CHAPTER IV
THROUGH FIVE ADMINISTRATIONS
Although Aaron Burr had been acquitted of the charge of treason, the persecution of him still continued. He was practically run out of the country, and when he returned at last in 1812, it was in disguise, under the name of Arnat. Fate soon afterwards dealt him a cruel blow, for in January, 1813, his daughter, Theodosia, the idol of his heart, perished at sea while on a voyage from Charleston to New York.
THEODOSIA BURR:
THE WRECKER'S STORY
[January, 1813]
In revel and carousing
We gave the New Year housing,
With wreckage for our firing,
And rum to heart's desiring,
Antigua and Jamaica,
Flagon and stoup and breaker.
Full cans and a ranting chorus;
Hard hearts for the bout before us—
To brave grim Death's grimaces
On dazed and staring faces.
With dirks and hangers bristling,
We for a gale went whistling,
Tornado or pampero,
To swamp the host of Pharaoh;
To goad the mad Atlantic,
And drive the skippers frantic;
To jar the deep with thunder,
And make the waste a wonder,
And plunge the coasters under,
And pile the banks with plunder.
Then the wild rack came skirling,
Ragged and crazed, and whirling
Sea-stuff and sand in breakers,
Frothing the shelvy acres:
Over the banks high bounding,
Inlet and sound confounding.
Hatteras roared and rumbled,
Currituck heaved and tumbled;
And the sea-gulls screamed like witches,
And sprawled in the briny ditches.