Upon the third morning after the marriage there came to the new home a
sled driven by a negro man from Oaklands. On the sled was Marthy, a
negro woman of thirty-five; also a huge packing-case containing Betsy's
clothes, books and ornaments, some bed quilts which she had pieced
herself, some bright-colored rugs she had woven, besides china and a
set of silver spoons which had descended to her from her maternal
grandmother. Behind the sled rode Sambo on Betsy's saddle-horse,
driving a young cow which was also considered the girl's property. The
two negroes, Marthy and Sambo, had belonged to Mrs. Gilcrest, to do
with as she pleased, and she sent them as a gift to her daughter.

CHAPTER XXXII

EXIT JAMES ANSON DRANE

"Treason doth never prosper, ... for, should it prosper, none dare
call it treason."

During the spring of 1806 the country became greatly agitated over
rumors of secret expeditions and conspiracies of a most startling
nature, in which many men of prominence were concerned. The old
difficulty over the free navigation of the Mississippi River, and the
schemes which grew out of this difficulty, although already settled in
a large measure by the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, had been
too much agitated in Kentucky not to leave much material for
conspirators. Hence, Kentucky became the stage upon which were enacted
many of the incidents of that dramatic episode of American history
known as "Burr's Conspiracy."

Opinion was then, as it will ever be, somewhat divided as to the exact
nature of the schemes which Aaron Burr was at that time maturing.
According to his own statements and to the extracts from his journal of
that period, his designs were not actually treasonable; but they were
certainly dangerous to the future well-being of the States along the
southern Mississippi.

In 1805 this brilliant, ambitious and fascinating man, whose term as
Vice-President had just expired, and who had, by his ill-advised attack
upon the administration and by his duel with Alexander Hamilton,
forfeited much of his political prestige, as well as the sympathy of
most of his adherents in the North, came to Kentucky. He spent some
weeks at Frankfort in an apparently quiet manner, and next proceeded on
a tour down the Mississippi, visiting all important points from St.
Louis to New Orleans. The following year he again appeared in the West,
this time paying several visits to Lexington and Louisville. His