sing them in the same way--that he
would send for his daughter Theodosia, and Mr. Bentham should take her
for his mistress; and in a marginal note, now before me, by the Reverend
John Pierpont, I find abundant confirmation of what Mr. Bentham told me,
though Mr. Davis undertook to say that the stories of Aaron Burr's
_bonnes fortunes_ were true, and that he had a trunkful of letters from
the leading women of his day to prove it, and that Mr. Bentham was
_untrustworthy_. Upon this point I challenged him to the proof; but he
shrunk from the issue.

"This reminds me," says Mr. Pierpont, in the note referred to, "that
Colonel William Alston, the father of Joseph, who married Miss Burr,
once told me, at his own table, that, soon after the marriage of his son
to Miss Burr, her father, Colonel Burr, had told him, (Colonel Alston,)
that, rather than have had his daughter marry otherwise than to his
mind, he would have made her the mistress of some gentleman of rank or
fortune, who would have placed her in the station in society for which
he had educated her.

"I believe, however," he adds, in a postscript, "that not even parental
authority or influence could ever have brought the beautiful and
accomplished Miss Theodosia Burr thus to prostitute herself to her
father's ambitious purposes."

In speaking of Burr, one day, and of his wonderful strength of character
and keenness of observation, he broke away suddenly, called him an
"atrocious scoundrel," and then asked me about his life and history.
Then it was that the kind-hearted, benevolent old man underwent a sudden
transfiguration. He trembled all over; his clear eyes lighted up; his
white hair was like a glory about his face; and he seemed like one of
the Hebrew Prophets, in his terrible denunciations of the heartless
manslayer, and the shameless, boastful profligate.

Our very pleasant, and, to me, most profitable intercourse for a year
and a half was brought to an end by the happening of two or three
incidents. His fat housekeeper, who ruled him with a rod of iron, and
insulted Mrs. Austin and others, undertook to manage me in the same way,
and got packed off in consequence, though I did all I could to keep the
secret, and prevent the catastrophe; but he insisted on knowing why I
left him, and he applied to the secretaries, who were witnesses of the
whole transaction. The philosopher was indignant, and insisted on her
making me a suitable apology. I said I wanted no apo