out."

To check the deluge of Byle's conversation, the picnickers soon took
occasion to shift their ground from the well to the beautiful green
plot which had been the carefully kept lawn of the Blennerhassett
premises.

Raised flowerbeds, of various forms, circular, crescent, and diamond,
could still be traced, though overgrown with grass and weeds. These
abandoned garden beds furnished convenient seating space for the
excursionists, while they ate lunch and drank water fetched from the
old well by Plutarch. The conversation reverted to Burr and his
alleged associates, involving the name of Wilkinson. Danvers defended
the general from severe animadversions. Arlington had no patience with
his brother-in-law's lenient judgment.

"Why, Warren, you, a colonel in the regulars, must know Wilkinson to
have been a failure every way. Wasn't he court-martialed last spring,
after holding the command of the Northern army less than a year? He
blundered in all he undertook. He was, in effect, discharged for want
of generalship and for excess in wine."

"I admit he lost laurels in the late war. So did many others. Jackson
and Harrison are our heroes now. General Wilkinson was acquitted by
the court-martial, as he was acquitted in 1811 of charges accusing him
of complicity with Burr."

"Acquitted! I know he was acquitted; so was Burr; but public opinion
condemns the decision of the courts. Before the bar of history both
stand accused and sentenced. They are guilty alike. Wilkinson seems to
me no better than Burr. Perhaps he is worse, for he betrayed his
comrade."

"Did he betray Burr, or did he only find him out? I was in Wilkinson's
tent when Burr's cipher letter was exposed. Wilkinson was outspoken in
denouncing Burr."

"Hold yer hosses. Let me put in a word edgeways, Captain
Danvers--'scuse me, I mean colonel. You spoke of Andy Jackson. He's
not my stripe--I'm a Federalist yist'day, to-day and forever--but
Old Hickory is a truth teller. What did Jackson say? I give you his
upside dixit, word for word, _ex litteratum_, as they say. Andrew
Jackson says, says he, 'Whatever may have been the project of Burr,
James Wilkinson has went hand in hand with him.'"

Mrs. Arlington introduced a new topic of conversation by saying, "I'll
not believe that Mr. Blennerhassett was consciously guilty."

"No, my dear, he was deluded. Mr. Wirt is right in contending that
Blennerhassett was comparatively innocent, 'a mere accessory.'"

Her