The story leaps over a period of nine months. The winter of 1805-6
disrobed the trees on Blennerhassett's Island and spring again
reclothed them. Wild violets once more sprinkled the glades and a new
flowering of rosebushes in the garden fronting the house increased the
fame and complacency of Peter Taylor. Another July plumed the maize,
where the plough had obliterated Fort Byle. At last came imperial
August, and with the glowing month returned Aaron Burr, his designs
ripened, his enthusiasm culminant. The silent wheelwork of conspiracy
had now been in operation for upward of a year. The arch complotter
was of buoyant heart and happy tongue, for he came accompanied by
Theodosia, the loved associate in whom he reposed absolute trust, the
good familiar whom he invoked when all other spirits failed him.
Theodosia made no enemies. Her beauty attracted and her amiability
retained the devotion of men, the friendship of women. Nature had
lavished upon her those rare, delicate, elusive qualities which go to
make up that top flower of evolution, the woman of fascination, a
creature indefinable, like poetry. In New York, city and State, she
was a reigning belle, caressed by society; she had been named the
social queen of South Carolina, under the title of la Sainte Madam
Alston. To Theodosia, his only child, whose education he directed,
whose opinions he had shaped, whose sympathies were always with him,
right or wrong, who after her marriage scarce less than before, looked
to him for guidance, as he to her for implicit approval--to her Burr
confided every detail of his plan of conquest, every vaulting
anticipation of sovereignty. "Be what my heart desires and it will
console me for all the evils of life. With a little more determination
you will obtain all that my ambition or vanity fondly imagines." In
this strain was the father wont to appeal to the daughter, by letter.
His thoughts, like carrier pigeons, were always homing to her. Hounded
by obloquy, accused of murder, when he fled from Richmond Hill after
the duel at Weehauken, he sought security and absolution in the
sanctuary of la Sainte Alston's house in Charleston. "You and your boy
will control my fate," he had exclaimed. And now, when the
seek-no-further hung ruddy on the orchard bough, and the wild bigonia
swang in air ten thousand trumpets of red gold, Burr reappeared at the
White House of Blennerhassett, according to his promise, bringing with
him Theodosia Alston and her little son.
"Behold," said Burr to Madam Blennerhassett, in the ornate style he
had learned to use when addressing her, "this is my Sheba, to whom I
have not told the half of your bounty or the king's wisdom. She has
not come to prove him with hard questions, but to repose under his
almug trees. My daughter, Mrs. Alston."
"She is no stranger to my thoughts," said the hostess, embracing and
kissing Theodosia. "Our minds have met in our correspondence. How very
young you look, and how like your father. And the baby resembles you
both."
"No baby," chimed in Burr, cheerily. "He has grown a big boy, have you
not, Gamp? Harman must take charge of him and teach him to build
forts, play Indian, and go buccaneering in a dugout."
"What a funny name!" returned Harman, partly in self-defense.
"Gamp is his short, everyday name," explained the colonel. "It means
grandpa. But on great public occasions, when Gamp is on his dignity,
we must address him by his full title, Don Gampillo."
Theodosia valued the lightest foam-bell on the wayward surface of
fashion, yet had escaped what Burr condemned as "the cursed effects of
fashionable education," and it is needless to say that conventional
ceremonies were waived between herself and the lady of the isle.
"You came from Marietta; were you agreeably entertained there?"
"They lionized father."
"No; they 'snaked' me. I was dragged into service by main force."
"Father means that they insisted on his drilling the militia. We
arrived on a muster day, and nothing would do but he must prove the
right to his rank by explaining the manual of arms. There are ever so
many old soldiers in Marietta."
"Yes, I drilled the men as soldiers, in the afternoon, and she drilled
them as captives, in the evening, at the ball; a modified fan-drill
made them march to her orders. Theodosia danced with at least a dozen
distinguished citizens."
"How many wives, widows, spinsters and school-girls did you lead up
and down?" retorted Theodosia.
"I don't know; I didn't count; I dance for politeness, not for
victory. My daughter has a drop of coquette's blood in her veins;
though where it came from I can't imagine. Do you recollect,
Theodosia, the remark of the Mayor of New York, when he invited you to
go on board a war vessel? 'Don't bring any of your sparks on board,
for they have a magazine and we should all be blown up.'"
To the ponderous mind of Mr. Blennerhassett, the feather-light
badinage flying back and forth between Mrs. Alston and her sire,
smacked of unbecoming levity. He had looked up a topic for weightier
talk.
"Did you name your daughter, may I ask, Colonel Burr, anticipating
extraordinary rank for her? Had you in mind Theodosius the First,
called the Great, or the second and more famous emperor of the name?
Eudosia was a Roman empress, wife of the second Theodosius. She was a
poetess."
The man of facts glanced significantly toward his own wife, and
resumed:
"Perhaps you had the name Eudosia vaguely in your memory when you
chose the name Theodosia. History informs us that Theodosius was
controlled by his wife and by his sister Pulcheria."
"My Theodosia was so christened," answered Burr, "because I like the
name. It sounds well. I like it the better now that you tell us it
suggests a possibility of imperial sway. Who knows what may come to
pass?"
In anticipation of the third advent of Burr to the island, many
letters had been exchanged, and it was arranged that, for some months
at least, "the close contriver" of the vast enterprise in hand should
remain with Theodosia and Don Gampillo in the mansion, the island
being an eligible point for headquarters. Around this nucleus the
hitherto mobile elements of his design should crystallize into
definite shape.
What had Burr been doing in the three-quarters of a year which had
elapsed since he bade good-bye to the Blennerhassetts in October? He
had employed most of this time in Washington and Philadelphia, writing
hundreds of letters, sounding the President, tampering with civil and
military officials, intrigueing with the British Minister, in a word,
organizing a conspiracy, which he believed would eventually give him a
dictator's unlimited command over a magnificent realm. To Wilkinson he
had written in cipher many letters, one of which ran thus: "The
execution of our project is postponed until December; want of water in
the Ohio rendered movement impracticable; other reasons rendered delay
expedient. The association is enlarged and comprises all that
Wilkinson could wish. Confidence limited to few. Though this delay was
irksome, it will enable us to move with more certainty and dignity.
Burr will be through the United States this summer. Administration
damned, which Randolph aids. Nothing has been heard from the brigadier
since October. Address Burr at Washington."
The "brigadier" remained in St. Louis until late in August, when he
was ordered to collect his force at Fort Adams, now Vicksburg, and in
September he transferred the troops to Natchitoches on the Red River,
to defend the western frontier against threatened invasion by
Spaniards beyond the Sabine.
Arlington, ignorant of the treasonable designs of Burr, but zealous
against Spain and ambitious to share in the conquest of Mexico, had
volunteered to make a tour through Kentucky and Tennessee, to Natchez
and New Orleans, on business relating to the Wachita lands, which Burr
had purchased. The Virginian started on his long journey early in
autumn.
To Blennerhassett, Burr dilated in confidential privacy:
"All is planned and ready to be put into execution. The iron is red on
the anvil. At least five hundred men are pledged to me, and I have on
my memorandum books, the names of as many thousands who will join us
when wanted. Every man is to receive one hundred acres of the Bastrop
land, besides his regular pay. All are to present themselves armed and
equipped, when boats are provided for their transportation and the
signal is given. I have told none of the volunteers exactly what will
be expected of them, but all are devoted to us. Of prominent persons
now in our confidence and ready to act at a word from me, I could name
scores, besides yourself and Governor Alston. Among our confederates
are Commodore Truxton, the British Minister at Washington, and the
Catholic Bishop of New Orleans."
"Have you considered," asked Blennerhassett, "what might be the
condition of our venture, in case General Wilkinson fails to second
your designs against Mexico?"
"Even that contingency, I have taken into account, though we do
Wilkinson injustice to suppose it possible that he will fail us. Our
plans are excellent. If the Mexican string should break--as it will
not--the Wachita string, which you helped to twist, will send a sure
arrow to the mark of our high calling. Failure, my dear sir, is not
possible. The gods invite to glory and to fortune."
In collocutions of this tenor, Burr, adapting himself to the moods of
his sedate ally, unfolded his purposes. The philosopher heard,
acquiesced, and accepted the part assigned to him in the execution of
the great business. Blennerhassett's temperament, however, was such as
to check, in some degree, the full flow of Burr's exuberant speech. It
was always with constraint and reservation that the latter
communicated himself to the head of the house. Not so when in familiar
converse with Madam Blennerhassett and Theodosia; uninfluenced by the
dampening presence of the husband, he poured out his innermost
cogitations, assurances, optimistic surmises. The three were in
perfect accord. One evening they were seated in the seclusion of the
library. The children had gone to sleep, upstairs, Harman and Gampy
under the same chintz canopy. Mr. Blennerhassett, detained in Marietta
on an errand relating to the affairs of the Wachita company, probably
would not reach home before morning. Theodosia asked for a sentimental
ballad.
"Not a love-song," said Burr, "but something heroic--a battle hymn or
a stirring march."
"Will you both agree to a compromise and accept some half-romantic,
half-pious verses which I composed and set to music? The colonel will
remember the incident which suggested the lines."
The harp was brought in from the adjoining room and Mrs.
Blennerhassett sang her original lay with the following chorus:
"No longer in Enchanted Ground
Thy lingering feet delay;
Beulah's borders lie beyond,
Rise, pilgrim, and away!"
"Bravo! Well sung and well said!" Burr emphasized this verdict by
clapping his hands, and Theodosia joined in the applause.
"Your allegory is no enigma to me," said she. "There is this
difference between us and Bunyan's pilgrim--he left the Enchanted
Ground forever--you can return when you please, and as often as you
please. Our promised land takes in and retains all the desirable
property on the road to the Shining Gates, and we shall possess the
Happy City without crossing that awful river."
"Ah, yes," quoth Burr, in low, earnest tones, as if uttering the
authentic revelations of an oracle. "This life we are sure of. The
part of wisdom is to live as if to-day were our only day, and yet
provide for an infinite series of to-morrows. _Dum vivimus vivamus_.
When we are established in Eldorado, in my new Spain, my Mexican
Cathay, in our Woman's Paradise, where the tree of knowledge is not
forbidden--then will you think the Golden Age is come again. Ours
will be no feeble Republic, no Union of States loosely tied together
by a filament; we will have a firmer government, a strong, liberal,
enlightened Empire. That grand old Roman word, _Imperium_, pleases my
ear. I will extirpate the Spanish power from the continent, and
establish a throne at the old capital of the Montezumas."
"Father!" asked Theodosia, catching fresh enthusiasm. "The Western
States will hasten to cast off their allegiance to the East, whose
rulers have traduced and persecuted you, and they will claim the
protection of your banner?"
"That, my daughter, is for the future to decide. If the States west of
the Alleghanies, exercising the sacred right to secede, renounce the
Union, and seek to join our Empire, we shall welcome them."
"New Orleans would be your capital city, at first, would it not?--and
our home would be there and not in Mexico?"
"As you choose, Theodosia," replied Burr, caressing his daughter's
hand.
"And you know, my dear Mrs. Blennerhassett," chimed the radiant
favorite, "you will be a duchess and your husband Minister to the
Court of St. James; Mr. Alston is Chief Grandee and Secretary of
State."
In such airy nothings did the credulous women put their trust,
entranced by the voice of the sanguine charmer. Their faith in him was
absolute. For was not this daring leader wise and powerful and
popular? Had he not been Vice President and had he not come within one
vote of being President of the United States? He was cheated out of
that one vote. Why should he not establish an independent government
in that great West, through which his tour had been as the triumphal
progress of a beloved monarch?
In the course of the talk, Madam Blennerhassett chanced to mention the
name of Miss Hale.
"Ah! Miss Hale!" said Burr, his eyes brightening, "I have often
thought of that splendid woman in connection with our court. She must
be approached on the subject, madam, and by you."
Theodosia glanced at her beautiful friend with a look of jealous
surprise.
"There are difficulties in the way, Colonel Burr," answered the lady
of the island, coloring deeply. "Her father, one of the most
influential citizens of Marietta, entertains a violent prejudice
against you."
"We want nothing to do with him, then," said Theodosia, sharply.
"Ah, my dear child, there are many good men who do not know Aaron Burr
as you know him, and whose political antipathies we must tolerate. But
his antagonism need not prevent his peerless daughter from accepting
the coronet of a countess."
"Countess!" exclaimed Theodosia. "Is this young woman a sorceress? Has
she bewitched you?"
Mrs. Blennerhassett glimpsed her own image in the mirror. "Perhaps
Colonel Burr anticipates raising the countess to the throne of an
empire."
"I will have a voice in that, and so will Gampy," declared Theodosia,
with a merry laugh. "The succession is fixed."
"You should become acquainted with Miss Evaleen Hale, Mrs. Alston.
Evaleen is my most intimate friend. She is now in much anxiety on
account of an uncle in New Orleans, a wealthy merchant, who was
stabbed in the back by a drunken Spaniard. The wound caused partial
paralysis, and Richard Hale desires his niece, who has always been a
favorite, to come and attend him in his helpless condition. Several
urgent letters have decided her to make the tedious and not altogether
safe journey down the river on a barge, which is to start from
Marietta within six weeks."
"Did I not say the gods are propitious?" broke in Burr; "Miss Hale is
going our way at an opportune time. Her rich uncle will bequeath her
his fortune and go to Heaven; she will take the money and go to
Mexico."