is hands, and Theodosia joined in the applause.

"Your allegory is no enigma to me," said she. "There is this
difference between us and Bunyan's pilgrim--he left the Enchanted
Ground forever--you can return when you please, and as often as you
please. Our promised land takes in and retains all the desirable
property on the road to the Shining Gates, and we shall possess the
Happy City without crossing that awful river."

"Ah, yes," quoth Burr, in low, earnest tones, as if uttering the
authentic revelations of an oracle. "This life we are sure of. The
part of wisdom is to live as if to-day were our only day, and yet
provide for an infinite series of to-morrows. _Dum vivimus vivamus_.
When we are established in Eldorado, in my new Spain, my Mexican
Cathay, in our Woman's Paradise, where the tree of knowledge is not
forbidden--then will you think the Golden Age is come again. Ours
will be no feeble Republic, no Union of States loosely tied together
by a filament; we will have a firmer government, a strong, liberal,
enlightened Empire. That grand old Roman word, _Imperium_, pleases my
ear. I will extirpate the Spanish power from the continent, and
establish a throne at the old capital of the Montezumas."

"Father!" asked Theodosia, catching fresh enthusiasm. "The Western
States will hasten to cast off their allegiance to the East, whose
rulers have traduced and persecuted you, and they will claim the
protection of your banner?"

"That, my daughter, is for the future to decide. If the States west of
the Alleghanies, exercising the sacred right to secede, renounce the
Union, and seek to join our Empire, we shall welcome them."

"New Orleans would be your capital city, at first, would it not?--and
our home would be there and not in Mexico?"

"As you choose, Theodosia," replied Burr, caressing his daughter's
hand.

"And you know, my dear Mrs. Blennerhassett," chimed the radiant
favorite, "you will be a duchess and your husband Minister to the
Court of St. James; Mr. Alston is Chief Grandee and Secretary of
State."

In such airy nothings did the credulous women put their trust,
entranced by the voice of the sanguine charmer. Their faith in him was
absolute. For was not this daring leader wise and powerful and
popular? Had he not been Vice President and had he not come within one
vote of being President of the United States? He was cheated out of
that one vote. Why should he not establish an independent government
in t