eloved, and at four in
the morning he came back to the troopers awaiting him on the river
bank, and the return trip was made in the same manner.

For a year and a half after leaving the army, Burr was an invalid, but
in July, 1782, he married Mrs. Prevost. She was a widow with two
sons, and was ten years older than her husband. Her health was
delicate and she had a scar on her forehead, but her mind was finely
cultivated and her manners charming.

Long after her death he said that if his manners were more graceful
than those of some men, it was due to her influence, and that his wife
was the truest woman, and most charming lady he had ever known.

It has been claimed by some that Burr's married life was not a happy
one, but there are many letters still extant which passed between them
which seemed to prove the contrary. Before marriage he did not often
write to her, but during his absences afterward, the fondest wife
could have no reason to complain.

For instance:

"This morning came your truly welcome letter of Monday
evening," he wrote her at one time. "Where did it loiter so
long?

"Nothing in my absence is so flattering to me as your health
and cheerfulness. I then contemplate nothing so eagerly as
my return, amuse myself with ideas of my own happiness, and
dwell upon the sweet domestic joys which I fancy prepared
for me.

"Nothing is so unfriendly to every species of enjoyment as
melancholy. Gloom, however dressed, however caused, is
incompatible with friendship. They cannot have place in the
mind at the same time. It is the secret, the malignant foe
of sentiment and love."

He always wrote fondly of the children:

"My love to the smiling little girl," he said in one letter.
"I continually plan my return with childish impatience, and
fancy a thousand incidents which are most interesting."

After five years of married life the wife wrote him as follows:

"Your letters always afford me a singular satisfaction, a
sensation entirely my own. This was peculiarly so. It
wrought strangely upon my mind and spirits. My Aaron, it was
replete with tenderness and with the most lively affection.
I read and re-read till afraid I should get it by rote, and
mingle it with common ideas."

Soon after Burr entered politics, his wife developed cancer of the
most virulent character. Everything that money or ava