CHAPTER I THE MIGHTY WATERS I COLONEL BURR remained hidden in the Stone Street house for some three weeks, while the Swartwouts busied themselves arranging for his immunity from arrest. Government officials were sounded, the creditors were persuaded to leniency, a paragraph was inserted in the papers stating that the Colonel had been in Boston and was on his way to New York. The news did not unduly disturb the city. A further notice then appeared one morning to the effect that Colonel Burr had returned, and that he had opened an office for the practice of the law at 9 Nassau Street. More than five hundred persons called to see him before nightfall, and Robert Troup, his old personal friend and sometime political enemy, placed his own law library at the Colonel's disposal. Colonel Burr possessed ten dollars in cash. He was fifty-six years old. He tacked up a little tin sign outside his door, and prepared to resume his long interrupted practice, thinking that little by little enough clients would come to him to bring him a living. They came immediately, and by the score, and during his first twelve days of business he earned two thousand dollars. He was not to be shunned, then, as a lawyer; his office was crowded; several clerks had to be installed to assist him; the future seemed secure. And then two letters came from South Carolina. The boy, Two terrible letters. precious grandson, had died, Debordieu Island, of the fever. "One dreadful blow "That boy has destroyed us," Mr. Alston wrote. on whom all rested . . . he who was to have redeemed all your glory and shed new lustre upon our families that boy at once our happiness and our pride is dead. We saw him dead . . yet we There was no more joy "The world is a blank. are alive. Theodosia has endured all that a human being could endure, but her admirable mind will triumph. She supports herself in a manner worthy of your daughter." for her, she told her father. I have lost my boy. blessings, make you some grandson you have lost. be in this world. . May Heaven, by other amends for the noble Of what use can I with a body reduced to pre mature old age, and a mind enfeebled and bewildered. Yet . . . I will endeavor to fulfill my part though this life must henceforth be to me a bed of thorns. 2 Theodosia was desperately ill, and the Colonel insisted that she should come north. And since Mr. Alston was prevented by law from leaving the Statehe was now Governor of South Carolina-Mr. Timo thy Green was sent down to escort her; an elderly retired lawyer with some knowledge of medicine, whose presence was a little resented at The Oaks. In his opinion Theodosia was too feeble to undertake the journey by land-the Colonel would find her very emaciated, and a prey to nervous fevers-and he took passage for her, therefore, in a schoonerbuilt pilot boat which was refitting at Georgetown. She was the privateer Patriot, Captain Overstocks, a vessel noted for her speed. She had discharged her privateer crew, hidden her armament under deck, and was preparing for a dash to New York, richly laden with the proceeds of her raids concealed beneath the covering of an ostensible cargo of rice. Her departure was not unknown along that piratical coast, and there was danger, of course, not only from the wreckers-the dreaded "bankers" of the Carolina beaches-but from the British fleet, since the two countries were now finally at war. Mr. Alston did what he could; he gave Captain Overstocks a letter to the British Admiral, asking free passage for his sick lady; and at noon, on December 30, 1812, the Patriot, with Mr. Green, Theodosia and her maid aboard, crossed the bar off Winyaw Bay. Early in January-but this was not known until much laterthe Patriot fell in with the British fleet off Hatteras, presented her letter and was courteously granted passage. That night a terrific storm arose; the Patriot was never heard from again. For a few weeks they hoped against hope, while Colonel Burr walked pathetically up and down the Battery at New York, waiting for the Patriot, or for some rescuing vessel, and answered Mr. Alston's |