You shall have apples, and nuts, and a cook, and lucerne seed. As to femme de chambre, I cannot speak with certainty. I have put in motion the whole French republic on the occasion. Mrs. Kemble's friend cannot be found. Most probably Madame S. has tortured into Gamble some name which has not a letter of Kemble or Gamble in it.
Natalie sailed the Thursday after you left town, and she is probably now in Havre with her mother. A letter received from Madame d'Lage [8] since Natalie sailed, advises us that she is there waiting for her, which is indeed most fortunate, and relieves me from a small portion of the anxiety which I suffer for that charming girl. Yet, alas! there is room for too much. I expect to see her here within a year.
Anna wonders you do not write to her. It never occurred to her that she had not written to you: so she is now occupied, and you may soon expect at least twenty pages from her indefatigable pen. I am going to see Board. There is an ancient story of a man who once gave life and spirit to marble (you may read it in the form of a drama in Rousseau). Why may not this be done again? The sale of Richmond Hill goes on, and will, I believe, be completed within eight days. The price and the terms are agreed; some little under works retard the conclusion.
Adieu, my dear Theodosia.
A. BURR.
TO JOSEPH ALSTON
New-York, November 15, 1801.
I send the enclosed newspaper merely on account of the proceedings of the Rhode Island legislature. They are on the second page. That, in New-England, men should be found hardy enough to oppose, in public speeches, the recommendation of a thanksgiving sanctioned by the usage of one hundred and fifty years; that this opposition should prevail, and the recommendation be rejected by a large majority of a House of Assembly, are events the most extraordinary which the present generation hath beheld.
It has been announced in your gazettes that I am to visit Charleston this month. Nothing is more true than that my warmest wishes have urged me to verify this expectation; but it is equally certain that I shall do no such thing. When I expressed the hope of seeing your state previously to the session of Congress, I did not know that I was chosen a member of the Convention by the county of Orange, much less could I foresee that I should be president of that Convention; and no individual suspected that fifteen days would have been consumed in accomplishing the business of six hours. These circumstances ought to redeem my character, in this instance, at least, from the charge of versatility or caprice, Vale.