Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-07-31
THE RIVALS.
A Story of the Times of Aaron Burr and
Alexander Hamilton.
BY JERE CLEMENS.
CHAPTER XIV.

While gentle love woos kindred love
to stay"
Stretched upon a sick couch, Aaron
Burr had ample leisure to reflect upon
the past and the future. His affections
crushed, his constitution shattered, his
fortune gone, and his hopes Of military
preferment at an end, what was there
to save him from the numbing effects
Of despair? Nothing but the Unborn
energy of soul that no human calam-
ity could subdue. Weary months roll
ed away, and the invalid began slowly
to regain a portion Of his strength. He
had so far recovered as to be able to
take exercise on horseback, when, in
the summer of 1880, he returned to his
native state of New Jersey, in the hope
that its old remembered scenes would
help to invigorate his frame and bring
back the pulses of health. Here he be-
came intimate with the family OF Mrs.
Theodosia Provost the widow Of Col
onel Provost o. the British army, who
had died come years before, While
serving in the West Indies.
At the beginning Of the Revolutiona-
ry war Mrs. Provost was residing at
Paramus, New Jersey, with her two
little sons and a younger sister, Miss
De Visme. Her husband was then
living, and serving in the British army,
and it might have been supposed that
his high rank would have made her
nF n
times when suspicion was virtue;
but the perfect propriety Of Mrs. Pre-
vost's conduct not only preserved her
from molestation or annoyance, but
made her house the favorite resort of
the American officers who happened
to be stationed in the neighborhood.
Colonel James Monroe, afterwards
president Of the United States, was
among her warmest friends and ad-
mirers. At what time Colonel Burr
formed her acquaintance is uncertain.
It is probable that 1t was in the year
1777, when he marched from the RAM
apo to Paramus to repel British in
cursion from New York. He Is only
known to have visited her twice during
his command Of the Westchester lines.
Miss De Visme was then, and long af-
forwards, supposed to be the attraction
which drew him to her dwelling. In
the letters of his friends, addressed to
him at different times, while Mrs. Pre-
vost was always mentioned in terms
Of high regard, there Is no intimation
Of the least suspicion that he could
contemplate matrimony with her. All
their illusions of this nature are to her
young sister. Mrs. Provost was, at
least ten years his senior; she had
two children; she never had been
beautiful, and was disfgured by
slight scar across the forehead. She
had no fortune to compensate for these
disadvantages, and no one supposed
that a young man whose position and
connections entitled him to seek the
alliance of any family in the colonies
could contemplate a marriage which,
to Others seemed so unsuitable and i'm
polite They little knew the motives
which actuated him. Close in his own
bosom was hidden the memory of his
early love. General Putnam was his
only confidant and he alone might
have formed a reasonable conjecture as
to the moving springs of his conduct.
His dreams Of rapture were over. In
looking around for a wife, love never
entered into his calculations. That he
knew he would never feel again. He
sought, rather an intelligent friend,
in whose society his life might glide
peacefully and TRANQUILITY along, undis-
turbed by petty chickering's and unem-
bittered by passionate eXactions that
he knew himself unable to satisfy In
Mrs. Provost these requisites were
combined in a remarkable degree. AL
though neither young nor beautiful,
she was intelligent and refined. Well
versed in the literature of her own and
other lands, her conversation was al
ways instructive; and her criticisms,
regulated by sound judgment and dis
eliminating taste, never failed to give
her hearers a more correct appreciation
of the merits of the volume or the au-
thor under discussion. Her education
was such as could not be acquired in
America at that day; and her associa-
tions, previous and subsequent to her
marriage with Colonel Provost, had
been with the most intelligent and re-
fined portions of English society. To
these were added sweetness of temper
and a fascination of manner never sur
passed. Colonel Burr, who was him.
self remarkable for the graceful ease
of his department. often declared that
he was indebted to her for all his su-
periority to other men in that respect.
Such a woman was precisely the COM
panion he sought. He made no aYow-
ais of passion. His courtship was con-
Quoted upon pure and unmixed prin-
ciples of respect and esteem. Senti-
ment was forbidden luxury, and their
whole intercourse was such as might
have been expected between friends of
the same sex. Much of the time pass
ed in her society was devoted to the
study of the French language, in which
she was a proficient, and of which he
knew but little: and at such times the
lover was completely merged in the
pupil. At other times he would read
to her long passages from his favor
ite authors, to elicit her comments,
which he cOmbated earnestly when
they differed from his own preconceiv-
ed opinions; though the discussion
generally ended by his acknowledging
the superiority of her taste, and the
correctness of her appreciation of the
beauties or the faults she pointed out.
With them there were no moonlight
rambles. no long communings in leafy
bowers. where sighs become language
and silence itself is elOquence. Their
walks and rides were regulated by a
matter Of fact regard for health; and
if they talked of the moon and stars
at all, ii was to discuss the discoveries
of different astronomers, and compare
their relative merits. 1t was, in short
;ptelIartual intercourse of