'They have not a shred of real evidence,' he said at last. 'There is nothing to it save Jefferson's hysterical enmity, and fortunately John Marshall is on the bench. He is a just man and will not allow our magnificent President to intimidate him.'

' But what happened? How did this really come about?' She asked the question which had jabbed at her since the first black moment on the porch at the Oaks when Joseph had shown her the newspaper.

He shrugged. 'General Wilkinson, while accepting Spanish gold with one hand, has managed to inflame Jefferson against me with the other. It's very simple.'

'I thought General Wilkinson was your friend!' she cried. 'He was to command your troops, he was heart and soul immersed in the cause.'

'He was all that, and more, until he discovered that there would be greater profit in denouncing me.'

She sprang up, clasping her hands together. 'It's vile horrible treachery! And why should Jefferson listen? What is the malign fate that twists your motives, and presents you always to the world in a false, sinister light?'

Aaron sighed. In his heart he agreed with her point of view. Still, he would not allow his composure to be ruffled. The stoical acceptance of disagreeable events was as much a part of his nature as was the shrewdness which enabled him to circumvent them—when circumvention was possible.

'My dear,' he said soothingly, 'you have read to very little purpose if you have not remarked that such things happen in all democratic governments. Was there in Greece or Rome a man of virtue and independence, and supposed to possess great talents, who was not the object of vindictive and unrelenting persecution?'

'I suppose not,' she said unhappily.

' Alston did not come with you?'

She shook her head, debating whether to tell him the full story of Joseph's behavior and decided at last to do so, that he might be forewarned.

'I suspected as much,' said Aaron when she had finished. 'I had no great hopes of rescue in Chester. I thought that very likely you would not receive the letter. And yet, I confess that at the time it was a grave disappointment.'

How grave she would never know. He had attempted to escape from his guard and had announced himself to the gaping, bewildered people of Chester. When nothing happened, and he was ignominiously bundled back upon his horse, he had lost control of himself, had been reduced for one instant to a shaking, piteous mass of nerves. This memory shamed him as nothing else ever had. He buried it anew where it would not trouble him.