Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/436

 426 peg o'neal. the general were exasperated to the highest pitch, there arrived in Washington Martin Van Buren to assume the office of Secretary of State. Mr. Van Buren, beside being one of the most good-natured of men, and a worthy gentleman in all respects (to whom justice has not been done), had no ladies in his family. He was a widower without daughters. He was also the friend and close ally of Major Eaton. Soon after his arrival in Washington, he called upon Mrs. Eaton as a matter of course, but treated her with particular respect as a victim of calumny. He did a great deal more than this. He used the whole influence of his position as Secretary of State to set her right before the world. Among the diplomatic corps, it chanced that the British Minister Mr. Vaughan, and the Russian Minister Baron Krudener were both bachelors, and Mr. Van Buren easily enlisted them in the cause. Balls were given by them at which they treated the lady with the most marked atten- tion, and contrived various expedients to get the other ladies into positions where they would be compelled to speak civilly to her. All was in vain. The ladies held their ground with undaunted pertinacity, yielding neither to the President's wrath nor to the Secretary's devices. The nickname given to Mrs. Eaton by the hostile faction was Bellona, the goddess of war. A letter-writer of the day sent to one of the New York papers amusing accounts of the gallant efforts of the three old 'bachelors to " keep Bellona afloat " in the society of the capital. " A ball and supper," he says, " were got up by his excellency, the British Minister, Mr. Vaughan, a particu- lar friend of Mr. Van Buren. After various stratagems to keep Bellona afloat during the evening, in which almost every cotillion in which she made her appearance was instantly dissolved into its original elements, she was at length conducted by the British Minister to the head of