in richmond jail lay aaron burr, the great conspirator, the ruins of his ambition fallen about him. he had found a prison instead of a palace. he was eager no longer to gain a scepter, but only to escape a noose.
the great conspiracy was at an end. the only question was of the punishment the accused should have—for in the general belief he was certain of conviction. that he never was convicted has always been one of the most mysterious facts of a mysterious chapter in our national development.
so crowded were the hostelries of richmond that a stranger would have had difficulty in finding lodging there during the six months of the burr trial. not so with meriwether lewis, now one of the country’s famous men. a score of homes opened their doors to him. the town buzzed over his appearance. he had once been the friend of burr, always the friend of jefferson. to which side now would he lean.
luther martin, chief of burr’s counsel, was eager above all to have a word with meriwether lewis, so close to affairs in washington, possibly so useful to [pg 317]himself. washington irving, too, assistant to martin in the great trial, would gladly have had talk with him. all asked what his errand might be. what was the leaning of the governor of the new territory, a man closer to the administration at washington than any other?
meriwether lewis kept his own counsel. he arranged first to see burr himself. the meagerly furnished anteroom of the federal prison in richmond was the discredited adventurer’s reception-hall in those days.
burr advanced to meet his visitor with something of his own old haughtiness of mien, a little of the former brilliance of his eye.
“governor, i am delighted to see you, back safe and sound from your journey. my congratulations, sir!”
meriwether lewis made no reply, but gazed at him steadily, well aware of the stinging sarcasm of his words.
“i have few friends now,” said aaron burr. “you have many. you are on the flood tide—it ebbs for me. when one loses, what mercy is shown to him? that scoundrel merry—he promised everything and gave nothing! yrujo—he is worse yet in his treachery. even the french minister, turreau—who surely might listen to the wishes of the great french population of the mississippi valley—pays no attention to their petitions whatever, and none to mine. these were my former friends! i promised them a country.”
“you promised them a country, colonel burr—from what?”
[pg 318]
“from that great ownerless land yonder, the west. but they waited and waited, until your success was sure. why, that scoundrel merry is here this very day—the effrontery of him! he wants nothing more to do with me. no, he is here to undertake to recoup himself in his own losses by reasons of moneys he advanced to me some time ago. he is importuning my son-in-law, mr. alston, to pay him back those funds—which once he was so ready to furnish to us. but mr. alston is ruined—i am ruined—we are all ruined. no, they waited too long!”
“they waited until it was too late, yes,” lewis returned. “that country is american now, not british or spanish or french. our men are passing across the river in thousands. they will never loose their hold on the west. it was treason to the future that you planned—but it was hopeless from the first!”
“it would seem, sir,” said aaron burr, a cynical smile twisting his thin lip, “that i may not count upon your friendship!”
“that is a hard speech, colonel burr. i was your friend.”
“more than your chief ever was! i fancy mr. jefferson would like to see me pilloried, drawn and quartered, after the old way.”
“you are unjust to him. you struck at the greatest ambition of his life—struck at his heart and the heart of his country—when you undertook to separate the west from this republic.”
“i am a plain man, and a busy man,” said aaron burr coldly. “i must employ my time now to the betterment [pg 319]of my situation. i have failed, and you have won. but let me throw the cloak aside, since i know you can be of no service to me. i care not what punishment you may have—what suffering—because i recognize in you the one great cause of my failure. it was you, sir, with your cursed expedition, that defeated aaron burr!”
he turned, proud and defiant even in his failure, and when meriwether lewis looked up he was gone.
even as burr passed, meriwether lewis heard a light step in the long corridor. under guard of the turnkey, some one stood at the door. it was the figure of a woman—a figure which caused him to halt, caused his heart to leap!
she came toward him now, all in mourning black—hat, gown, and gloves. her face was pale, her eyes deep, her mouth drooping. theodosia alston was always thus on her daily visit to her father’s cell.
herself the picture of failure and despair, she was used to avoiding the eyes of all; but she saw meriwether lewis standing before her, strong, tall, splendid in his manhood and vigor, in the full tide of his success. she was almost in touch of his hand when she raised her eyes to his.
these two had met at last, after what far wanderings apart! they had met as if each came from the valley of the shadows. out of the vastness of the unknown, over all those long and devious trails, into what now seemed to him a world still more vast, more fraught with desperate peril, he had come back to her. and [pg 320]she—what had been her perils? what were her thoughts?
as his eye fell upon her, even as his keen ear had known her coming, the hand of meriwether lewis half unconsciously went to his breast. he felt under it the packet of faded letters which he had so long kept with him—which in some way he felt to be his talisman.
yes, it was for this that he had had them! his love and hers—this had been his shield through all. what he saw in her grave face, her mournful eyes uplifted to his own—this was the solution of the riddle of his life, the reason for his moods of melancholy, the answer to a thousand unspoken prayers. he felt his heart thrill strong and full, felt his blood spring in strong current through his veins, until they strained, until he felt his nerves tingle as he stood, silent, endeavoring to still the tumult within him, now that he knew the great and satisfying truth of truths.
to her he was—what? a tall and handsome gentleman, immaculately clad, governor of the newest of our territories—the largest and richest realm ever laid under the rule of any viceroy. a bystander might have pondered on such things, but meriwether lewis had no thought of them, nor had the woman who looked up at him. no, to her eyes there stood only the man who made her blood leap, her soul cry out:
“yea! yea! now i know!”
to her also, from the divine compassion, was given answer for her questionings. she knew that life for her, even though it ended now, had been no blind [pg 321]puzzle, after all, but was a glorious and perfect thing. she had called to him across the deep, and he had heard and come! from the very grave itself he had arisen and come again to her!
even here under the shadow of the gallows—even if, as both knew in their supreme renunciation, they must part and never meet again—for them both there could be peaceful calm, with all life’s questions answered, beautifully and surely answered, never again to rise for conquering.
“sir—captain—that is to say, governor lewis,” she corrected herself, “i was not expecting you.”
her tone seemed icy, though her soul was in her eyes. she was all upon the defense, as lewis instantly understood. he took her hand in both of his own, and looked into her face.
she gazed up at him, and swiftly, mercifully, the tears came. gently, as if she had been a child, he dried them for her—as once when a boy, he had promised to do. they were alone now. the cold silence of the prison was about them; but their own long silence seemed a golden, glowing thing. thus only—in their silence—could they speak. they did not know that they stood hand in hand.
“my husband is not here,” said she at length, gently disengaging her hand from his. “no one knows me now, every one avoids me. you must not be seen with me—a pariah, an outcast! i am my father’s only friend. already they condemn him; yet he is as innocent as any man ever was.”
“i shall say no word to change that belief,” said [pg 322]meriwether lewis. “but your husband is not here? it is he whom i must see at once.”
“why must you see him?”
“you must know! it is my duty to go to him and to tell him that i am the man who—who made you weep. he must have his satisfaction. nothing that he can do will punish me as my own conscience has already punished me. it is no use—i shall not ask you to forgive me—i will not be so cheap.”
“but—suppose he does not know?”
he could only stand silent, regarding her fixedly.
“he must never know!” she went on. “it is no time for quixotism to make yet another suffer. we two must be strong enough to carry our own secret. it is better and kinder that it should be between two than among three. i thought you dead. let the past remain past—let it bury its own dead!”
“it is our time of reckoning,” said he, at length. “guilty as i have been, sinning as i have sinned—tell me, was i alone in the wrong? listen. those who joined your father’s cause were asked to join in treason to their country. what he purposed was treason. tell me, did you know this when you came to me?”
he saw the quick pain upon her face, the flush that rose to her pale cheek. she drew herself up proudly.
“i shall not answer that!” said she.
“no!” he exclaimed, swiftly contrite. “nor shall i ask it. forgive me! you never knew—you were innocent. you do right not to answer such a question.”
[pg 323]
“i only wanted you to be happy—that was my one desire.”
she looked aside, and a moment passed before she heard his deep voice reply.
“happy! i am the most unhappy man in all the world. happiness? no—rags, shreds, patches of happiness—that is all that is left of happiness for us, as men and women usually count it. but tell me, what would make you most happy now, of these things remaining? i have come back to pay my debts. is there anything i can do? what would make you happiest?”
“my father’s freedom!”
“i cannot promise that; but all that i can do i will.”
“were my father guilty, that would be the act of a noble mind. but how? you are mr. jefferson’s friend, not the friend of aaron burr. all the world knows that.”
“precisely. all the world knows that, or thinks it does. it thinks it knows that mr. jefferson is implacable. but suppose all the world were set to wondering? i am just wondering myself if it would be right to suborn a juryman, like john randolph of roanoke!”[6]
[pg 324]
“that is impossible. what do you mean?”
“i mean this. this afternoon you and i will go into the trial-room together. i have not yet attended a session of the court. today i will hand you to your seat in full sight of the jury box.”
“you—give your presence to one who is now a social pariah? the ladies of richmond no longer speak to me. but to what purpose?”
“perhaps to small purpose. i cannot tell. but let us suppose that i go with you, and that we sit there in sight of all. i am known to be the intimate friend of mr. jefferson. ergo——”
“ergo, mr. jefferson is not hostile to us! and you would do that—you would take that chance?”
“for you.”
and he did—for her! that afternoon all the crowded court-room saw the beadle make way for two persons of importance. one was a tall, grave, distinguished-looking man, impassive, calm, a man whose face was known to all—the new governor of louisiana, viceroy of the country that burr had lost. upon [pg 325]his arm, pale, clad all in black, walked the daughter of the prisoner at the bar!
was it in defiance or in compliance that this act was done? was it by orders, or against orders, or without orders, that the president’s best friend walked in public, before all the world, with the daughter of the president’s worst enemy? it was the guess of anybody and the query of all.
there, in full view of all the attendants, in full view of the jury—and of john randolph of roanoke, its foreman—sat the two persons who had had most to do with this scene of which they now made a part. there sat the man who had explored the great west, and the woman who had done her best to prevent that exploration; mr. jefferson’s friend, and the daughter of the great conspirator, aaron burr. ergo, ergo, said many tongues swiftly—and leaned head to head to whisper it. mind sometimes speaks to mind—even across the rail of a jury-box. sympathy runs deep and swift sometimes. all the world loved meriwether lewis then, would favor him—or favor what he favored.
the issue of that great trial was not to come for weeks as yet; but when it came, and by whatever process, aaron burr was acquitted of the charges brought against him. the republic for whose downfall he had plotted set him free and bade him begone.
but now, at the close of this day, the two central figures of the tragic drama found themselves together once more. they could be alone nowhere but in the prison room; and it was there that they parted.
[pg 326]
between them, as they stood now at last, about to part, there stretched an abysmal gulf which might never personally be passed by either.
she faced him at length, trembling, pleading, helpless.
“how mighty a thing is a man’s sense of honor!” she said slowly. “you have done what i never would have asked you to do, and i am glad that you did. i once asked you to do what you would not do, and i am glad that you did not. how can i repay you for what you have done today? i cannot tell how, but i feel that you have turned the tide for us. ah, if ever you felt that you owed me anything, it is paid—all your debt to me and mine. see, i no longer weep. you have dried my tears!”
“we cannot balance debits and credits,” he replied. “there is no way in the world in which you and i can cry quits. only one thing is sure—i must go!”
“i cannot say good-by!” said she. “ah, do not ask me that! we are but beginning now. oh, see! see!”
he looked at her still, an unspeakable sadness in his gaze—at her hand, extended pleadingly toward him.
“won’t you take my hand, merne?” said she. “won’t you?”
“i dare not,” said he hoarsely. “no, i dare not!”
“why? do you wish to leave me still feeling that i am in your debt? you can afford so much now,” she said brokenly, “for those who have not won!”
“think you that i have won?” he broke out. “theodosia—theo—i shall call you by your old name just once—i do not take your hand—i dare not touch you[pg 327]—because i love you! i always shall. god help me, it is the truth!”
“did you get my letters?” she said suddenly, and looked him fair in the face.
meriwether lewis stood searching her countenance with his own grave eyes.
“letters?” said he at length. “what letters?”
her eyes looked up at him luminously.
“you are glorious!” said she. “yes, a woman’s name would be safe with you. you are strong. how terrible a thing is a sense of honor! but you are glorious! good-by!”
