deep tolling of the bells was echoed
by the inspiring strains of martial music. At last, as the last
platoon of Frenchmen crossed the bridge, the Kremlin was blown up
with a loud explosion, and the curtain fell.

Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, the widow of the founder of our financial
system, passed a good portion of the latter part of her life at
Washington, and finally died there. She was the first to introduce
ice-cream at the national metropolis, and she used to relate with
rare humor the delight displayed by President Jackson when he first
tasted it. He liked it much, and swore, "By the Eternal!" that he
would have ices at the White House. The guests at the next reception
were agreeably surprised with this delicacy, especially those from
the rural districts, who, after approaching it suspiciously, melting
each spoonful with their breath before consuming it, expressed
their satisfaction by eating all that could be provided. Mrs.
Hamilton was very much troubled by the pamphlet which her husband
had published when Secretary of the Treasury, in which he avowed
an intrigue with the wife of one of his clerks, to exculpate himself
from a charge that he had permitted this clerk to speculate on the
action of the Treasury Department. Mrs. Hamilton for some years
paid dealers in second-hand books five dollars a copy for every
copy of this pamphlet which they brought her. One year the number
presented was unusually large, and she accidentally ascertained
that a cunning dealer in old books in New York had had the pamphlet
reprinted, and was selling her copies at five dollars each which
had cost him but about ten cents each. She possessed a good many
souvenirs of her illustrious husband, one of which, now in the
writer's possession, was the copper camp-kettle which General
Hamilton had while serving on the staff of the illustrious
Washington.

[Facsimile]
Alexander Stephens
ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS was born in Wilkes County, Georgia,
February 11th, 1812; was a member of the House of Representatives,
December 4th, 1843 to March 3d, 1859; was Vice-President of the
Southern Confederacy; was again a member of the United States
Congress, October 15th, 1877, to January 1st, 1882; was Governor
of Georgia, and died at Crawfordsville, Georgia, March 4th, 1883.

CHAPTER XII.
JACKSON AND HIS ASSOCIATES.

President Jackson's friends celebrated the 8th of January, 1835,
by giving a grand banquet. It was not only the anniver