eading as extensive as most
professional men, and entirely out of the line of ordinary female
reading; she was familiar with the entire range of science--her person
in form was perfect, in features exquisitely beautiful. She, too,
possessed the art to steal away the affections of any one around whom
she threw her spell. Apparently unconscious of her natural gifts, she
displayed them without reserve, and so artlessly, as to lure and
beguile almost to frenzy such temperaments as those of Burr and
Hamilton. Never before had Burr met his equal, and his vanity and
ambition were equally stimulated to triumph in her conquest, and ere he
was aware of it, what had been commenced in levity, had become a
passion which held him in chains. The sequel was the ruin of both. Here
commenced the heart-hatred which terminated in the duel and the death
of Hamilton.

"I know there was a romantic story, that gained credit with many, that
the influence of Miss Moncrief had corrupted Burr, and that she was
acting as a spy, and from Burr obtained all the information she desired
of the movements of the American army. Such was the credit attached to
this story, that General Putnam was questioned rather closely on the
subject of the intercourse between them. It was his opinion that it was
without foundation, and that it was simply a love affair. It was also
stated, and this Hamilton credited, that Burr was preparing to leave
the country with the lady, and there were some circumstances which
seemed to warrant such suspicion. To this day, there are ladies who
were at that time in communication with Miss Moncrief, who mention that
every preparation had been made, that her wardrobe had been removed
from her apartment, and that it was carried to those of Colonel Burr,
and that they had been turned back in the harbor by a sentry-boat, when
striving with a solitary oarsman to reach a British man-of-war, in the
lower harbor of the bay of New York. There was never any proof of this,
however, and I imagine it was only a gossiping story of Madame Rumor.

"Of the sincerity of the attachment on the part of the lady, her
subsequent confessions are the only proof; and at the time of making
these confessions, such was her position that little credit could be
given them. But that Colonel Burr was ever seriously attached to her,
those who knew him best scarcely believed. Men of his character rarely,
if ever, have serious and sincere attachment for any woman. To gr