stood at every plate.
He motioned Mr. Grundy, and lifted the tumbler. "The man honored by
fate, and fostered by fortune. The man chosen and set apart for the
service of the nation. A man whose name shall go down the years as the
synonym of courage and of honor. The foremost man of the age,"--and
the voice ever strong for the friend, absent or near, pronounced the
name of one at that moment tottering upon the brink of ignominious
destruction and disgrace--"Aaron Burr."

There was an instant of intense silence, but not a tumbler was lifted.
Insult to the host, or insult to conviction? was the thought which
held each guest; when quick into the breach stepped Mr. Grundy. With
one palm pressed upon the rim of his tumbler, and with head proudly
lifted in a half defiant sternness, wholly belying the careless voice
in which he offered the compromise, "No absent heroes," said he. "In
lieu of that I offer Andrew Jackson! the future President of the
United States of America." It was said in jest, yet not one but
understood that Mr. Grundy refused to drink to the man with whose
name one stinging, startling word was already cautiously
whispered,--_traitor_.

General Jackson's fine eye flashed; but courtesy could unsheath no
sword against a guest. And after all, it was nothing. A mere flash of
words. Aye! yet something whispered that the flash carried a meaning,
was, indeed, a spark from that mightier _flash of arms_ that would,
ere long, blaze out at the very mention of that name.

* * * * *

The ball was over; still wearing their evening finery the master of
the Hermitage and his wife sat over the fading embers, smoking their
"last pipe" before retiring.

Caesar had bowed the last guest from the door, and was about to close
it for the night, when the sound of galloping hoofs attracted his
attention. It was a single horseman, and he was making straight for
the Hermitage. The servant waited under the low piazza, curious but
not uneasy. The horse stopped at the block, and into the long line of
light streaming from the open doorway, came the figure of a man,
hurrying as if to reach the door before it should close. He had ridden
hard, and had barely arrived in time.

"Is General Jackson at home?" he asked. "I must see him to-night, at
once. Tell him so."

The servant bowed, and silently ushered the late arrival into the
deserted banquet room.

His keen eye took in the surroundings with a half-a