then the village of Harlem was
surprised to see Mrs. Burr drive up before the post-office in an open
carriage. He came out to ask what she desired, and was surprised to
find her in a violent temper and with an enormous horse-pistol on each
cushion at her side.

"What do you wish, madam?" said he, rather mildly.

"What do I wish?" she cried. "Let me get at that villain Aaron Burr!"

Presently Burr seems to have succeeded in pacifying her; but in the end
they separated, though she afterward always spoke most kindly of him.
When he died, only about a year later, she is said to have burst into a
flood of tears--another tribute to the fascination which Aaron Burr
exercised through all his checkered life.

It is difficult to come to any fixed opinion regarding the moral
character of Aaron Burr. As a soldier he was brave to the point of
recklessness. As a political leader he was almost the equal of
Jefferson and quite superior to Hamilton. As a man of the world he was
highly accomplished, polished in manner, charming in conversation. He
made friends easily, and he forgave his enemies with a broadmindedness
that is unusual.

On the other hand, in his political career there was a touch of
insincerity, and it can scarcely be denied that he used his charm too
often to the injury of those women who could not resist his insinuating
ways and the caressing notes of his rich voice. But as a husband, in
his youth, he was devoted, affectionate, and loyal; while as a father
he was little less than worshiped by the daughter whom he reared so
carefully.

One of his biographers very truly says that no such wretch as Burr has
been declared to be could have won and held the love of such a wife and
such a daughter as Burr had.

When all the other witnesses have been heard, let the two Theodosias be
summoned, and especially that daughter who showed toward him an
affectionate veneration unsurpassed by any recorded in history or
romance. Such an advocate as Theodosia the younger must avail in some
degree, even though the culprit were brought before the bar of Heaven
itself.

GEORGE IV. AND MRS. FITZHERBERT

In the last decade of the eighteenth century England was perhaps the
most brilliant nation of the world. Other countries had been humbled by
the splendid armies of France and were destined to be still further
humbled by the emperor who came from Corsica. France had begun to seize
the scepter of power; yet to this picture the