperor Aaron I, and the crown made -hereditary in the male line; which last will create my grandson, Aaron -Burr Alston, heir presumptive." - -"And I?" interjects Wilkinson, his features doubly aglow with alcohol -and interest. "What are to be my rank and powers?" - -"You will be generalissimo of the army." - -"Second only to you?" - -"Second only to me. Here; I've drawn an outline of the civil fabric -we're to set up. The government, as I've said, is to be imperial, myself -emperor. There is to be a nobility of grandees, titles hereditary, who -will sit as a parliament. The noble programme is this: Aaron I, emperor; -Wilkinson, generalissimo of the forces; Alston, chief of the grandees -and secretary of state; Theo, chief lady of the court and princess -mother of the heir presumptive; Aaron Burr Alston, heir presumptive; -Truxton, lord high admiral of the fleet. There will be ambassadors, -ministers, consuls, and the usual furniture of government. The grandees -should be limited to one hundred, and chosen from those whom we bring -with us. There may be minor noble grades, drawn from ones powerful and -friendly among the natives." - -Aaron and Wilkinson of the carnelian nose sit far into the watches of -the night, discussing the great design. As the carnelianed one takes his -leave, he says: - -"We are fully agreed, I find. To-morrow I start for Natchez; you are to -follow in two weeks, you say?" - -"Yes," responds Aaron. "There should be months of travel ahead, before -my arrangements are perfected. I must meet Adair in Kentucky, Smith -in Ohio, Harrison in Indiana, Jackson in Tennessee; besides visit New -Orleans, and arrange about those eight hundred thousand Washita acres. -In my running about, I shall see you many times, and confer with you as -questions come up." - -"I shall meet you at Fort Massac on the Ohio. Don't forget two several -matters: The enterprise will lick up gold like fire. Also, that in the -civil as well as the military control of the empire, I'm to be second to -no one save yourself." - -"I shall forget nothing. Speaking of money, I sell Richmond Hill -to-morrow for twenty-five thousand dollars. The deeds are drawn and -signed." - -"Oh, we shall find money enough," returns Wilkinson contentedly. "Only -it's well never to lose sight of the fact that we're going to need it. -Clark, as I say, will plunge in for something handsome--something -that should call for six figures in its measure. As to my rank -of generalissimo, second only to yourself, it is all I could -ask. Popularly," concludes Wilkinson, preparing to take his -leave--"popularly, I shall be known as 'Wilkinson the Deliverer.' -Coming, as I shall, at the head of those gallant conquering armies which -are to relieve the groaning Mexicans from the yoke of Spain, I think it -a natural and an appropriate title--'Wilkinson the Deliverer!'" - -"Not only an appropriate title," observes the courtly Aaron, who -remembers his generalissimo's recent loyalty to the whisky bottle, "but -admirably adapted to fill the trump of fame." - -The door closes on the broad back of the coming "Deliverer." As Aaron -again bends over his "Empire," he hears that personage's footsteps, -uncertain by virtue of much drink, and proudly martial at the glorious -prospect before him, go shuffling down the corridor of the Indian Queen. - -"Bah!" mutters Aaron; "Jack Swartwout was right. It is both dangerous -and disgusting to build a great design on the trustless foundation -of this conceited, treacherous sot. And yet, such is the irony of my -situation, I am unable to do otherwise. At that, I shall manage him. Oh, -if Jefferson were only of the right viking sort! But, no; a creature of -abstractions, bookshelves and alcoves!--a closet philosopher in whose -veins runs no drop of red aggressive fighting blood!--he would as soon -think of treason as of conquest, and, indeed, might readily fall into -the error of imagining they spell the same thing. Besides, he hates me -for that presidential tie of four years ago. The plain offspring of -his own unpopularity, he none the less leaves it on my doorstep as the -natural child of my intrigues. No! I must watch Jefferson, not trust -him. His judgment is ever valet to his hatreds. He would call the most -innocent act a crime, prove white black, for the privilege of making -Aaron Burr an outlaw." - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII--THE TREASON OF WILKINSON - - -NOW begin days crowded on new faces and new scenes. Aaron ascends -the Potomac, and crosses the mountains to Pittsburg. He buys a cabined -flatboat and floats down to Marietta. They tell him of Blennerhassett, -romantic, eccentric, living on an island below. He visits the island; -the lord of the isle is absent, but his spouse, broad, thick, genial, -not beautiful, welcomes him and bids him come again. - -Aaron goes to Cincinnati, and confers with Senator Smith; to Louisville, -where he meets General Adair; then cross country to Nashville to find -General Jackson--his friend of a Senate day when he, Aaron, served -colleague to the kiln-dried Rufus King. - -Everywhere Aaron is the honored guest at barbecue and banquet. -Processions march; balls are given to his glory. There are roasting of -oxen, drinking of corn whisky, rosining of bows and scraping of catgut; -and all after the hearty fashion of the West, when once it gets a hero -in its clutches. - -To Adair and Smith and the lean Jackson, Aaron lays out his purpose of -Southwestern conquest. These stark worthies go with him heart and soul. -Each hates the Spaniard with a Saxon's hate; each is a Francis Drake at -bottom. Their hot concern in what he is upon, fairly overruns the verbal -pace of Aaron in its telling. Only, he is half-secret, and does not make -clear those elements of throne and crown and scepter. It will leave them -less over which to hesitate, he thinks; for he perceives that he deals -with folk who are congenital republicans. - -The lean Jackson, even more heartily than do the others, enters into -Aaron's plans. He declares that the best blood of Tennessee shall follow -him. In the long talks they have at the Hermitage, Aaron implants in -Jackson a Southwestern impulse which, in its deeds, will find victorious -culmination thirty years later at San Jacinto. In that day, Jackson -himself will occupy the chair now held by Jefferson. - -Being no prophet, but only a restless, strong, ambitious man, Aaron does -not foresee that day of Jackson in the White House, San Jacinto, and Sam -Houston--the latter just now a lad of thirteen, and hidden away in his -ancestral woods. Full of hope, Aaron goes diligently forward with -his sowing, the harvest whereof those others are to reap. He lays the -bedplates of an empire truly; but not _his_ empire--not the empire -of Aaron I, with Aaron II to follow him. He will be tottering on the -grave's edge in a day of San Jacinto; and yet his age-chilled heart will -warm at the news of it, and know it for his work. - -Aaron leaves Jackson, drifts down the Cumberland to the Ohio, and meets -Wilkinson, who--nose as red, with whisky-fuddled soul--is as much in -ardent arms as ever. Wilkinson cannot greet him too warmly. The only -change perceivable in our corn-soaked warrior is a doubt as to whether, -instead of "Wilkinson the Deliverer," he might not better fill the -wondering measure of futurity as "Washington of the West." Both titles -are full of majesty--a thing important to a taste streaked of rum--but -the latter possesses the more alliterative roll. The red-nosed Wilkinson -says finally that he will keep the question of title in abeyance, -committing himself to neither, with a possibility of adopting both. - -Aaron regains his cabined flatboat, and follows the current eight -hundred miles to Natchez. Later he drifts away to New Orleans. The -latter city is a bubbling community of nine thousand souls--American, -Spanish, French. It runs as socially wild over Aaron as did those ruder, -up-the-river regions; although, proving its civilization, it scrapes a -more delicate fiddle and declines the greasy barbecue enormities of a -whole roast ox. - -The Englishman Clark strikes hands with Aaron for the coming empire. It -is agreed that, with rank next to son-in-law Alston's, Clark shall be -of the grandees. Also, Aaron makes the acquaintance of the Bishop of New -Orleans, and the pair dispatch three Jesuit brothers to Mexico to spy -out the land. For the Spanish rule, as rapacious as tyrannous, has not -fostered the Church, but robbed it. Under Aaron I, the Church shall not -only be protected, but become the national Church. - -Leaving New Orleans, Aaron returns by an old Indian trace to Nashville, -keeping during the journey a sharp lookout for banditti who rob and kill -along the trail. Coming safe, he is welcomed by the lean Jackson, whom -he sets building bateaux for conveying the Tennessee contingent to the -coming work. - -[Illustration: 0287] - -Leaving Jackson busy with saw and adz and auger over flatboats, Aaron -heads north for the island dwelling of Blennerhassett. In the fortnight -he spends with that muddled exile, he wins him--life and fortune. -Blennerhassett is weak, forceless, a creature of dreams. Under spell -of the dominating Aaron, he sees with the eyes, speaks with the mouth, -feels with the heart of that strong ambitious one. Blennerhassett will -be a grandee. As such he must go to England, ambassador for the Empire -of Mexico, bearing the letters of Aaron I. He takes joy in picturing -himself at the court of St. James, and hears with the ear of -anticipation the exclamatory admiration of his Irish friends. - -"Ay! they'll change their tune!" cries Blennerhassett, as he considers -his greatness to come. "It should open their Irish eyes, for sure, when -they meet me as 'Don Blennerhassett, grandee of the Mexican Empire, -Ambassador to St. James by favor of his Imperial Majesty, Aaron I.' -It'll cause my surly kinfolk to sing out of the other corners of their -mouths; for I cannot remember that they've been over-respectful to me in -the past." - -Aaron recrosses the mountains, and descends the Potomac to Washington. -He dines with Jefferson, and relates his adventures, but hides his -plans. No whisper of empire and emperors at the great democrat's table! -Aaron is not so horn-mad as all that. - -While Aaron is in Washington, the stubborn Swartwout comes over. As the -fruits of the conference between him and his chief, the stubborn one -returns, and sends his brother Samuel, young Ogden, and Dr. Bollman to -Blennerhassett. Also, the lustrous Theo and little Aaron Burr Alston -join Aaron; for the princess mother of the heir presumptive, as well as -the sucking emperor himself, is to go with Aaron when he again heads -for the West. There will be no return--the lustrous Theo and the heir -presumptive are to accompany the expedition of conquest. Son-in-law -Alston, who will be chief of the grandees and secretary of state, -promises to follow later. Just now he is trying to negotiate a loan -on his plantations; and making slow work of it, because of Jefferson's -interference with the exportation of rice. - -Madam Blennerhassett welcomes the princess mother with wide arms, and -kisses the heir presumptive. Aaron decides to make the island a present -headquarters. Leaving the lustrous Theo and the heir presumptive to -Madam Blennerhassett, he indulges in swift, darting journeys, west and -north and south. He arranges for fifteen bateaux, each to carry one -hundred men, at Marietta. He crosses to Nashville to talk with Jackson, -and note the progress of that lean filibusterer with the Cumberland -flotilla. What he sees so pleases him that he leaves four thousand -dollars--a royal sum!--with the lean Jackson, to meet initial charges in -outfitting the Tennessee wing of the great enterprise. - -Aaron goes to Chillicothe and talks to the Governor of Ohio. Returning, -he drops over to the little huddle of huts called Cannonsburg. There he -forms the acquaintance of an honest, uncouth personage named Morgan, who -is eaten up of patriotism and suspicion. Morgan listens to Aaron, and -decides that he is a firebrand of treason about to set the Ohio valley -in a blaze. He writes these flaming fears to Jefferson--as suspicious as -any Morgan! - -Having aroused Morgan the wrong way, - -Aaron descends to New Orleans and makes payment on those eight -hundred thousand acres along the Washita. Following this real estate -transaction, he hunts up the whisky-reddened Wilkinson, and offers a -suggestion. As commander in chief, Wilkinson might march a brigade into -the Spanish country on the Sabine, and tease and tempt the Castilians -into a clash. Aaron argues that, once a brush occurs between the -Spaniards and the United States, a war fury will seize the country, and -furnish an admirable background of sentiment for his own descent upon -Mexico. Wilkinson, full of bottle valor, receives Aaron's suggestion -with rapture, and starts for the Sabine. Wilkinson safely off for the -Sabine, to bring down the desired trouble, Aaron again pushes up for -Blennerhassett and that exile's island. - -While these important matters are being thus set moving war-wise, the -soft-witted Blennerhassett is not idle. He writes articles for the -papers, descriptive of Mexico, which he pictures as a land flowing with -milk and honey. During gaps in his milk-and-honey literature, the coming -ambassador buys pork and flour and corn and beans, and stores them on -the island. They are to feed the expedition, when it shoves forth upon -the broad Ohio in those fifteen Marietta bateaux. - -Aaron gets back to the island. Accompanied by the lustrous Theo and -Blennerhassett, he goes to Lexington. While there, word reaches him that -Attorney Daviess, acting for the government by request of Jefferson, has -moved the court at Frankfort for an order "commanding the appearance -of Aaron Burr." The letter of the suspicious Morgan to the suspicious -Jefferson has fallen like seed upon good ground. - -Aaron does not wait; taking with him Henry Clay as counsel, he repairs -to Frankfort as rapidly as blue grass horseflesh can travel. Going into -court, Aaron, with Henry Clay, routs Attorney Daviess, who intimates but -does not charge treason. The judge, the grand jury, and the public give -their sympathies to Aaron; following his exoneration, they promote a -ball in his honor. - -Recruits begin to gather; the fifteen Marietta bateaux approach -completion. Aaron dispatches Samuel Swartwout and young Ogden with -letters to the red-nosed, necessary Wilkinson, making mad the Spaniards -on the Sabine. Also Adair and Bollman take boat for New Orleans. When -Swartwout and young Ogden have departed, Aaron resumes his Marietta -preparations, urging speed with those bateaux. - -Swartwout reaches the red-nosed Wilkinson, and delivers Aaron's letters. -These missives find the red-nosed one in a mixed mood. His cowardice -and native genius for treachery, acting lately in concert, have built -up doubts within him. There are bodily perils, sure to attend upon the -conquest of Mexico, which the rednosed one now hesitates to face. -Why should he face them? Would he not get as much from Jefferson for -betraying Aaron? He might, by a little dexterous mendacity, make the -Credulous Jefferson believe that Aaron meditates a blow not at Mexico -but the United States. It would permit him, the red-nosed one, to pose -as the saviour of his country. And as the acknowledged saviour of his -country, what might not he demand?--what might not he receive? Surely, a -saved country, even a saved republic, would not be ungrateful! - -The red-nosed one's genius for treachery being thus addressed, he sends -posthaste to Jefferson. He warns him that a movement is abroad to -break up the Union. Every State west of the Alleghenies is to be in the -revolt. Thus declares the treacherous red-nosed one, who thinks it the -shorter cut to that coveted title, "Wilkinson the Deliverer, Washington -of the West." Besides, there will be the glory and sure emolument! -Wilkinson the red-nosed, thinks on these things as he goes plunging -Aaron and his scheme of empire into ruin. - -While these wonders are working in the West, Aaron, wrapped in ignorance -concerning them, is driving matters with a master's hand at Marietta and -the island. The fifteen bateaux are still unfinished, when he resolves, -with sixty of his people, to go down to Natchez. There are matters which -call to him in connection with those Washita eight hundred thousand -acres. Besides, he desires a final word with the red-nosed Wilkinson. - -At Bayou Pierre, a handful of miles above Natchez, Aaron hears of a -Jefferson proclamation. The news touches his heart as with a finger of -frost. Folk say the proclamation recites incipient treason in the States -west of the Alleghenies, and warns all men not to engage therein on -peril of their necks. About the same time comes word that the red-nosed, -treacherous Wilkinson has caused the arrest of Adair, Dr. Boll-man, -Samuel Swartwout, and young Ogden, and shipped them, per schooner, to -Baltimore, to answer as open traitors to the State. Aaron requires all -his fortitude to command himself. - -The Governor of Mississippi grows excited; he feels the heroic need of -doing something. He hoarsely orders out certain companies of militia; -after which he calls into counsel his attorney general. - -The latter potentate advises eloquence before powder and ball. He -believes that treason, black and lowering, is abroad, the country's -integrity threatened by the demonaic Aaron. Still, he has faith in his -own sublime powers as an orator. He tells the governor that he can talk -the treason-mongering Aaron into tameness. At this the governor--nobly -willing to risk and, if need press, sacrifice his attorney general on -the altars of a common good--bids him try what he can eloquently do. - -The confident attorney general goes to Aaron, where that would-be -conqueror is lying, at Bayou Pierre. He sets forth what a fatal mistake -it would be, were Aaron to lock military horns with the puissant -territory of Mississippi. Common prudence, he says, dictates that Aaron -surrender without a struggle, and come into court and be tried. - -Aaron makes not the least objection. He goes with the attorney general, -and, pending investigation by the grand jurors, is enthusiastically -hailed by rich planters of the region, who sign for ten thousand -dollars. - -The grand jurors, following the example of those others of the blue -grass, find Aaron an innocent, ill-used individual. They order his -honorable release, and then devote themselves, with heartfelt diligence, -to indicting the governor for illicitly employing the militia. -Cool counsel intervenes, however, and the grand jurors, not without -difficulty, are convinced that the governor intended no wrong. Thereupon -they content themselves with grimly warning that official to hereafter -let "honest settlers" coming into the country alone. Having discharged -their duty in the premises, the grand jurors lapse into private life and -the governor draws a long breath of relief. - -Aaron procures a copy of Jefferson's anti-treason proclamation. The West -will snap derisive fingers at it; but New England and the East are sure -to be set on edge. The proclamation itself is enough to cripple his -enterprise of empire. Added to the treachery of the rednosed Wilkinson, -it makes such empire for the nonce impossible. The proclamation does not -name him; but Aaron knows that the dullest mind between the oceans will -supply the omission. - -There is nothing else for it. The mere thought is gall and wormwood; and -yet Aaron's dream must vanish before what stubborn conditions confront -him. - -As a best move toward extricating himself from the tangle into which -the perfidy of the red-nosed one has forced him, Aaron decides to go -to Washington. He informs the leading spirits about him of his purpose, -mounts the finest horse to be had for money, and sets out. - -It is a week later. One Perkins meets Aaron at the Alabama village of -Wakeman. The thoroughbred air of the man on the thoroughbred horse sets -Perkins to thinking. After ten minutes' study, Perkins is flooded of a -great light. - -"Aaron Burr!" he cries, and rushes off to Fort Stoddart. - -Perkins, out of breath, tells his news to Captain Gaines. Two hours -later, as Aaron comes riding down a hill, he is met by Captain Gaines -and a sober file of soldiers. - -The captain salutes: - -"You are Colonel Burr," he says. "I arrest you by order of President -Jefferson. You must go with me to Fort Stoddart, where you will be -treated with the respect due one who has honorably filled the second -highest post of Government." - -"Sir," responds Aaron, unruffled and superior, "I am Colonel Burr. I -yield myself your prisoner; since, with the force at your command, it -is not possible to do otherwise." Aaron rides with Captain Gaines to the -fort. As the two dismount at the captain's quarters, a beautiful woman -greets them. - -"This is my wife, Colonel Burr," says Captain Gaines. Then, to Madam -Gaines: "Colonel Burr will be our guest at dinner." - -Aaron, the captain, and the beautiful Madam Gaines go in to dinner. Two -sentries with fixed bayonets march and countermarch before the door. -Aaron beholds in them the sign visible that his program of empire, which -has cost him so much and whereon his hopes were builded so high, is -forever thrust aside. Smooth, polished, deferential, brilliant--the -beautiful Madam Gaines says she has yet to meet a more fascinating man! -Aaron is never more steadily composed, never more at polite ease than -now when power and empire vanish for all time. - -"You appreciate my position, sir," says Captain Gaines, as they rise -from the table. "I trust you do not blame me for performing my duty." - -"Sir," returns Aaron, with an acquiescent bow, "I blame only the -hateful, thick stupidity of Jefferson, and my own criminal dullness in -trusting a scoundrel." - - - - -CHAPTER XIX--HOW AARON IS INDICTED - - -IT is evening at the White House. The few dinner guests have departed, -and Jefferson is alone in his study. As he stands at the open window, -and gazes out across the sweep of lawn to the Potomac, shining like -silver in the rays of the full May moon, his face is cloudy and angry. -The face of the sage of Monticello has put aside its usual expression of -philosophy. In place of the calm that should reign there, the look which -prevails is one of narrowness, prejudice and wrathful passion. - -Apparently, he waits the coming of a visitor, for he wheels without -surprise, as a fashionably dressed gentleman is ushered in by a servant. - -"Ah, Wirt!" he cries; "be seated, please. You got my note?" - -William Wirt is thirty-five--a clean, well-bred example of the -conventional Virginia gentleman. He accepts the proffered chair; but -with the manner of one only half at ease, as not altogether liking the -reason of his White House presence. - -"Your note, Mr. President?" he repeats. "Oh, yes; I received it. What -you propose is highly flattering. And yet--and yet----" - -"And yet what, sir?" breaks in Jefferson impatiently. "Surely, I propose -nothing unusual? You are practicing at the Richmond bar. I ask you to -conduct the case against Colonel Burr." - -"Nothing unusual, of course," returns Wirt, who, gifted of a keen -political eye, hungrily foresees a final attorney generalship in what -he is about. "And yet, as I was about to say, there are matters which -should be considered. There is George Hay, for instance; he is the -Government's attorney for the Richmond district. It is his province as -well as duty to prosecute Colonel Burr; he might resent my being saddled -upon him. Have you thought of Mr. Hay?" - -"Thought of him? Hay is a dullard, a blockhead, a respectable nonentity! -no more fit to contend with Colonel Burr and those whom he will have -about him, than would be a sucking babe. He is of no courage, no force, -sir; he seems to think that, now he is the son-in-law of James Monroe, -he has done quite enough to merit success in both law and politics. No; -there is much depending on this trial, and I desire you to try it. Burr -must be convicted. The black Federal plot to destroy this republic and -set a monarchy in its stead, a plot of which he himself is but a single -item, must be nipped in the bud. Moreover, you will find that I am to -be on trial even more than is Colonel Burr. The case will not be -'The People against Aaron Burr.' but 'The Federalists against Thomas -Jefferson.' Do you understand? I am the object of a Federal plot, as -much as is the Government itself! John Marshall, that arch Federalist, -will be on the bench, doing all he can for the plotters and their -instrument, Colonel Burr. It is no time to risk myself on so slender a -support as George Hay. It is you who must conduct this cause." - -Wirt is a bit scandalized by this outburst; especially at the reckless -dragging in of Chief Justice Marshall. He expostulates; but is too much -the courtier to let any harshness creep into either his manner or his -speech. - -"You surely do not mean to say," he begins, "that the chief justice----" - -"I mean to say," interrupts Jefferson, "that you must be ready to meet -every trick that Marshall can play against the Government. For all his -black robe, is he of different clay than any other? Believe me, he's -a Federalist long before he's a judge! Let me ask a question: Why did -Marshall, the chief justice, mind you, hold the preliminary examination -of Burr? Why, having held it, did he not commit him for treason? Why did -he hold him only for a misdemeanor, and admit him to bail? Does not -that look as though Marshall had taken possession of the case in Burr's -interest? You spoke a moment ago of the propriety of Hay prosecuting the -charge against Burr, being, as he is, the Government's attorney for that -district. Does not it occur to you that his honor, Judge Griffin, is the -judge for that district? And yet Marshall shoves him aside to make room -on the bench for himself. Sir, there is chicanery in this. We must watch -Marshall. A chief justice, indeed! A chief Federalist, rather! Why, he -even so much lacked selfrespect as to become a guest at a dinner given -in Colonel Burr's honor, after he had committed that traitor in ten -thousand dollars bail! An excellent, a dignified chief justice, -truly!--doing dinner table honor to one whom he must presently try for a -capital offense!" - -"Justice Marshall's appearance at the Burr dinner"--Wirt makes the -admission doubtfully--"was not, I admit, in the very flower of good -taste. None the less, I should infer honesty rather than baseness from -such appearance. If he contemplated any wrong in Colonel Burr's favor, -he would have remained away. Coming to the case itself," says Wirt, -anxious to avoid further discussion of Judge Marshall, as a topic -whereon he and Jefferson are not likely to agree, "what is the specific -act of treason with which the Government charges Colonel Burr?" - -"The conspiracy, wherein he was prime mover, aimed first to take Mexico -from, the Spanish. Having taken Mexico, the plotters--Colonel Burr at -the head--purposed seizing New Orleans. That would give them a hold -in the vast region drained by the Mississippi. Everything west of the -Alleghenies was expected to flock round their standards. With an -empire reaching from Darien to the Great Lakes, from the Pacific to the -Alleghenies, their final move was to be made upon Washington itself. -Sir, the Federalists hate this republic--have always hated it! What they -desire is a monarchy. They want a king, not a president, in the White -House." - -"I learn," observes Wirt--"I learn, since my arrival, that Colonel Burr -has been in Washington." - -"That was three days ago. He demanded copies of my orders to General -Wilkinson. When I prevented his obtaining them, he said he would move -for a _subpoena duces tecum_, addressed to me personally. Think of that, -sir! Can you conceive of greater impudence? He will sue out a subpoena -against the President of this country, and compel him to come into court -bringing the archives of Government!" - -Wirt shrugs his shoulders. "And why not, sir?" he asks at last. "In the -eye of the law a president is no more sacred than a pathmaster. A murder -might be committed in the White House grounds. You, looking from that -window, might chance to witness it--might, indeed, be the only witness. -You yourself are a lawyer, Mr. President. You will not tell me that an -innocent man, accused of murder, is to be denied your testimony?--that -he is to hang rather than ruffle a presidential dignity? What is the -difference between the case I've supposed and that against Colonel -Burr? He is to be charged with treason, you say! Very well; treason is a -hanging matter as much as murder." - -Jefferson and Wirt, step by step, go over the arrest of Aaron, and what -led to it. It is settled that Wirt shall control for the prosecution. -Also, when the Grand Jury is struck, he must see to it that Aaron is -indicted for treason. - -"Marshall has confined the inquiry," says Jefferson, "to what Burr -contemplated against Mexico--a mere misdemeanor! You, Wirt, must have -the Grand Jury take up that part of the conspiracy which was leveled -against this country. There is abundant testimony. Burr talked it to -Eaton in Washington, to Morgan in Ohio, to Wilkinson at Fort Massac." - -"You speak of his _talking_ treason," returns Wirt with a thoughtful, -non-committal air. "Did he anywhere or on any occasion _act_ it? Was -there any overt act of war?" - -"What should you call the doings at Blennerhassett Island?--the -gathering of men and stores?--the boat-building at Marietta and -Nashville? Are not those, taken with the intention, hostile acts?--overt -acts of war?" - -Wirt falls into deep study. "We must," he says after a moment's silence, -"leave those questions, I fear, for Justice Marshall to decide." - -Jefferson relates how he has written Governor Pinckney of South -Carolina, advising the arrest of Alston. - -"To be sure, Alston is not so bad as Colonel Burr," he observes, "for -the reason that he is not so big as Colonel Burr; just as a young -rattlesnake is not so venomous as an old one." Then, impressively: -"Wirt, Colonel Burr is a dangerous man! He will find his place in -history as the Catiline of America." - -Wirt cannot hide a smile. "It is but fair you should say so, Mr. -President, since at the Richmond hearing he spoke of you as a -presidential Jack Straw." Seeing that Jefferson does not enjoy the -reference, Wirt hastens to another subject. "Colonel Burr will have -formidable counsel. Aside from Wickham, and Botts, and Edmund Randolph, -across from Maryland will come Luther Martin." - -"Luther Martin!" cries Jefferson. "So they are to unloose that Federal -bulldog against me! But then the whisky-swilling beast is never sober." - -"No more safe as an adversary for that," retorts Wirt. "If I am ever -called upon to write Luther Martin's epitaph, I shall make it 'Ever -drunk and ever dangerous!'" - -On the bench sits Chief Justice Marshall--tall, slender--eyes as black -as Aaron's own--face high, dignified--brow noble, full--the whole -man breathing distinction. By his side, like some small thing lost in -shadow, no one noticing him, no one addressing him, a picture of silent -humility, sits District Judge Griffin. - -For the Government comes Wirt, sneering, harsh--as cold and hard and -fine and keen as thrice-tempered steel. With him is Hay--slow, pompous, -of much respectability and dull weakness. Assisting Wirt and Hay and -filling a minor place, is one McRae. - -Leading for the defense, is Aaron himself--confident, unshaken. -Already he has begun to relay his plans of Mexican conquest. He assures -Blennerhassett, who is with him, that the present interruption should -mean no more than a time-waste of six months. With Aaron sit Edmund -Randolph, the local Nestor; Wickham, clear, sure of law and fact; and -Botts, the Bayard of the Richmond bar. Most formidable is Aaron's rear -guard, the thunderous Luther Martin--coarse, furious, fearless--gay -clothes stained and soiled--ruffles foul and grimy--eye fierce, -bleary, bloodshot--nose bulbous, red as a carbuncle--a hoarse, roaring, -threatening voice--the Thersites of the hour. Never sober, he rolls into -court as drunk as a Plantagenet. Ever dangerous, he reads, hears, -sees everything, and forgets nothing. Quick, rancorous, headlong as a -fighting bull, he lowers his horns against Wirt, whenever that polished -one puts himself within forensic reach. Also, for all his cool, sneering -skill, Toreador Wirt never meets the charge squarely, but steps aside -from it. - -Apropos of nothing, as Martin takes his place by the trial table, he -roars out: - -"Why is this trial ordered for Richmond? Why is it not heard in -Washington? It is by command of Jefferson, sir. He thinks that in -his own State of Virginia, where he is invincible and Colonel Burr a -stranger, the name of 'Jefferson' will compel a verdict of guilt. There -is fairness for you!" - -Wirt glances across, but makes no response to the tirade; for Martin, -purple of face, snorting ferociously, seems only waiting a word from him -to utter worse things. - -The Grand Jury is chosen: foreman, John Randolph of Roanoke--sour, -inimical, hateful, voice high and spiteful like the voice of a -scolding woman! The Grand Jury is sent to its room to deliberate as to -indictments, while the court adjourns for the day. - -It is well into the evening when the parties in interest leave the -courtroom. As Wirt and Hay, arm in arm, are crossing the courthouse -green, they become aware of an orator who, loud of tone and careless of -his English, is addressing a crowd from the steps of a corner grocery. -Just as the two arrive within earshot, the orator, lean, hawklike of -face, tosses aloft a rake-handle arm, and shouts: - -"When Jefferson says that Colonel Burr is a traitor, Jefferson lies in -his throat!" The crowd applaud enthusiastically. - -Hay looks at Wirt. "Who is the fellow?" he asks. - -"Oh! he's a swashbuckler militia general," returns Wirt, carelessly. -"He's a low fellow, I'm told; his name is Andrew Jackson. He was one of -Colonel Burr's confederates. They say he's the greatest blackguard in -Tennessee." - -Just now, did some Elijah touch the Wirtian elbow and tell of a day -to come when he, Wirt, will be driven to resign that coveted attorney -generalship into the presidential hands of the "blackguard," who will -receive it promptly, and dismiss him into private life no more than half -thanked for what public service he has rendered, the ambitious Virginian -would hold the soothsayer to be a madman, not a prophet. - -Scores upon scores of witnesses are sent one by one to the Grand Jury. -The days run into weeks. Every hour the question is asked: "Where is -Wilkinson?" The red-nosed one is strangely, exasperatingly absent. - -Wirt seeks to explain that absence. The journey is long, he says. He -will pledge his honor for the red-nosed one's appearance. - -Meanwhile the friends of Aaron pour in from North and West and South. -The stubborn, faithful Swartwout is there, with his brother Samuel; -for, Samuel Swartwout and young Ogden and Adair and Bollman, shipped -aforetime per schooner to Baltimore by the red-nosed one as traitors, -have been declared innocent, and are all in Richmond attending upon -their chief. - -One morning the whisper goes about that "Wilkinson is here." The -whisper is confirmed by the red-nosed one's appearance in court. Young -Washington Irving, who has come down from New York in the interest of -Aaron, writes concerning that red-nosed advent: - -_Wilkinson strutted into court, and took his stand in a parallel line -with Colonel Burr. Here he stood for a moment swelling like a turkey -cock, and bracing himself to meet Colonel Burr's eye. The latter took no -notice of him, until Judge Marshall directed the clerk to "swear General -Wilkinson." At the mention of the name, Colonel Burr turned and looked -him full in the face, with one of his piercing regards, swept him from -head to foot, and then went on conversing with his counsel as before. -The whole look was over in a moment; and yet it was admirable. There -was no appearance of study or constraint, no affectation of disdain -or defiance; only a slight expression of contempt played across -the countenance, such as one might show on seeing a person whom one -considers mean and vile._ - -That evening Samuel Swartwout meets the red-nosed one, as the latter -warrior is strutting on the walk for the admiration of men, and -thrusts him into a mud hole. The lean Jackson is so delighted at this -disposition of the rednosed one, that he clasps the warlike Swartwout -in his rake-handle arms. Later, by twenty-two years, he will make him -collector of the port of New York for it. Just now, however, he advises -a duel, holding that the mudhole episode will be otherwise incomplete. - -Since Swartwout has had the duel in his mind from the beginning, he and -the lean Jackson combine in the production of a challenge, which is duly -sent to the red-nosed one in the name of Swartwout. The red-nosed one -has no heart for duels, and crawls from under the challenge by saying, -"I refuse to hold communication with a traitor." Thereupon Swartwout, -with the lean Jackson to aid him, again lapses into the clerical, and -prints the following gorgeous outburst in the _Richmond Gazette:_ - -_Brigadier General Wilkinson: Sir: When once the chain of infamy -grapples to a knave, every new link creates a fresh sensation of -detestation and horror. As it gradually or precipitately unfolds itself, -we behold in each succeeding connection, and arising from the same -corrupt and contaminated source, the same base and degenerated -conduct. I could not have supposed that you would have completed the -catalogue of your crimes by adding to the guilt of treachery forgery and -perjury the accomplishment of cowardice. Having failed in two different -attempts to procure an interview with you, such as no gentleman of honor -could refuse, I have only to pronounce and publish you to the world as a -coward._ - -_Samuel Swartwout._ - -The Grand Jury comes into court, and by the shrill mouth of Foreman -Randolph reports two indictments against Aaron: one for treason, "as -having levied war against the United States," and one for "having levied -war upon a country, to wit, Mexico, with which the United States are at -peace"--the latter a misdemeanor. - - - - -CHAPTER XX--HOW AARON IS FOUND INNOCENT - - -THE indictments are read, and Aaron pleads "Not guilty!" Thereupon -Luther Martin moves for a _subpoena duces tecum_ against Jefferson, -commanding him to bring into court those written orders from the files -of the War Department, which he, as President and _ex officio_ commander -in chief of the army, issued to the red-nosed Wilkinson. Arguing the -motion, the violent Martin proceeds in these words: - -"We intend to show that these orders were contrary to the Constitution -and the laws. We intend to show that by these orders Colonel Burr's -property and person were to be destroyed; yes, by these tyrannical -orders the life and property of an innocent man were to be exposed to -destruction. This is a peculiar case, sirs. President Jefferson has -undertaken to prejudge my client by declaring that 'of his guilt there -can be no doubt!' He has assumed to himself the knowledge of the Supreme -Being, and pretended to search the heart of my client. He has proclaimed -him a traitor in the face of the country. He has let slip the dogs of -war, the hell-hounds of persecution, to hunt down my client. And now, -would the President of the United States, who has himself raised all -this clamor, pretend to keep back the papers wanted for a trial where -life itself is at stake? It is a sacred principle that the accused has a -right to the evidence needed for his defense, and whosoever--whether -he be a president or some lesser man--withholds such evidence is -substantially a murderer, and will, be so recorded in the register of -heaven." - -Argument ended, Marshall, chief justice, sustains the motion. He holds -that the _subpoena duces tecum_ may issue, and goes so far as to say -that, if it be necessary to the ends of justice, the personal attendance -of Jefferson himself shall be compelled. - -The charge is treason, and no bail can be taken; Aaron must be locked -up. The Governor of Virginia offers as a place of detention a superb -suite of rooms, meant for official occupation, on the third floor of the -penitentiary building. Marshall, chief justice, accepting such proffer, -orders Aaron's confinement in the superb official suite. Aaron takes -possession, stocks the larder, loads the sideboards, and, with a cloud -of servitors, gives a dinner party to twenty friends. - -The lustrous Theo arrives, and makes her residence with Aaron in -the official suite, as lady of the establishment. Each day a hundred -visitors call, among them the aristocracy of the town. Also dinner -follows dinner; the official suite assumes a gala, not to say a gallant -look, and no one would think it a prison, or dream for one urbane -moment that Aaron--that follower of the gospel according to Lord -Chesterfield--is fighting for his life. - -Following the order for the _subpoena duces tecum_, and Aaron's -dinner-giving incarceration in the official suite, Marshall, chief -justice, directs that court be adjourned until August--a month away. - -Wirt, during the vacation, goes over to Washington. He finds Jefferson -in a mood of double anger. - -"What did I tell you," cries Jefferson--"what did I tell you of -Marshall?" Then he rushes on to the utterances of the violent Luther -Martin. "Shall you not move," he demands, "to commit Martin as -_particeps criminis_ with Colonel Burr? There should be evidence to fix -upon him misprision of treason, at least. At any rate, such a step would -put down our impudent Federal bulldog, and show that the most clamorous -defenders of Colonel Burr are one and all his accomplices." - -Meanwhile, the "impudent Federal bulldog" attends a Fourth-of-July -dinner in Baltimore. Every man at table, save himself, is an adherent of -Jefferson. Eager to demonstrate that loyal fact to the administration, -sundry of the guests make speeches full of uncompliment for Martin, and -propose a toast: - -"Aaron Burr! May his treachery to his country exalt him to the -scaffold!" - -More speeches, replete of venom, are aimed at Martin; whereupon that -undaunted drunkard gets upon his feet. - -"Who is this Aaron Burr," he roars, "whose guilt you have pronounced, -and for whose blood your parched throats so thirst? Was not he, a -few years back, adored by you next to your God? Were not you then his -warmest admirers? Did not he then possess every virtue? He was then in -power. He had influence. You were proud of his notice. His merest smile -brightened all your faces. His merest frown lengthened all your visages. -Go, ye holiday, ye sunshine friends!--ye time-servers, ye criers of -hosannah to-day and crucifiers to-morrow!--go; hide your heads from the -contempt and detestation of every honorable, every right-minded man!" - -August: The day of trial arrives. Wirt, with the dull, deferent Hay, has -gone over the testimony against Aaron, and arranged the procession -of its introduction. Wirt will begin far back. By the mouth of the -red-nosed Wilkinson--somewhat in hiding from Swartwout--and by others, -he will relate from the beginning Aaron's dream of Mexican conquest. -He will show how the vision grew and expanded until it reacted upon the -United States, and the downfall of Washington became as much parcel of -Aaron's design as was the capture of Mexico. He will trace Aaron through -his many conferences in Washington, in Marietta, in Nashville, in -Cincinnati; and then on to New Orleans, where he is closeted with -Merchant Clark and the Bishop of Louisiana. - -And so the parties go into court. - -The jury being sworn, Marshall, chief justice, at once overthrows those -well-laid plans of Wirt. - -"You must go to the act, sir," says Marshall. - -"Treason, like murder, is an act. You can't think treason, you can't -plot treason, you can't talk treason; you can only act it. In murder you -must first prove the killing--the murderous act, before you may offer -evidence of an intent. And so in treason. You must begin by proving the -overt act of war against the country, before I can permit evidence of an -intent which led up to it." - -This ruling throws Wirt abroad in his calculations. The "Federal -bulldog" Martin grows vulgarly gleeful, Wirt correspondingly glum. - -Being prodded by Marshall, chief justice, Wirt declares that the "act -of war" was the assembling of forty armed men, under one Taylor, at -Blennerhassett Island. They stopped at the island but a moment, and -Aaron himself was in Lexington. None the less there were forty of them; -they were armed; they were there by design and plan of Aaron, with an -ultimate purpose of levying war against this Government. Wirt urges that -constructive war was at that very island moment being waged, with Aaron -personally absent but constructively present, and constructively waging -such war. - -At this setting forth, Marshall, chief justice, puckers his lips, as -might one who thinks the argument far-fetched and overfinely spun. -Martin, the "Federal bulldog," does not scruple to laugh outright. - -"Was ever heard such hash!" cries Martin. "Men may bear arms without -waging war! Forty men no more mean war than four! Men may float down -the Ohio, and still no war be waged. Because the hypochondriac Jefferson -imagined war, we are to receive the thing as _res adjudicata_, and -now give way while a pleasantly concocted tale, of that carnage of a -presidential nightmare, is recited from the witness box. Sirs, you are -not to fiddle folk onto a scaffold to any such tune as that, though a -president furnish the music." - -Marshall, chief justice, still with pursed lips and knotted forehead, -directs Wirt to proceed with his evidence of what, at Blennerhassett -Island, he relies upon to constitute, constructively or otherwise, a -state of war. Having heard the evidence, he will pass upon the points of -law presented. - -Wirt, desperate because he may do no better, puts forward one Eaton as -a witness. The latter tells a long, involved story, which sounds vastly -like fiction and not at all like fact, of conversations with Aaron. -Aaron brings out in cross examination, that within ten days after -he, Eaton, went with this tale to Jefferson, a claim for ten thousand -dollars, which he had been pressing without success against the -Government, was paid. Aaron suggests that Eaton, to induce payment -of such claim, invented his narrative; and the suggestion is plainly -acceptable to the jury. - -Following Eaton, Wirt calls Truxton; and next the suspicious Morgan, -who first wrote to Jefferson touching Aaron and his plans. Then -follow Blennerhassett's gardener and groom, and one Woodbridge, -Blennerhassett's man of business. Wirt, by these, proves Aaron's -frequent presence on the island; the boats building at Marietta; the -advent of Taylor with his forty armed men, and there the relation ends. -In all--the testimony, not a knife is ground, not a flint is picked, not -a rifle fired; the forty armed men do not so much as indulge in drill. -For all they said or did or acted, the forty might have been explorers, -or sightseers, or settlers, or any other form of peaceful whatnot. - -"I suppose," observes Marshall, chief justice, bending his black eyes -warningly upon Wirt--"I suppose it unnecessary to instruct counsel that -guilt will not be presumed?" - -Wirt replies stiffly that counsel for the Government, at least, require -no instructions; whereat Martin the "Federal bulldog" barks hoarsely -up, that what counsel for the Government most require, and are most -deficient in, is a case and the evidence of it. Wirt pays no heed to -the jeer, but announces that under the ruling of the court, made before -evidence was introduced, he has nothing more to offer touching acts of -overt war. He rests his case, he says, on that point; and thereupon, the -defense take issue with him. The Government, Aaron declares, has failed -to make out even the shadow of a treason. There is nothing which demands -reply; he will call no witnesses. - -Marshall, chief justice, directs that the arguments to the jury be -proceeded with. Wirt is heard. Being imaginative, and having no facts, -he unchains his fancy and paints a paradise, whereof Aaron is the -serpent and Blennerhassett and his moon-visaged spouse are Adam and Eve. -It is a beautiful picture, and might be effective did it carry any grain -of truth. However, it is well received by the jury as a romance full -of entertaining glow and glitter; and then it is put aside from serious -consideration. - -While Wirt the fanciful is thus coloring his invented paradise, with -Aaron as the serpent and the Blennerhassetts the betrayed Adam and Eve, -the "betrayed" Blennerhassett, sitting by Aaron's side, is reading the -"serpent" a letter, that day received from Madam Blennerhassett. The -missive closes: - -"Apprise Colonel Burr of my warmest acknowledgments for his own and -Theo's kind remembrances. Tell him to assure her that she has inspired -me with a warmth of attachment that never can diminish." - -On the oratorical back of Wirt come Wickham, Hay, Randolph, Botts, -and McRae. Lastly Martin is heard, the "Federal bulldog" seizing the -occasion to bay Jefferson even more violently than before. When they -are done, Marshall, chief justice, lays down the law as to what should -constitute an "overt act of war"; and, since it is plain, even to the -court crier, that no such act has been proven, the jury hurry forward a -finding: - -"Not guilty!" - -Jefferson, full of prejudice, hears the news. He writes wrathfully to -Wirt: - -"Let no witness depart without taking a copy of his evidence, which is -now more important than ever. The criminal Burr is preserved, it seems, -to become the rallying point of all the disaffected and worthless of -the United States, and to be the pivot on which all the conspiracies and -intrigues, that foreign governments may wish to disturb us with, are to -turn. There is still, however, the misdemeanor; and, if he be convicted -of that, Judge Marshall must, for very decency, give us some respite by -a confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short." There -is a day's recess; then the charge of "levying war against Mexico" is -called. The red-nosed Wilkinson now tells his story; and is made -to admit--the painful sweat standing in great drops upon his purple -visage--that he has altered in important respects several of Aaron's -letters. Being, by his own mouth, a forger, the jury marks its estimate -of the red-nosed one by again acquitting Aaron, and pronouncing a second -finding: "Not guilty!" - -Thus ends the great trial which has rocked a continent. Aaron is free; -his friends crowd about him jubilantly, while the loving, lustrous Theo -weeps upon his shoulder. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI--THE SAILING AWAY OF AARON. - - -SIX months creep by; May is painting Manhattan with its flowers. The -house of the stubborn, loyal Swartwout is in Stone Street. Long ago, -in the old Dutch beaver-peltry days, the home of the poet Steen-dam was -there. Now it is the dwelling place of John Swartwout, and Aaron is his -guest. - -The lustrous Theo is with Aaron this sunny afternoon, luster something -dimmed; for the hour is one sad and tearful with parting. It is a last -parting; though the pair--the loving father! the adoring, clinging -daughter!--hopefully, happily blind, believe otherwise. - -"Yes," Aaron is saying, "I must sail tonight. The ship is at anchor in -the lower bay." Theo, the lustrous, is too bravely the child of Aaron -to break into lamentation, though the wrung heart fills her eyes with -tears. "And should your plans fail," she says, "you will come to us at -the 'Oaks.' Joseph, you know, is no longer 'Mr. Alston,' but 'Governor -Alston.' As father to the Governor of the State, and with your own high -name, you may take what place you will in South Carolina. You promise, -do you not? If by any trip of fortune your prospects are overthrown, you -will come to us in the South?" - -"But, dearling, my plans will not fail. I have had letters from Lords -Mulgrave and Castlereagh, I bear with me the indorsement of the British -Minister in Washington. Openly or secretly, England will support my -project with men and money and ships. If, in some caprice of politics or -a changing cabinet, she should refuse, I shall seek Napoleon. Mexico and -an empire!--that should match finely the native color of his Corsican -feeling." - -Night draws on; Aaron and the lustrous Theo say the sorrowful words of -separation, and within the hour he is aboard the _Clarissa_, outward -bound for England. - -In London, full of new fire, Aaron throws away no time. Each day he -is closeted with Mulgrave, Castlereagh and Canning. He goes to Holland -House, and its noble master is seized with the fever for Montezuman -conquest. The inventive Earl of Bridgewater--who is radical and goes -readily to novel enterprises--catches the Mexican fury. The spirit of -Cortez is abroad; the nobility of England fall quickly in with Aaron's -Western design. It will mean an augmentation of the world's peerage. -Also, Mexico should furnish an admirable grazing ground for second sons. -Aaron's affairs go swimmingly; he is full of hopeful anticipation. He -writes the lustrous Theo at the "Oaks" that, "save for the unforeseen," -little Aaron Burr Alston shall yet wear an imperial crown as Aaron II. - -Save for the unforeseen! The reservation is well put in. As Aaron sits -in conference, one foggy London evening, with Mulgrave and Castlereagh, -who have become principal figures in those Mexican designs, Canning -comes hurriedly in. - -"I am from the Foreign Office," says he, "and I come with bad news. -There is a lion in our path--two lions. Secret news was just received -that Napoleon has driven the king and queen from Madrid, and established -his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. Mexico by that: stroke belongs -to the Bonapartes; they will hardly consent to its loss." - -"That is one lion," observes Mulgrave; "now for the other." - -"The other is England," proceeds Canning. "Already we are mustering our -forces, and enlisting ships, to drive the Corsican out of Spain. We are -to become the allies of the royal outcasts, and restore them to Spanish -power. I need not draw the inference. As Spain's ally, fighting her -battles against the French in the Peninsula, England will no more permit -the loss of Mexico than will Napoleon." - -Aaron listens; a chill of disappointment touches his strong heart. -He understands how wholly lost are his hopes, even before Canning is -through talking. He had two strings to his bow; both have snapped. No -chance now of either France or England aiding him. His prospects, so -bright but the moment before, are on the instant darkened. - -"Delay! always delay!" he murmurs. Then his courage mounts again; the -chill is driven from his heart. He is too thoroughbred to despond, and -quickly pulls himself together. "Yes," says he, "the word you bring -shuts double doors against us. The best we may do is wait--wait for -Napoleon to win or lose in Spain. Should England hurl him back across -the Pyrenees, we may resume our plans again." - -"Indubitably," returns Canning. "Should England save Spain from the -Corsican, she might well lay claim to the right of disposing of Mexico -as a recompense for her exertions." - -Thus, for the time, by force of events in far-off Spain, is Aaron -compelled to fold away his ambitions. - -While waiting the turn of fortune's wheel in Spain, Aaron fills in his -leisure with society. Everywhere he is the lion. "The celebrated Colonel -Burr!" is the phrase by which he is presented. Entertained as well as -instructed by what he sees and hears, he begins to keep a journal. It -shall one day be read with interest by the lustrous Theo, he thinks. - -Jeremy Bentham--honest, fussy, sprightly, full of dreams for bettering -governments--finds out Aaron. The honest, fussy Bentham loves admiration -and the folk who furnish it. He has heard from letter-writing friends -in America that "the celebrated Colonel Burr" reads his works with -satisfaction. That is enough for honest, fussy, praise-loving Bentham, -and he drags Aaron off to live with him at Barrow Green. - -"You," cries the delighted Bentham, when he has the "celebrated Colonel -Burr" as a member of his family--"you and Albert Gallatin are the -only two in the United States who appreciate my ideas. For the common -mind--which is as dull and crawling as a tortoise--my theories travel -too fast." - -Aaron lives with Bentham--fussy, kindly, pragmatical Bentham--now at -Barrow Green, now at the philosopher's London house in Queen Square -Place. From this latter high vantage he sallies forth and meets William -Godwin; and Godwin, and Mary Wollstonecraft, carry him off to tea with -Charles and Mary Lamb. He writes in his journal: - -"Go with the Godwins to Mr. Lamb's. He is a writer, and lives with a -maiden sister, also literary, up four pairs of stairs." - -At the Lambs he encounters Faseli the painter; and thereupon Aaron, -the Godwins, Faseli, and the Lambs brew a bowl of punch, and thresh out -questions social, artistic, literary, and political until the hours grow -small. - -Cobbett talks with Aaron; and straight off runs to Bentham with the -suggestion that they send him to Parliament. Aaron laughs. - -"I'm afraid," says he, "that whatever may be my genius for law-giving, -it would fit but badly with English prejudice and English inclination. -You would find me in the British Commons but a sorry case of a square -peg in a round hole." - -That Aaron is the fashion at Holland House, which is the gathering point -of opposition to Government, does not help him at the Home Office. Also, -the Spanish allies of England, through their minister, complain. - -"He is fomenting his Mexican design," cries the Spaniard. "It shows but -poorly for England's friendship that she harbors him, and that he is -feted and feasted by her nobility." - -Lord Hawkesbury leans to the Spanish view. He will assert his powers -under the "Alien Act." It will please the Spaniards. Likewise, it will -offend Holland House. Two birds; one stone. Hawkesbury sends a request -that Aaron call upon him at his office; and Aaron calls. - -"This, you will understand," observes Hawkesbury, "is not a personal -but an official interview, Colonel Burr. I might hope to make it more -pleasant were it personal. Speaking as one of the crown's secretaries, I -must notify you to quit England." - -"What is your authority for this?" asks Aaron. - -"You will find it in the 'Alien Act.' Under that statute, Government -is invested with power to order the departure of any alien without -assigning cause." - -"Precisely! Your Government is now engaged in searching American ships -for English sailors. It was, I recall, the basis of bitter complaint in -America when I left. In seizing those whom you call English sailors and -subjects, you refuse to recognize their naturalization as citizens of -America. Do I state the fact?" - -"Assuredly! No Englishman has a right to shift his allegiance from his -king. That is British doctrine. Once a subject, always a subject." - -"The very point!" returns Aaron. "Once a subject, always a subject. I -suppose you will not deny that I was in 1756 born in New Jersey, then a -province of England. I was born a British subject, was I not?" - -"There is no doubt of that." - -"Then, sir, being born a British subject, under your doctrine of 'Once a -subject, always a subject,' I am still a British subject. Therefore, -I am no alien. Therefore, I do not fall within the description of your -'Alien Act.' You can hardly order me to quit England as an alien at the -very moment when you say I am a British subject. My lord"--this with a -smile like a warning--"the story, if told in the papers, would get your -lordship laughed at." - -Hawkesbury falls back baffled. He keeps his face, however, and tells -Aaron the matter may rest until he further considers it. - -Aaron visits Oxford, and is wined and dined by the grave college heads. -He talks Bentham and religion to his hosts, and they fall to amiable -disagreement with him. - -"We then," he writes in his journal, "got upon American politics and -geography, upon which subjects a most profound and learned ignorance was -displayed." - -Birmingham entertains Aaron; Stratford makes him welcome. He travels -to Edinburgh, and is the victim of parties, dinners, balls, sermons, -assemblies, plays, lectures, and other Scottish dissipations. The bench -and bar cannot get too much of him. Mackenzie, who wrote the "Man -of Feeling," and Walter Scott, who is in the "Marmion" stage of his -development, seek his acquaintance. Aaron sees a deal of these lettered -ones, and sets down in his diary that: - -"Mackenzie has twelve children; six of them daughters, all interesting, -and two handsome. He is sprightly, amiable, witty. Scott, with less -softness, has more animation--talks much and is very agreeable." - -Aaron stays a month with his Scotch friends, and returns to London. He -resumes the old round of club and drawing-room, with Holland, Melville, -Mulgrave, Castlereagh, Canning, Bentham, Cobbett, Godwin, Lamb, Faseli, -and others political, philosophical, social, literary, and artistic. - -One day as he returns from breakfast at Holland House, he finds a note -on his table. It is from Lord Liverpool. The note is polite, bland, -insinuating, flattering. It says, none the less, that "The presence -of Colonel Burr in Great Britain is embarrassing to His Majesty's -Government, and it is the wish and expectation of Government that he -remove." - -The note continues to the courteous effect that "passports will be -furnished Colonel Burr," and a free passage in an English ship to any -port--not English. - -Aaron replies to Lord Liverpool's note, and says that having become, as -his Lordship declares, "embarrassing to His Majesty's Government," he -must, of course, as a gentleman "gratify the wishes of Government by -withdrawing." He adds that Sweden, now he may no longer stay in England, -is his preference. - -Aaron goes to Stockholm, and has trouble with the language but none with -the inhabitants, who receive him with open hearts and arms. At once he -is called upon to play the distinguished guest in highest circles, and -does it with usual easy grace. He spends three months in Stockholm, and -two in traveling about the kingdom. The excellence of the roads and the -lack of toll-gates amaze him. Likewise, he is in rapture over Swedish -honesty. He makes an admiring dash at the laws of the realm, and spreads -on his journal: - -"There is no country in which personal liberty is so well secured; none -in which the violation of it is punished with so much certainty and -promptitude; none in which justice is administered with so much dispatch -and so little expense." - -Aaron attends the opera, and cannot say too much in praise of the -Swedish appreciation of music. He exalts the sensibility of the -Norsemen. Returning from the opera, he lights his candle and writes: - -"What most interested me was the perfect attention and the uncommon -degree of feeling exhibited by the audience. Every countenance was -affected by those emotions which the music expressed. In England you -see no expression painted on the faces at a concert or an opera. All -is somber and grim. They cry 'Bravo! bravissimo!' with the same -countenance wherewith they curse." - -From Sweden Aaron repairs to Denmark, and takes up pleasant quarters in -Copenhagen. Here he goes in for science, ransacks libraries, and attends -the courts. Studying the Danish jurisprudence, he is struck by that -amiable feature called the "Committees on Conciliation," and resolves to -recommend its adoption in America. - -Hamburg next. Here Aaron asks for passports into France. They are not -immediately forthcoming, since under the Corsican passports are more -easily asked for than obtained. While his passports are making, Aaron -is visited by the learned Ebeling, and Niebuhr, privy counselor to the -king. - -Aaron takes six weeks and explores Germany. - -He sees Hanover, Brunswick, Gottingen, Gotha, Weimar. At Weimar, Goethe -brings him to his house, where he meets "the amiable, good Wieland," -and is dragged off by Goethe to the theater, and sits through a "serious -comedy" with the Baroness de Stein. He is presented at court, and is -welcomed by the grand duke--Goethe's duke--and the grand duchess. Here, -too, he falls temporarily in love with the noble d'Or, a beautiful lady -of the ducal court. His love begins to alarm him; he fears he may wed -the d'Or, remain in Weimar, and "lapse into a Dutchman." To avoid this -fate, he beats a hasty retreat to Erfurth. Being safe, he cheers his -spirits by writing: - -"Another interview, and I would have been lost! The danger was so -imminent, and the d'Or so beautiful, that I ordered post horses, gave a -crown extra to the postilions to whip like the devil, and lo! here I am -in a warm room, with a neat, good bed, safe locked within four Erfurth -walls, rejoicing and repining." - -As Aaron writes this, he lays aside his "repining" for the lovely -d'Or, and so far emerges from his gloom as to "draw a dirk," and put to -thick-soled clattering flight one of the local police, who invades -his room with the purpose of putting out the candle. Erfurth being a -garrison town, lights are ordered "out" at nine o'clock. As a mark of -respect to his dirk, however, Aaron's candles are permitted to gutter -and sputter unrebuked until long after midnight. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII--HOW AARON RETURNS HOME - - -THE belated passports arrive, and Aaron journeys to Paris. It is -now with him as it was with the unfortunate gentleman, celebrated in -Scripture, who went down into a certain city only to fall among -thieves. Fouche orders his police to dog him. The post office is given -instructions; his letters are stolen--those he writes as well as those -he should receive. - -What is at the bottom of all this French scoundrelism? Madison the weak -is president in Washington. That is to say, he is called "president," -the actual power abiding in Mon-ticello with Jefferson, at whose -political knee he was reared. Armstrong is Madison's minister to France. -Armstrong is a New York politician married to a Livingston, and, per -incident, a promoted puppet of Jefferson's. McRae is American consul at -Paris--McRae, who sat at the back of Wirt and Hay during the Richmond -trial. It is these influences, directed from Mon-ticello, which, in each -of its bureaus, oppose the government of Napoleon to Aaron. By orders -from Monticello, "every captain, French or American, is instructed -to convey no letter or message or parcel for Colonel Burr. Also such -captain is required to make anyone handing him a letter or parcel for -delivery in the United States, to pledge his honor that it contains -nothing from Colonel Burr." In this way is Aaron shut off from his -friends and his supplies. He writes in his diary: - -"These vexations arise from the machinations of Minister Armstrong, who -is indefatigable in his exertions to my prejudice, being goaded on by -personal hatred, political rancor, and the native malevolence of his -temper." - -Aaron waits on Savary, and finds that minister polite but helpless. He -sees Fouche; the policeman is as polite and as helpless as Savary. - -He calls upon Talleyrand. That ingrate and congenital traitor skulks out -of an interview. Aaron smiles as he recalls the skulking, limping one -fawning upon him aforetime at Richmond Hill. - -Talleyrand puts Aaron in mind of Jerome Bonaparte, now King of -Westphalia, made so by that kingmonger, his brother. His Royal Highness -of Westphalia was, like Talleyrand, a guest at Richmond Hill. He, too, -has nibbled American crusts, and was thankful for American crumbs in -an hour when his official rating, had he been given one, could not have -soared above that of a vagrant out of Corsica by way of France. Aaron -applies for an interview. - -"His Royal Highness is engaged; he cannot see Colonel Burr," is the -response. - -"I am not surprised," says Aaron. "He who will desert a wife will desert -a friend, and I am not to suppose that one can remember friendship who -forgets love." - -Official France shuts and bolts its doors in the face of Aaron to please -the Man of Monticello. Thereupon Aaron demands his passports of the -American minister. - -Armstrong, minister, is out of Paris for the moment, and Aaron goes -to Consul McRae. That official, feeling the pressure of the Monticello -thumb, replies: - -"My knowledge of the circumstances under which Colonel Burr left the -United States, render it my duty to decline giving him a passport." - -Five weeks eaten up in disappointment! - -Aaron, who intended remaining but a month in Paris, finds his money -running out. He confides to his diary: - -"Behold me, a prisoner of state, and almost without a sou." - -Aaron resolves to economize. He removes from his hotel, dismisses his -servants, and takes up garret lodgings in a back street. He jokes with -his poverty: - -"How sedate and sage one is," he writes, "on only three sous. Eating my -bread and cheese, and seeing half a bottle of the twenty-five sous wine -left, I thought it too extravagant to open a bottle of the good. I tried -to get down the bad, constantly thinking on the other, which was in -sight. I stuck to the bad and got it all down. Then to pay myself -for this heroism, I treated myself to a large tumbler of the true -Roussillon. I am of Santara's opinion that though a man may be a little -the poorer for drinking good wine, yet he is, under its influence, much -more able to bear poverty." Farther on he sets down: "It is now so -cold that I should be glad of a fire, but to that there are financial -objections. I was near going to bed without writing, for it is very -cold, and I have but two stumps of wood left. By the way, I wear no -surtout these days, for a great many philosophic reasons, the principal -being that I have not got one. The old greatcoat, which I brought from -America, will serve for traveling if I ever travel again." - -Although official France shuts its doors on Aaron, unofficial France -does not. The excellent Volney, of a better memory than the King of -Westphalia or the slily skulking Talleyrand, remembers Richmond Hill. -Volney hunts out Aaron in his poor lodgings, laughs at his penury, and -offers gold. Aaron also laughs, and puts back the kindly gold-filled -hand. - -"Very well," says Volney. "Some other day, when you are a little more -starved. Meanwhile, come with me; there are beautiful women and brave -men who are dying to meet the renowned Colonel Burr." - -Again in salon and drawing-room is Aaron the lion--leaving the most -splendid scenes to return to his poor, barren den in the back street. -And yet he likes the contrast. He goes home from the Duchess d'Alberg's -and writes this: - -"The night bad, and the wind blowing down my chimney into the room. -After several experiments as to how to weather the gale, I discovered -that I could exist by lying flat on the floor. Here, on the floor, -reposing on my elbows, a candle by my side, I have been reading -'L'Espion Anglos,' and writing this. When I got up just now for pen and -ink, I found myself buried in ashes and cinders. One might have thought -I had lain a month at the foot of Vesuvius." - -Aaron, having leisure and a Yankee fancy for invention, decides to -remedy the chimney. He calls in a chimney doctor, of whom there are many -in chimney-smoking Paris, and assumes to direct the bricklaying energies -of that scientist. The _fumiste_ rebels; he objects that to follow -Aaron's directions will spoil the chimney. - -"Monsieur," returns Aaron grandly, "that is my affair." - -The rebellious _fumiste_ is quelled, and lays bricks according to -directions. The work is completed; the inmates of the house gather -about, as a fire is lighted, to enjoy the discomfiture of the "insane -American"; for the _fumiste_ has told. The fire is lighted; the chimney -draws to perfection; the convinced _fumiste_ sheds tears, and tries to -kiss Aaron, but is repelled. - -"Monsieur," cries the repentant _fumiste_, "if you will but announce -yourself as a chimney doctor, your fortune is made." - -Aaron's friend, Madam Fenwick, is told of his triumph, and straightway -begs him to restore the health of her many chimneys--a forest of them, -all sick! Aaron writes: - -"Madam Fenwick challenged me to cure her chimneys. Accepted, and was -assigned for a first trial the worst in the house. Enter the mason, the -bricks, and the mortar. To work; Madam Fenwick making, meanwhile, my -breakfast--coffee, blanc and honey--in the adjoining room, and laughing -at my folly. Visitors came in to see what was going forward. Much wit -and some satire was displayed. The work was finished. Made a large fire. -The chimney drew in a manner not to be impeached. I was instantly a -hero, especially to the professional _fumiste_, who bent to the floor -before me, such was the burden of his respect." - -Griswold, a New York man and a speculator, unites with Aaron; the two -take a moderate flier in the Holland Company stocks. Aaron is made -richer by several thousand francs. These riches come at a good time, for -the evening before he entered in his journal: - -"Having exactly sixteen sous, I bought with them two plays for my -present amusement. Came home with my two plays, and not a single sou. -Have been ransacking everywhere to see if some little vagrant ten-sou -piece might not have gone astray. Not one! To make matters worse, I am -out of cigars. However, I have some black vile tobacco which will serve -as a substitute." - -With Volney, Aaron meets Baron Denon, who is charmed to know "the -celebrated Colonel Burr." Baron Denon was with Napoleon in Egypt, and is -a privileged character. Denon is a bosom friend of Maret. Nothing will -do but Maret must know Aaron. He does know him and is enchanted. Denon -and Maret ask Aaron how they may serve him. - -"Get me my passports," says Aaron. - -Maret and Denon are figures of power. Armstrong, minister, and McRae, -consul, begin to feel a pressure. It is intimated that the Emperor's -post office is tired of stealing Aaron's letters, Fouche's police weary -of dogging him. In brief, it is the emperor's wish that Aaron depart. -Maret and Denon intrigue so sagaciously, press so surely, that, acting -as one man, the French and the American officials agree in issuing -passports to Aaron. He is free; he may quit France when he will. He is -quite willing, and makes his way to Amsterdam. - -Lowering in the world's sky is the cloud of possible war between England -and America. "Once a subject, always a subject," does not match the -wants of a young and growing republic, and America is racked of a war -fever. The feeble Madison, in leash to Monticello, does not like war and -hangs back. In spite of the weakly peaceful Madison, however, the war -cloud grows large enough to scare American ships. Being scared, they -avoid the ports of Northern Europe, as lying too much within the -perilous shadow of England. - -This war scare, and its effect on American ships, now gets much in -Aaron's way. He turns the port of Amsterdam upside down; not a ship -for New York can he find. Killing time, he again gambles in the Holland -Company's shares. He travels about the country. He does not like the -swamps and canals and windmills; nor yet the Dutchmen themselves, with -their long pipes and twenty pairs of breeches. He returns to Amsterdam, -and, best of good fortunes! discovers the American ship _Vigilant_, -Captain Combes. - -"Can he arrange passage for America?" - -Captain Combes replies that he can. There is a difficulty, however. -Captain Combes and his good ship _Vigilant_ are in debt to the Dutch -in the sum of five hundred guilders. If Aaron will advance the sum, it -shall be repaid the moment the _Vigilant's_ anchors are down in New York -mud. Aaron advances the five hundred guilders. The _Vigilant_ sails out -of the Helder with Aaron a passenger. Once in blue water, the _Vigilant_ -is swooped upon by an English frigate, which carries her gayly into -Yarmouth, a prize. - -Aaron writes to the English Alien Office, relates how his homeward -voyage has been brought to an end, and asks permission to go ashore. -Since England has somewhat lost interest in Spain, and is on the -threshold of war with the United States, her objections to Aaron -expressed aforetime by Lord Liverpool have cooled. Aaron will not now -"embarrass his Majesty's Government." He is granted permission to -land; indeed, as though to make amends for a past rudeness, the English -Government offers Aaron every courtesy. Thus he goes to London, and is -instantly in the midst of Bentham, Godwin, Mulgrave, Canning, Cobbett, -and the rest of his old friends. - -Aaron's funds are at their old Parisian ebb; that loan to Captain -Combes, which ransomed the _Vigilant_ from the Dutch, well-nigh -bankrupted him. He got to like poverty in France, however, and does not -repine. He refuses to go home with Bentham, and takes to cheap London -lodgings instead. He explains to the fussy, kindly philosopher that his -sole purpose now is to watch for a home-bound ship, and he can keep no -sharp lookout from Barrow Green. - -Once in his poor lodgings, Aaron resumes that iron economy he learned to -practice in Paris. He sets down this in his diary: - -"On my way home discovered that I must dine. I find my appetite in the -inverse ratio to my purse, and I can now conceive why the poor eat -so much when they can get it. Considering the state of my finances, I -bought half a pound of boiled beef, eightpence; a quarter of a pound -of ham, sixpence; one pound of brown sugar, eightpence; two pounds -of bread, eight-pence; ten pounds of potatoes, fivepence; and then, -treating myself to a pot of ale, eightpence, proceeded to read the -second volume of 'Ida.' As I read, I boiled my potatoes, and made a -great dinner, eating half my beef. Of the two necessaries, coffee and -tobacco, I have at least a week's allowance, so that without spending -another penny, I can keep the machinery going for eight days." - -At last Aaron's money is nearly gone. He makes a memorandum of the -stringency in this wise: - -"Dined at the Hole in the Wall off a chop. Had two halfpence left, which -are better than a penny would be, because they jingle, and thus one may -refresh one's self with the music." - -Aaron, at this pinch in his fortunes, seeks out a friendly bibliophile, -and sells him an armful of rare books. In this manner he lifts himself -to affluence, since he receives sixty pounds. - -Practicing his economies, and filling his treasury by the sale of -his books, Aaron is still the center of a brilliant circle. He goes -everywhere, is received everywhere; for in England poverty comes not -amiss with the honor of an exile, and is held to be no drawing-room bar. -Exiled opulence, on the other hand, is at once the subject of gravest -British suspicions. - -That Aaron's experiences have not warmed him toward France, finds -exhibition one evening at Holland House. He is in talk with the -inquisitive Lord Balgray, who asks about Napoleon and France. - -"Sir," says Aaron, "France, under Napoleon, is fast -rebarberizing--retrograding to the darkest ages of intellectual and -moral degradation. All that has been seen or heard or felt or read of -despotism is freedom and ease compared with that which now dissolves -France. The science of tyranny was in its infancy; Napoleon has matured -it. In France all the efforts of genius, all the nobler sentiments and -finer feelings are depressed and paralyzed. Private faith, personal -confidence, the whole train of social virtues are condemned and -eradicated. They are crimes. You, sir, with your generous propensities, -your chivalrous notions of honor, were you condemned to live within the -grasp of that tyrant, would be driven to discard them or be sacrificed -as a dangerous subject." - -"What a contrast to England!" cries Bal-gray--"England, free and great!" - -"England!" retorts Aaron, with a grimace. "There are friends here whom I -love. But for England as mere England, why, then, I hope never to visit -it again, once I am free of it, unless at the head of fifty thousand -fighting men!" - -Balgray sits aghast.--Meanwhile the chance of war between America and -England broadens, the cloud in the sky grows blacker. Aaron is all -impatience to find a ship for home; war might fence him in for years. At -last his hopes are rewarded. The _Aurora_, outward bound for Boston, -is reported lying off Gravesend. The captain says he will land Aaron in -Boston for thirty pounds. - -And now he is really going; the ship will sail on the morrow. At -midnight he takes up his diary: - -"It is twelve o'clock--midnight. Having packed up my residue of duds, -and stowed my papers in the writing desk, I sit smoking my pipe and -contemplating the certainty of escaping from this country. As to my -reception in my own country, so far as depends on J. Madison & Co., I -expect all the efforts of their implacable malice. This, however, does -not give me uneasiness. I shall meet those efforts and repel them. My -confidence in my own resources does not permit me to despond or even -doubt. The incapacity of J. Madison & Co. for every purpose of public -administration, their want of energy and firmness, make it impossible -they should stand. They are too feeble and corrupt to hold together -long. Mem.: To write to Alston to hold his influence in his State, and -not again degrade himself by compromising with rascals and cowards." - -It is in this high vein that Aaron sails away for home, and, thirty-five -days later, sits down to beef and potatoes with the pilot and the -_Auroras_ captain, in the harbor of Boston. He goes ashore without a -shilling, and sells his "Bayle" and "Moreri" to President Kirtland of -Harvard for forty dollars. This makes up his passage money for New York. -He negotiates with the skipper of a coasting sloop, and nine days later, -in the evening's dusk, he lands at the Battery. - -It is the next day. The sun is shining into narrow Stone Street. It -lights up the Swartwout parlor where Aaron, home at last, is hearing -the news from the stubborn, changeless one--Swartwout of the true, -unflagging breed! - -"It is precisely four years," says Aaron, following a conversational -lull, "since I left this very room to go aboard the _Clarissa_ for -England." - -"Aye! Four years!" repeats the stubborn one, meditatively. "Much water -runs under the bridges in four years! It has carried away some of your -friends, colonel; but also it has carried away as many of your enemies." - -For one day and night, Aaron and the stubborn, loyal Swartwout smoke and -exchange news. On the second day, Aaron opens offices in Nassau Street. -Three lines appear in the _Evening Post_. The notice reads: - -"Colonel Burr has returned to the city, and will resume his practice of -the law. He has opened offices in Nassau Street." - -The town sits up and rubs its eyes. Aaron's enemies--the old fashionable -Hamilton-Schuyler coterie--are scandalized; his friends are exalted. -What is most important, a cataract of clients swamps his offices, and -when the sun goes down, he has received over two thousand dollars in -retainers. Instantly, he is overwhelmed with business; never again will -he cumber his journals with ha'penny registrations of groat and farthing -economies. As redoubts are carried by storm, so, with a rush, to the -astonishment of friend and foe alike, Aaron retakes his old place as -foremost among the foremost at the New York bar. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII--GRIEF COMES KNOCKING - - -BUSINESS rushes in upon Aaron; its volume overwhelms him. - -"This is too much," says he, "for a gentleman whose years have reached -the middle fifties," and he takes unto himself a partner. - -Later he takes another partner; the work of the firm overflows into a -quartette of rooms and keeps busy a dozen clerks. - -"Why labor so hard?" asks the stubborn Swartwout. "Your income is the -largest at the bar. You have no such need of money." - -"Ay! but my creditors have!" - -"Your creditors? Who are they?" - -"Every soul who lost a dollar by my Southwestern ambitions--you, with -others. Man, I owe millions!" - -Aaron works like a horse and lives like a Spartan. He rises with the -blue of dawn. His servant appears with his breakfast--an egg, a plate -of toast, a pot of coffee. He is at his desk in the midst of his papers -when the clerks begin to arrive. All day he is insatiable to work. He -sends messages, receives them, examines authorities, confers with fellow -lawyers, counsels clients, dictates letters. Business incarnate--he -pushes every affair with incredible dispatch. And the last thing he will -agree to is defeat. - -"Accept only the inevitable!" is his war-word, in law as in life. - -Aaron's day ends with seven o'clock. He shoves everything of litigation -sort aside, helps himself to a glass of wine, and refuses further -thought or hint of business. It is then he calls about him his friends. -The evening is merry with laughter, jest and reminiscence. At midnight -he retires, and sleeps like a tree. - -[Illustration: 0357] - -"Colonel Burr," observes Dr. Hosack--he who attended Hamilton at -Weehawken--"you do not sleep enough; six hours is not enough. Also, you -eat too little." - -Aaron gazes, with comic eye at the rotund, well-fed doctor, the purple -of good burgundy in his full cheeks. - -"If I were a doctor, now," he retorts, "I should grant your word to be -true. But I am a lawyer, and must keep myself on edge." - -Aaron's earliest care is to write his arrival to the lustrous Theo. The -reply he receives makes the world black. - -"Less than a fortnight ago," she says, "your letters would have -gladdened my soul. Now there is no more joy, and life a blank. My boy is -gone--forever dead and gone." - -While Aaron sits with the fatal letter in his fingers, his friend Van -Ness comes in. He turns his black eyes on the visitor--eyes misty, dim, -the brightness lost from them. - -"What dreams were mine," he sighs--"what dreams for my brave little boy! -He is dead, and half my world has died." - -Toward the end of summer, Alston sends word that the lustrous Theo is in -danger. The loss of her boy has struck at the roots of her life. Aaron, -in new alarm, writes urging that she come North. He sends a physician -from New York to bring her to him. Alston consents; he himself cannot -come. His duties as governor tie him. The lustrous Theo, eager to meet -her father with whom she parted on that tearful evening in Stone Street -so many years ago, will start at once. He, Alston, shall later follow -her. - -Alston sees the lustrous Theo aboard the schooner _Patriot_, then lying -in Charleston harbor. It is rough December weather when the _Patriot_ -clears for New York. The message of her sailing reaches Aaron overland, -and he is on strain for the schooner's arrival. Days come, days go; the -schooner is due--overdue. Still no sign of those watched-for topsails -down _the_ lower bay! And so time passes. The days become weeks, the -weeks months. Hope sickens, then dies. Aaron, face white and drawn, a -ghost's face, reads the awful truth in that long waiting. The lustrous -Theo is dead--like the baby! It is then the iron of a measureless -adversity enters his soul! - -Aaron goes about the daily concerns of life, making no moan. He does not -speak of his loss, but saves his grief for solitude. One day a friend -relates a rumor that the schooner was captured by buccaneers, and the -lustrous Theo lives. The broken Aaron shakes his head. - -"She is dead!" says he. "Thus is severed the last tie that binds me to -my kind." - -Aaron hides his heart from friend and foe alike. As though flying from -his own thoughts, he plunges more furiously than ever into the law. - -While Aaron's first concern is work, and to earn money for those whom he -calls his creditors, he finds time for politics. - -"Not that I want office," he observes; "for he who was Vice-President -and tied Jefferson for a presidency, cannot think on place. But I owe -debts--debts of gratitude, debts of vengeance. These must be paid." - -Aaron's foes are in the ascendant. De Witt Clinton is mayor--the -aristocrats with the Livingstons, the Schuylers and the Clintons, are -everywhere dominant. They control the town; they control the State. -At Washington, Madison a marionette President, is in apparent command, -while Jefferson pulls the White House wires from Monticello. All these -Aaron sees at a glance; he can, however, take up but one at a time. - -"We will begin with the town," says he, to the stubborn, loyal -Swartwout. "We must go at the town like a good wife at her -house-cleaning. Once that is politically spick and span, we shall clean -up the State and the nation." - -Aaron calls about him his old circle of indomitables. - -They have been overrun in his absence by the aristocrats--by the -Clintons, the Schuylers and the Livingstons. They gather at his rooms in -the Jay House--a noble mansion, once the home of Governor Jay. - -"I shall make no appearance in your politics," says he. "It would not -fit my years and my past. None the less, I'll show you the road to -victory." Then, with a smile: "You must do the work; I'll be the Old Man -of the Mountain. From behind a screen I'll give directions." - -[Illustration: 0363] - -Aaron's lieutenants include the Swartwouts, Buckmaster, Strong, Prince, -Radcliff, Rutgers, Ogden, Davis, Noah, and Van Buren, the last a rising -young lawyer from Kinderhook. - -"Become a member of Tammany," is Aaron's word to young Van Buren. "Our -work must be done by Tammany Hall. You must enroll yourself beneath its -banner. We must bring about a revival of the old Bucktail spirit." - -Van Buren enters Tammany; the others are already members. - -Aaron, through his lieutenants, brings his old Tammany Bucktails -together within eight weeks after his return. The Clintons, and their -fellow aristocrats are horrified at what they call "his effrontery." -Also, they are somewhat panic-smitten. They fall to vilification. -Aaron is "traitor!" "murderer!" "demon!" "fiend!" They pay a phalanx of -scribblers to assail him in the press. His band of Bucktail lieutenants -are dubbed "Burrites," "Burr's Mob," and "the Tenth Legion." The -epithets go by Aaron like the mindless wind. - -The Bucktail spirit revived, the stubborn Swartwout and the others ask: - -"What shall we do?" - -The popular cry is for war with England. At Washington--Jefferson at -Monticello pulling on the peace string--Madison is against war. Mayor -De Witt Clinton stands with Jefferson and Marionette Madison. He is for -peace, as are his caste of aristocrats--the Schuylers and those other -left-over fragments of Federalism, all lovers of England from their -cradles. - -"What shall we do?" cry the Bucktails. - -"Demand war!" says Aaron. Then, calling attention to Clinton and his -purple tribe, he adds: "They could not occupy a better position for our -purposes. They invite destruction." Tammany demands war vociferously. It -is, indeed, the cry all over the land. The administration is carried -off its feet. Jefferson at last orders war; for he sees that otherwise -Marionette Madison will be defeated of a second term. - -Mayor Clinton and his aristocrats are frantic. - -The more frantic, since with "War!" for their watchword, Aaron's -Bucktails conquer the city, and two years later the State. As though by -a tidal wave, every Clinton is swept out of official Albany. - -Aaron sends for Van Ness, the stubborn Swartwout, and their fellow -Bucktails. - -"Go to Albany," says he. "Demand of Governor Tompkins the removal -of Mayor Clinton. Say that he is inefficient and was the friend of -England." - -Governor Tompkins--being a politician--hesitates at the bold step. -The Bucktails, Aaron-guided, grow menacing. Seeing himself in danger, -Governor Tompkins hesitates no longer. Mayor Clinton is ignominiously -thrust from office into private life. With him go those hopes of a -presidency which for half a decade he has been sedulously cultivating. -Under the blight of that removal, those hopes of a future White House -wither like uprooted flowers. - -Broken of purse and prospects, Clinton is in despair. - -"He will never rise again!" exclaims Van Ness. - -"My friend," says Aaron, "he will be your governor. He will never -be president, but the governorship is yet to be his; and all by your -negligence--yours and your brother Buck-tails." - -"As how?" demands Van Ness. - -"You let him declare for the Erie Canal," returns Aaron. "You were so -purblind as to oppose the project. You should have taken the business -out of his hands. If I had been here it would have been done. Mark -my words! The canal will be dug, and it will make Clinton governor. -However, we shall hold the town against him; and, since we have been -given a candidate for the presidency, we shall later have Washington -also." - -"Who is that presidential candidate to whom you refer?" - -"Sir, he is your friend and my friend. Who, but Andrew Jackson? Since -New Orleans, it is bound to be he." - -"Andrew Jackson!" exclaims Van Ness. "But, sir, the Congressional -caucus at Washington will never consider him. You know the power of -Jefferson--he will hold that caucus in the hollow of his hand. It is -he who will name Madison's successor; and, after those street-corner -speeches and his friendship for you in Richmond, it can never be Andrew -Jackson." - -"I know the Jefferson power," returns Aaron; "none knows it better. At -the head of his Virginia junta he has controlled the country for years. -He will control it four years more, perchance eight. Our war upon him -and his caucus methods must begin at once. And our candidate should be, -and shall be, Andrew Jackson." - -"Whom will Jefferson select to follow Madison?" - -"Monroe, sir; he will put forward Monroe." - -"Monroe!" repeats Van Ness. "Has he force?--brains? Some one spoke of -him as a soldier." - -"Soldier!" observes Aaron, his lip curling. "Sir, Monroe never commanded -so much as a platoon--never was fit to command one. He acted as aide to -Lord Stirling, who was a sot, not a soldier. Monroe's whole duty was -to fill his lordship's tankard, and hear with admiration his drunken -lordship's long tales about himself. As a lawyer, Monroe is below -mediocrity. He never rose to the honor of trying a cause wherein so -much as one hundred pounds was at stake. He is dull, stupid, illiterate, -pusillanimous, hypocritical, and therefore a character suited to the -wants of Jefferson and his Virginia coterie. As a man, he is everything -that Jackson isn't and nothing that he is." - -Van Ness and his brother Bucktails do the bidding of Aaron blindly. On -every chance they shout for Jackson. Aaron writes "Jackson" letters to -all whom, far or near, he calls his friends. Also the better to have -New York in political hand, he demands--through Tammany--of Governor -Tompkins and Mayor Rad-cliff that every Clinton, every Schuyler, every -Livingston, as well as any who has the taint of Federalism about him be -relegated to private life. In town as well as country, he sweeps the New -York official situation free of opposition. - -The Bucktails are in full sway. Aaron privily coaches young Van Buren, -who is suave and dexterous, and for politeness almost the urbane peer of -Aaron himself, in what local party diplomacies are required, and sends -him forward as the apparent controlling spirit of Tammany Hall. What -Jefferson is doing with Monroe in Virginia, Aaron duplicates with the -compliant Van Buren in New York. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV--THE DOWNFALL OF KING CAUCUS - - -Marionette madison is withdrawn from the White House boards at -the close of his second term. Jefferson, working the machinery from -Monticello, replaces him with Marionette Monroe. It is now Aaron begins -his war on the system of Congressional nomination--a system which has -obtained since the days of Washington. He writes to Alston: - -"_Our Virginia junta, beginning with Washington, owning Adams, and -controlled by Jefferson, having had possession of the Government for -twenty-four years, consider the nation their property, and by bawling, -'Support the administration!' have so far succeeded in duping the -public. The moment is auspicious for a movement which in the end must -break down this degrading system. The best citizens all over the country -are impatient of the Virginia rule, and the wrongs wrought under it. -Its administrations have been weak; offices have been bestowed merely -to preserve power, and without a smallest regard for fitness. If, then, -there be in the country a man of firmness and decision and standing, it -is your duty to hold him up to public view. There is such a man--Andrew -Jackson. He is the hero of the late war, and in the first flush of -a boundless popularity. Give him a respectable nomination, by a -respectable convention drawn from the party at large, and in the teeth -of the caucus system--so beloved of scheming Virginians--his final -victory is assured. If it does not come to-day, it will come to-morrow; -for 'caucus,' which is wrong, must go down; and 'convention,' which is -right, must prevail. Have your legislature pass resolutions condemning -the caucus system; in that way you can educate the sentiment of South -Carolina, and the country, too. Later, we will take up the business of -the convention, and Jackson's open nomination._" - -Aaron writes in similar strain to Major Lewis, Jackson's neighbor and -man of politics in Tennessee. He winds up his letter with this: - -"_Jackson ought to be admonished to be passive; for the moment he is -announced as a candidate, he will be assailed by the Virginia junta -with menaces, and those failing, with insidious promises of boons and -favors._" - -On the back of this anti-caucus, pro-convention letter-writing, that -his candidate Jackson may have a proper debut, Aaron pulls a Swartwout -string, pushes a Van Ness button. At once the obedient Bucktails proffer -a dinner in Jackson's honor. The hero accepts, and comes to town. The -town is rent with joy; Bucktail enthusiasm, even in the cider days and -nights of Martling, never mounted more wildly high. - -Aaron, from his back parlor in the old Jay house, directs the -excitement. It is there Jackson finds him. - -"I shall not be at the dinner, general," says Aaron; "but with Van Buren -and Davis and Van Ness and Ogden and Rutgers and Swart-wout and the -rest, you will find friends and good company about you." - -"But you?" - -"There will be less said by the Clintons and the Livingstons of traitors -and murderers if I remain away. I owe it to my past to subdue lies and -slanders to a smallest limit. No; I must work my works behind bars and -bolts, and in darkened rooms. It is as well--better! After a man sees -sixty, the fewer dinners he eats, the better for him. I intend to live -to see you President; not on your account, but mine, and for the grief -it will bring my enemies. And yet it may take years. Wherefore, I must -save myself from wine and late hours--I must keep myself with care." - -Aaron and the general talk for an hour. - -"And if I should become President some day," says Jackson, as they -separate, "you may see that Southwestern enterprise of ours revived." - -"It will be too late for me," responds Aaron. "I am old, and shall be -older. All my hopes, and the reasons of them are dead--are in the grave. -Still"--and here the black eyes sparkle in the old way--"I shall be glad -to have younger men take up the work. It should serve somewhat to wipe -'treason' from my fame." - -"Treason!" snorts the fiery Jackson. "Sir, no one, not fool or liar, -ever spoke of treason and Colonel Burr in one breath!" - -There is a mighty dinner outpouring of Buck-tails, and Jackson--the -"hero," the "conqueror," the "nation's hope and pride," according to -orators then and there present and eloquent--is toasted to the skies. At -the close of the festival a Clintonite, one Colden, thinks to test the -Jackson feeling for Aaron. He will offer the name of Aaron's arch enemy. - -The wily Colden gets upon his feet. Lifting high his glass he loudly -gives: - -"De Witt Clinton!" - -The move is a surprise. It is like a sword thrust, and Van Buren, -Swartwout, Rutgers, and other Bucktail leaders know not how to parry it. -Jackson, the guest of honor, is not, however, to be put in the attitude -of offering even tacit insult to the absent Aaron. He cannot reply in -words, but he manages a retort, obvious and emphatic. As though the word -"Clinton" were a signal, he arises from his place and leaves the room. -The thing is as unmistakable in its meaning, as it is magnificent in its -friendly loyalty to Aaron, and shows that Jackson has not changed since -that street-corner Richmond oratory so disturbing to Wirt and Hay. Also, -it removes whatever of doubt exists as to what will be Aaron's place in -event of Jackson's occupation of the White House. The maladroit Colden, -intending outrage, brings out compliment; and, as the gaunt Jackson goes -stalking from the hall, there descends a storm of Bucktail cheers, -and shouts of "Burr! Burr!" with a chorus of hisses for Clinton as the -galling background. Throughout the full two terms of Marionette Monroe, -Aaron urges his crusade against Jefferson, the Virginia junta, and King -Caucus. His war against his old enemies never flags. His demand is for -convention nominations; his candidate is Jackson. - -In all Aaron asks or works for, the loyal Bucktails are at once his -voice and his arm. In requital he shows them how to perpetuate -their control of the town. He tells them to break down a property -qualification, and extend the voting franchise to every man, whether he -be landholder or no. - -"Let's make Jack as good as his master," says Aaron. "It will please -Jack, and hurt his master's pride--both good things in their way." - -It is a rare strategy, one not only calculated to strengthen Tammany, -but drive the knife to the aristocratic hearts of the Clintons, the -Livingstons and the Schuylers. - -"Better be ruled by a man without an estate, than by an estate without a -man!" cries Aaron, and his Bucktails take up the shout. - -The proposal becomes a law. With that one stroke of policy, Aaron -destroys caste, humbles the pride of his enemies, and gives State and -town, bound hand and foot, into the secure fingers of his faithful -Bucktails. - -Time flows on, and Aaron is triumphant. King Caucus is stricken down; -Jefferson, with his Virginians are beaten, and Jackson is named by a -convention. - -In the four-cornered war that ensues, Jackson runs before the other -three, but fails of the constitutional majority in the electoral -college. In the House, a deal between Adams and Clay defeats Jackson, -and Adams goes to the White House. - -Aaron is unmoved. - -"I am threescore years and ten," says he--"the allotted space of man. -Now I know that I am to live surely four years more; for I shall yet see -Jackson President." - -Adams fears Aaron, as long ago his father feared him. He strives to win -his Bucktails from him with a shower of appointments. - -"Take them," says Aaron to his Bucktails. "They are yours, not -his--those offices. He but gives you your own." - -Aaron, throughout those four years of Adams, tends the Jackson fires -like a devotee. Van Ness is astonished at his enthusiasm. - -"I should think you'd rest," says he. - -"Rest? I cannot rest. It is all I live for now." - -"But I don't understand! You get nothing." - -The black eyes shoot forth the old ophidian sparks. "Sir, I get -vengeance--and forget feelings!" - -[Illustration: 0377] - -Adams comes to his White House end, and Jackson is elected in his -place. Jackson comes to New York, and he and Aaron meet in the latter's -rooms--pleasant rooms, overlooking the Bowling Green. They light their -long pipes, and sit opposite one another, smoking like dragons. - -Jackson is the one who speaks. Taking the pipe from his lips, he says: - -"Colonel Burr, my gratitude is not wholly declamatory." - -"General," returns Aaron, "the best favor you can show me is show favor -to my friends." - -"That I shall do, be sure! Van Ness is to become a judge, Swartwout -collector, while Van Buren goes into my Cabinet as Secretary of State. -Also I shall say to your enemies--the Clintons and those other proud -ones--that he from New York who seeks Andrew Jackson's appointment, must -come with the approval of Colonel Burr." - -Jackson is inaugurated. - -"I am through," says Aaron--"through at four and seventy. Now I shall -work a little, play a little, rest a deal; but no more politics--no more -politics! My friends are triumphant. As for my foes, I leave them to -Providence and Andrew Jackson." - - - - -CHAPTER XXV--THE SERENE LAST DAYS - - -AARON goes forward with his business--his cases in court, his -conferences with clients. Accurate as an Alvan-ley in dress, slim, -light, with the quick step of a boy, no one might guess his years. The -bar respects him; his friends crowd about him; his enemies shrink away -from the black, unblinking stare of those changeless ophidian eyes. And -so with his books and his wine and his pipe he sits through the serene -evenings in his rooms by the Bowling Green. He is a lion, and strangers -from England and Germany and France ask to be presented. They talk--not -always wisely or with taste. - -"Was Hamilton a gentleman?" asks a popinjay Frenchman. - -Aaron's black eyes blaze: "Sir," says he, "I met him!" - -"Colonel Burr," observes a dull, thick Englishman, who imagines himself -a student of governments--"Colonel Burr, I have read your Constitution. -I find it not always clear. Who is to expound it?" - -Aaron leads our student of governments to the window, and points, with a -whimsical smile, at the Broadway throngs that march below. - -"Sir," he remarks, "they are the expounders of our Constitution." - -Aaron, at seventy-eight, does a foolish thing; he marries--marries the -wealthy Madam Jumel. - -They live in the madam's great mansion on the heights overlooking the -Harlem. Three months later they part, and Aaron goes back to his books -and his pipe and his wine, in his rooms by the Bowling Green. - -It is a bright morning; Aaron and his friend Van Ness are walking -in Broadway. Suddenly Aaron halts and leans against the wall of a -house--the City Hotel. - -"It is a numbness," says he. "I cannot walk!" - -The good, purple, puffy Dr. Hosack comes panting to the rescue. He finds -the stricken one in his rooms where Van Ness has brought him. - -"Paralysis!" says the good anxious Hosack. - -Aaron is out in a fortnight; numbness gone, he says. Six months later -comes another stroke; both legs are paralyzed. - -There are to be no more strolls in the Battery Park for Aaron. Now and -then he rides out. For the most part he sits by his Broadway window and -reads or watches the world hurry by. His friends call; he has no lack of -company. - -The stubborn Swartwout looks in one afternoon; Aaron waves the paper. - -"See!" he cries. "Houston has whipped Santa Ana at San Jacinto! That -marks the difference between a Jefferson and a Jackson in the White -House! Sir, thirty years ago it was treason; to-day, with Jackson, -Houston and San Jacinto, it is patriotism." - -Winter disappears in spring, and Aaron's strength is going. The hubbub, -the bustle, the driving, striving warfare of the town's life wearies. He -takes up new quarters on Staten Island, and the salt, fresh air revives -him. All day he gazes out upon the gray restless waters of the bay. His -visitors are many. Nor do they always cheer him. It is Dr. Hosack who -one day brings up the name of Hamilton. - -"Colonel, it was an error--a fearful error!" says the doctor. - -"Sir," rejoins Aaron, the old hard uncompromising ring in his tones, -"it was not an error, it was justice. When had his slanders rested? -He heaped obloquy upon me for years. I stood in his way; I marred his -prospects; I mortified his vanity; and so he vilified me. The man was -malevolent--cowardly! You have seen what he wrote the night before he -fought me. It sounds like the confession of a sick monk. When he stood -before me at Weehawken, his eye caught mine and he quailed like a -convicted felon. They say he did not fire! Sir, he fired first. I heard -the bullet whistle over my head and saw the severed twigs. I have lived -more than eighty years; I dwell now in the shadow of death. I shall soon -go; and I shall go saying that the destruction of Hamilton was an act of -justice." - -"Colonel Burr," observes the kindly doctor, "I am made sorry by your -words--sorry by your manner! Are you to leave us with a heart full of -enmity?" - -The black eyes do not soften. - -"I shall die as I have lived--hating where I'm hated, loving where I'm -loved." - -The last day breaks, and Aaron dies--dies - -"What lies beyond?" asks one shortly before he goes. - -"Who knows?" he returns. - -"But do you never ask?" - -"Why ask? Who should reply to such a question?--the old, old question -ever offered, never answered." - -"But you have hopes?" - -"None," says Aaron steadily. "And I want none. I am resolved to die -without fear; and he who would have no fear must have no hope." So he -departs; he, of whom the good Dr. Bellamy said: "He will soar as high to -fall as low as any soul alive." - -THE END - - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An American Patrician, or The Story of -Aaron Burr, by Alfred Henry Lewis - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN AMERICAN PATRICIAN *** - -***** This file should be named 51911.txt or 51911.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/9/1/51911/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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