cient in courtly graces as the
European aristocrats are sycophantic. By your leave, we will be moving."

We swung about and sauntered up the stream bank, the horse following at
his master's heels, docile as a well-trained hound. For a time the
attention of my distinguished companion seemed fixed upon the romantic
arbors of wild grapes which overran the neighboring thickets. But as I
was about to remark on the beauty of the autumnal foliage, he turned to
me with a direct question: "Have you close acquaintance, sir, among the
people of St. Louis and New Orleans?"

"I have practised in both towns, sir, since the cession of Louisiana
Territory."

"And you found the former subjects of Spain and France well disposed
toward the Republic?"

"I regret to have to say, sir, that Governor Claiborne is not popular
even among our American residents of New Orleans."

The President looked at me doubtfully. "Claiborne is a man of undisputed
integrity."

"The creoles, Your Excellency, could better appreciate a degree of tact.
Governor Claiborne is too much the Western man in his attitude toward
people of another race."

"I cannot but trust that our release of them from subjection to
despotism--" He paused to study my face with a mild yet penetrating
gaze. We walked on for several paces before he again spoke. "I esteem
you to be a man of some little discernment, Dr. Robinson."

"You compliment me, sir. Having gone to the Mississippi fresh from my
medical studies in New York, it may be that I observed some features of
the Louisiana situation unnoted by the local factions. Though a
Westerner myself, I trust that four years in college on the seaboard has
enabled me to look upon events with a little less of our natural
trans-Alleghany prejudice."

"Ah! You are also acquainted in St. Louis--with General Wilkinson?
Perhaps you are intimate?"

"No!" I said. Before my mental vision rose the whiskey-flushed face and
portly figure of the pompous, fussy old General.

"You speak emphatically."

"Sir, I give you common opinion when I say there are few men of standing
in the Upper Territory, or in the Lower, for that matter, who would
trust the General out of sight either with their reputations or with
their purses."

My companion frowned as severely as it seemed his philosophic
temperament would permit. "You forget, sir, that you are speaking of
the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic."

"A commander whose appointment, it