In Richmond jail lay Aaron Burr, the great conspirator, the ruins of his ambition fallen about him. He had found a prison instead of a palace. He was eager 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 punishment the accused should have--for in the general 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 crowded were the hostelries of Richmond that a stranger would have had difficulty in finding lodging 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 now would he lean.
Luther Martin, chief of Burr's counsel, was eager above all to have a word with Meriwether Lewis, so close to affairs in Washington, possibly so useful to himself. Washington Irving, too, assistant to Martin in the great trial, would gladly have had talk with him. All asked what his errand might be. What was the leaning of the Governor of the new Territory, a man closer to the administration at Washington than any other?
Meriwether Lewis kept his own counsel. He arranged first to see Burr himself. The meagerly furnished anteroom of the Federal prison in Richmond was the discredited adventurer's reception-hall in those days.
Burr advanced to meet his visitor with something of his own old haughtiness of mien, a little of the former brilliance of his eye.
"Governor, I am delighted to see you, back safe and sound from your journey. My congratulations, sir!"
Meriwether Lewis made no reply, but gazed at him steadily, well aware of the stinging sarcasm of his words.
"I have few friends now," said Aaron Burr. "You have many. You are on the flood tide--it ebbs for me. When one loses, what mercy is shown to him? That scoundrel Merry--he promised everything and gave nothing! Yrujo--he is worse yet in his treachery. Even the French minister, Turreau--who surely might listen to the wishes of the great French population of the Mississippi Valley--pays no attention to their petitions whatever, and none to mine. These were my former friends! I promised them a country."
"You promised them a country, Colonel Burr--from what?"
"From that great ownerless land yonder, the West. But they waited and waited, until your success was sure. Why, that scoundrel Merry is here this very day--the effrontery of him! He wants nothing more to do with me. No, he is here to undertake to recoup himself in his own losses by reasons of moneys he advanced to me some time ago. He is importuning my son-in-law, Mr. Alston, to pay him back those funds--which once he was so ready to furnish to us. But Mr. Alston is ruined--I am ruined--we are all ruined. No, they waited too long!"