"I cannot say how long a time it may take," Burr replied. "I promise you that my daughter shall have a personal interview with Captain Lewis before he starts for the West."
"But he starts at dawn!" smiled Minister Merry.
"Were it an hour earlier than that, I would promise it. But now, gentlemen, let us come to the main point. If we succeed, what then?"
The British minister was businesslike and definite.
"Fifty thousand dollars at once, out of a special fund in my control. Meantime I would write at once to my government and lay the matter before them.[3] We shall need a fleet at the south of the Mississippi River. That will cost money--it will require at least half a million dollars to assure any sort of success in plans so large as yours, Mr. Burr. But on the contingency that she stops him, I promise you that amount. Fifty thousand down--a half-million more when needed."
[Footnote 3: Mr. Merry did so and reported the entire proposal made by Burr. The proposition was that the latter should "lend his assistance to his majesty's government in any manner in which they may think fit to employ him, particularly in endeavoring to effect a separation of the Western part of the United States from that which lies between the mountains in its whole extent."
But though deeply interested in the conspiracy to separate the Western country, Mr. Merry was not too confiding, for in his message to Mr. Pitt he added the following confidence, showing his own estimate of Burr: "I have only to add that if strict confidence could be placed in him, he certainly possesses, perhaps in a much greater degree than any other individual in this country, all the talents, energy, intrepidity, and firmness which it requires for such an enterprise."] The dark eye of Aaron Burr flashed.
"Then," said he firmly, "success will meet our efforts--I guarantee it! I pledge all my personal fortune, my friends, my family, to the last member."
"I am for my country," said Mr. Merry simply. "It is plain to see that Napoleon sought to humble us by ceding that great region to this republic. He meant to build up in the New World another enemy to Great Britain. But if we can thwart him--if at the very start we can divide the forces which might later be allied against us--perhaps we may conquer a wider sphere of possession for ourselves on this rich continent. There is no better colonizing ground in all the world!"
"You understand my plan," said Aaron Burr. "Reduced to the least common denominator, Meriwether Lewis and my daughter Theodosia have our fate in their hands."