f the Democrats, to be destroyed before they could feel secure in
their new possessions,--until he had deliberately insulted the most
recent offender, received his challenge, and been shot to death close to
the spot where Hamilton was to fall a few years later. That was in the
autumn of 1801. Hamilton's strong brain and buoyant temperament had
delivered him from the intolerable suffering of that heaviest of his
afflictions, and the severe and unremitting work of his life gave him
little time to brood. If he rarely lost consciousness of his
bereavement, the sharpness passed, and he was even grateful at times
that his son, whose gifts would have urged him into public life, was
spared the crucifying rewards of patriotism.

As Troup rode up the avenue and glanced from right to left into the
heavy shades of the forest, with its boulders and ravines, its streams
and mosses and ferns, then to the brilliant mass of colour at the end of
the avenue, out of which rose the stately house, he sighed heavily.

"May the devil get the lot of them!" he said.

It was Saturday, and he found Hamilton on his back under a tree, the
last number of the _Moniteur_ close to his hand, his wife and Angelica
looking down upon him from a rustic seat. Both the women were in
mourning, and Betsey's piquant charming face was aging; her sister Peggy
and her mother had followed her son.

Hamilton had never recovered his health, and he paid for the prolonged
strains upon his delicate system with a languor to which at times he was
forced to yield. To-day, although he greeted the welcome visitor gaily,
he did not rise, and Troup sat down on the ground with his back to the
tree. As he looked very solemn, Mrs. Hamilton and Angelica inferred they
were not wanted, and retired.

"Well?" said Hamilton, laughing. "What is it? What have I done now?"

"Put another nail into your coffin, we are all afraid. The story of the
paper you read before the Federalist Conference in Albany is common
talk; and if Burr is defeated, it will be owing to your influence,
whether you hold yourself aloof from this election or not. Why do you
jeopardize your life? I'd rather give him his plum and choke him with
it--"

"What?" cried Hamilton, erect and alert. "Permit Burr to become Governor
of New York? Do you realize that the New England States are talking of
secession, that even the Democrats of the North are disgusted and
alarmed at the influence and arrogance of Virginia? Burr