st sad
day in the city.

Aimlessly wandering, he turned northward into Mulberry Street, with its
Doric portals, and seeing the many Friends coming out of their
meeting-house, was reminded that it was Wednesday. "I should like," he
thought, "to have said my thanks with them." Moving westward at Delaware
Fifth Street, he entered the burial-ground of Christ Church, and for a
while in serious mood read what the living had said of the dead.

"Well, Rene," said Schmidt, behind him, "which are to be preferred,
those underneath or those above ground?"

"I do not know. You startled me. To-day, for me, those above ground."

"When a man has had both experiences he may be able to answer--or not. I
once told you I liked to come here. This is my last call upon these
dead, some of whom I loved. What fetched you hither?"

"Oh, I was lightly wandering with good news," and he told him of the
lost Despatch No. 10, and that it was to be for the time a secret.

"At last!" said Schmidt. "I knew it would come. The world may
congratulate you. I am not altogether grieved that you have been through
this trial. I, too, have my news. Edmund Randolph has resigned within an
hour or so. Mr. Wolcott has just heard it from the President. Oh, the
wild confusion of things! If you had not sent that despatch on its way,
Randolph would not have fallen. A fatal paper. Let us go home, Rene."

"But how, sir, does it concern Mr. Randolph?"

"Pickering has talked of it to Bingham, whom I have seen just now, and I
am under the impression that Fauchet's despatch charged Randolph with
asking for money. It was rather vague, as I heard it."

"I do not believe it," said Rene.

"A queer story," said Schmidt. "A wild Jacobin's despatch ruins his
Secretary for life, disgraces for a time an _emigre_ noble, turns out a
cabinet minister--what fancy could have invented a stranger tale? Come,
let us leave these untroubled dead."

Not until December of that year, 1795, did Randolph's pamphlet, known as
his "Vindication," appear. This miserable business concerns us here
solely as it affected the lives of my characters. It has excited much
controversy, and even to this day, despite Fauchet's explanations to
Randolph and the knowledge we now have of the papers mentioned as No. 3
and No. 6, it remains in a condition to puzzle the most astute
historian. Certainly few things in diplomatic annals are more
interesting than the adventures of Despatch No. 10. The verdict of