panions; but stopped again, as if unable to quit the presence of Mrs. Blennerhassett, gazing upon her charms, and sighing deeply, till, at lenght, he threw himself at her feet, and poured forth a torrent of the most extravant professions.
Fully believing that Burr was the victim of an unfortunate attachment, and that her friend and her husband's friend was in danger of being driven to despair, or to the commission of some desperate act, Mrs. Blennerhassett placed her little white hands upon his brow, where her tears had first fallen plentifully, and begged him to rise.
"You will think better of this, dear colonel," said she in a tone of the deepest sympathy. "I am unworthy to give you all this unhappiness. Such a man as Colonel Burr can command the fairest in the land. Why should he trouble himself about one who had many superiors, and whose equals greet him at every step? Come, sir, I will freely overlook, and forget all that has been said."
"Yes, you will forget all that I can say," murmured Burr, regaining his feet, and supporting himself by a tree. "I should have known that when I did find a woman whom I could truly love, would hear and forget me."
"I shall never forget you, colonel; no, never. The woman or the man who has known Colonel Burr—who has been honored by his friendship—cannot forget the most remarkable man of the age."
"But she who has been disgraced by his love—ah! there, madam, is the point. You deem it a— You are offended at my presuming to love the most attractive woman of this or any other age."
"Colonel, you know my situation!"
"And, alas! thanks to my resistless passion, you know mine—the situation of Tantalus—of one of the dammed in Tartarus raising his blasted, hollow, and burning eyes to the beautified realms of endless bliss, while the brightest seraph of the heavenly band thrusts him back, as he vainly essays to climb the sides of the horrible pit, and bids him burn—burn forever in those intolerable lakes from which he may never hope to rise!"
"Oh! colonel, colonel, dear colonel! be comforted! do not say so," cried the lady, as Burr lay writhing on the ground like a wounded serpent.
"No, no. I swear," cried he, in a hollow voice, "never to rise again. Such misery as I have endured from the moment when I first saw you—"
Burr glanced towards Mrs. Blennerhassett. She leaned overpowered against a tree, her eyes glowing out from her pallid countenance "like jewels set in white marble."
Burr knew that this was the moment of weakness. Partly rising, he threw himself before her and drew her down upon the grass and
