Part 41 (2/2)
”Merne, th they tere alone once more in the little office, ”I cannot say what your return rave--you resurrect another fro, Mr Jefferson?----”
”You surely have heard that my administration is in sad disrepute?
There is no ling on the very verge of war”
”I heard some talk in the West, Mr Jefferson,” hesitated Meriwether Lewis
”Yes, they called this Louisiana Purchase, on which I had set ance Theto its reputation General Jackson is with Burr, andfriends And meantime you knohere Burr himself is--in the Richone yonder to visit hiround, a plotting-place, for other powers You come back just in the nick of ti back success with you If the issue of your expedition were anything else, I scarce knoould be my own case here For myself, that would have mattered little; but as to this country for which I have planned so much, your failure would have cost us all the Mississippi Valley, besides all the valley of the Missouri and the Columbia Yes, had you not succeeded, Aaron Burr would have succeeded!
Instead of a great republic reaching from ocean to ocean, we should have had a scattered coterie of States of no endurance, no continuity, no power Thank God for the presence of one great, splendid thing gloriously done! You cannot, do not, begin to lad that you have been pleased, Mr Jefferson,” said Lewis simply
”Pleased! Pleased! Say rather that I am saved! Say rather that this country is saved! Had you proved disloyal to me--had you for any cause turned back,” he went on, ”think what had been the result! What a load, although you knew it not, was placed on your shoulders! Suppose that you had turned back on the trail last year, or the suotten beyond the Mandans--can you in to see what responsibility rested on you? Had you failed, you would have dragged the flag of your country in the dust Had you coht have called yourself the man who ruined his President, his friend, his country!”
”And I nearly did, Mr Jefferson!” broke out Meriwether Lewis ”Do not praise me too much I was terave
”You are honest! I value that above all in you--you are punctilious to have no praise not honestly won Listen, now!” He leaned toward the young --how you were tempted She came here--Theodosia--the very day you left!”
Lewis nodded, ainst your success and ainst you--it was this woman! Had you failed, I should have knohy I know s, whether or not you do I know the character of Aaron Burr well enough He has been crazed, carried away by his own ambitions--God alone knohere he would have stopped He has been aMoreover, he could hter She believed in hiined that he would use the attraction of that young lady for you--the pohich, all things considered, she ht be supposed to possess with you I knew the depth of your regard for her, the deeper for its hopelessness And more than all, I knew the intentness and resolution of your character It was one er? You were a young man--the hot blood of youth was yours, and I know its power Had the woman not been married, I should have lost!
You would have sold a crown for her It was honor saved you--your personal honor--that hat brought us success No country is bigger than the personal honor of its gentlemen”
The bowed head of Meriwether Leas his only answer The keen-faced old man went on:
”I knew that before you had left the mouth of the Ohio River he would do his best to stop you--I knew it before you had left Harper's Ferry; but I placed the issue in the lap of the Gods I applied to you all the tests--the severest tests--that one man can to another I let you alone! For a year, two years, three years, I did not know But now I do know; and the answer is yonder flag which you have carried from one ocean to the other The answer is in this map, all these hides scrawled in coal--all those new thousands of miles of land--_our_ land God keep it safe for us always! And may the people one day knoho really secured it for them! It was not so much Thomas Jefferson as it was Meriwether Lewis
”Each ti you, I prayed in o on; that you would be loyal to your duty, no matter what the cost God answered those prayers, my boy! Whatever was your need, whatever price you paid, you did what I prayed you would do When the months passed and you did not come back, I knew that not even the woman you loved could have called you back I knew that you had learned the priceless lesson of renunciation, of sacrifice, through which alone the great deeds of the world always have been done”
Meriwether Lewis stood before his chief, cold and pale, unable to complete much speech Thomas Jefferson looked at him for a moment before he went on
”My boy, you are so simple that you will not understand You do not understand hoell I understand you! These things are not done without cost If there was punishment for you, you took that punishment--or you will! You kept your oath as an officer and your unwritten oath as a gentleether unsullied”
”Mr Jefferson!” The young hastly pale ”Do not,” said he ”Do not, I beg of you!”
”What is it, Merne?” exclaimed the old man ”What have I done?”
”You speak of my honor Do not! Indeed, you touch me deep”
Thomas Jefferson, wise old man, raised a hand
”I shall never listen, ht of hot blood to run hot--you would not be awere it not so All I knoill know is that whatever the price, you have paid it--or will pay it! But tell me, Merne, can you not tear her from your soul? It will ruin you, this hopeless attachment which you cherish Is it always to remain with you? I bid you find so for you”
”Mr Jefferson, I shall neverinto each other's eyes for just a th, slowly: