ever was convicted has always been one
of the most mysterious facts of a mysterious chapter in our national
development.

So crowded were the hostelries of Richmond that a stranger would have
had difficulty in finding lodging there during the six months of the
Burr trial. Not so with Meriwether Lewis, now one of the country's
famous men. A score of homes opened their doors to him. The town
buzzed over his appearance. He had once been the friend of Burr,
always the friend of Jefferson. To which side now would he lean.

Luther Martin, chief of Burr's counsel, was eager above all to have a
word with Meriwether Lewis, so close to affairs in Washington,
possibly so useful to himself. Washington Irving, too, assistant to
Martin in the great trial, would gladly have had talk with him. All
asked what his errand might be. What was the leaning of the Governor
of the new Territory, a man closer to the administration at Washington
than any other?

Meriwether Lewis kept his own counsel. He arranged first to see Burr
himself. The meagerly furnished anteroom of the Federal prison in
Richmond was the discredited adventurer's reception-hall in those
days.

Burr advanced to meet his visitor with something of his own old
haughtiness of mien, a little of the former brilliance of his eye.

"Governor, I am delighted to see you, back safe and sound from your
journey. My congratulations, sir!"

Meriwether Lewis made no reply, but gazed at him steadily, well aware
of the stinging sarcasm of his words.

"I have few friends now," said Aaron Burr. "You have many. You are on
the flood tide--it ebbs for me. When one loses, what mercy is shown to
him? That scoundrel Merry--he promised everything and gave nothing!
Yrujo--he is worse yet in his treachery. Even the French minister,
Turreau--who surely might listen to the wishes of the great French
population of the Mississippi Valley--pays no attention to their
petitions whatever, and none to mine. These were my former friends! I
promised them a country."

"You promised them a country, Colonel Burr--from what?"

"From that great ownerless land yonder, the West. But they waited and
waited, until your success was sure. Why, that scoundrel Merry is here
this very day--the effrontery of him! He wants nothing more to do with
me. No, he is here to undertake to recoup himself in his own losses by
reasons of moneys he advanced to me some time ago. He is importuning
my son-in-law, Mr. Alston, to pay