n America; and I know this undiminished
enthusiasm--as well as the influence of the _Evening Post_--alarms them
deeply. They are neither great enough nor bad enough to murder you, nor
even to employ someone to do it; but more than one needy rascal knows
that he has only to call you out and kill you according to the code, to
be rewarded with an office as soon as decency permits. There is another
menace. I suppose you have heard that Mrs. Croix married a Frenchman
named Stephen Jumel while you were in Albany?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Hamilton, with interest; "who is he?"

"A Parisian diamond merchant and banker, a personal friend of Bonaparte.
The belief is that he came over here as a special emissary of the
Consulate. Of course he brought a letter to that other illustrious
agent, and to the amazement of everybody he married her. They must
handle thousands of French money between them. France would be
something more than glad to hear of your elimination from this
complicated American problem; particularly, if you demonstrate your
power by crushing this last hope of Burr's. I doubt if Burr would call
you out with no stronger motive than a desire for personal revenge. He
is no fool, and he knows that if he kills you, he had better put a
bullet through his own brain at once. He is a sanguine man, but not so
sanguine as not to know that if he compassed your death, he would be
hounded into exile. But he is in a more desperate way financially than
ever. He can borrow no more, and his debtors are clamouring. If he is
defeated in this election, and the Jumels are sharp enough to take
advantage of his fury and despair,--I think she has been watching her
chance for years; and the talk is, she is anxious, for her own reasons,
to get rid of Burr, besides,--I believe that a large enough sum would
tempt Burr to call you out--"

"He certainly is hard up," interrupted Hamilton, "for he rang my front
door bell at five o'clock this morning, and when I let him in he went on
like a madman and begged me to let him have several thousands, or
Richmond Hill would be sold over his head."

"And you gave them to him, I suppose? How much have you lent him
altogether? I know from Washington Morton that Burr borrowed six hundred
dollars of you through him."

"I lent him the six hundred, partly because his desperate plight appeals
to me--I believe him to be the unhappiest wretch in America--and more
because I don't want Europe laughing at the spectacle