Part 42 (1/2)

”So! You have come back with all happiness, all success, foras you have had has fallen to the lot of but few reat has been the cost--I see it in your face The fifteen ht theratitude of this republic--the honor of that little paper--bah, they are nothing! But perhaps itfor you to know that at least one friend understands”

Lewis did not speak

”What is lost is lost,” the President began again after a time ”What is broken is broken But see how clearly I look into your soul You are not thinking nohat you can do for yourself You are not thinking of your new rank, your honors You are asking now, at this moment, what you can do for _her_! Is it not so?”

The sto see It htful, too

”She is at Richmond, Merne?” said Mr Jefferson a reatest boon she could ask would be her father's freedoht to ruin this country--the man whom I scarcely dare release”

The thin lips coeful zeal--it was but in thought

”Now, then,” said Thomas Jefferson sharply, ”there comes a veil, a curtain, between you and me and all the world No record ainst the full action of the law, or planned that Colonel Burr should not suffer the full penalty of the code Yes, for hihter_!”

”Mr Jefferson!” The face of Meriwether Leas strangely reatness of your soul; but I ask nothing”

”Why, inopen every prison door in the world If you have gained an empire for your country, and paid for it as you have, could not a great and rich country afford to pay to the extent of a wo is crowned, he sets free the criminals And this day I feel as proud and happy as if I were a king--and king of the greatest edo, do nothing And let this end all talk between us of these matters I know you can keep your own counsel”

Lewis bowed silently

”Go to Richmond, Merne You will find there a broken conspirator and his unhappy daughter Both are ostracized None is so poor as to do either of theh but lately she was daughter of the Vice-President, the rich Mrs

Alston, wife of the Governor of her State Go to them now Tell Colonel Burr that the President will not ask mercy for him John Marshall is on the bench there; but before him is a jury--John Randolph is foreman of that jury It is there that case will be tried--in the jury room; and _politics will try it_! Go to Theodosia, Merne, in her desperate need”

”But what can I do, Mr Jefferson?” broke out his listener

”Do precisely what I tell you Go to that social outcast Take her on your arm before all the world--_and before that jury_! Sit there, before all Richmond--and that jury An hour or so will do Do that, and then, as I did when I trusted you, ask no questions, but leave it on the knees of the Gods If you can call me chief in other matters,”

the President concluded, ”and can call ion as well, let ive you unction and absolution, ive to one whom I have always loved as if he were my own son This is all I can do for you

It ht than trustopen every prison door in all the world, and telling every erring, stu ht to do!”

CHAPTER XVI

THE QUALITY OF MERCY

In Richreat conspirator, the ruins of his ambition fallen about hier no longer to gain a scepter, but only to escape a noose

The great conspiracy was at an end The only question was of the punisheneral belief he was certain of conviction That he never was convicted has always been one of the most mysterious facts of a mysterious chapter in our national development

So croere the hostelries of Riching there during the six months of the Burr trial Not so with Meriwether Lewis, now one of the country's famous men A score of homes opened their doors to him The town buzzed over his appearance He had once been the friend of Burr, always the friend of Jefferson To which side noould he lean

Luther Martin, chief of Burr's counsel, was eager above all to have a ith Meriwether Lewis, so close to affairs in Washi+ngton, possibly so useful to hi, too, assistant to Martin in the great trial, would gladly have had talk with hi of the Governor of the new Territory, a ton than any other?

Meriwether Lewis kept his own counsel He arranged first to see Burr hierly furnished anteroom of the Federal prison in Richmond was the discredited adventurer's reception-hall in those days