Page:The amorous intrigues and adventures of Aaron Burr.pdf/10

 consigned to the old grave-yard of Bethlehem. Yet Burr never could hear the mention of her name without emotion. There was something so real, so devoted in the love of Adelaide for Burr, that he never could think of her without a pang, even after so many others had been added to the list of his conquests.

It was down in a green lane, some half a mile from the village church of Bethlehem, in a valley of palms and daisies, that Adelaide King yielded up her virgin purity to the importunities of her lover. The very spot has been pointed out to us more than once.

There, with the beautiful and tender Adelaide in his arms, Burr quaffed the sweetest joys ever vouchsafed to man, while the glorious form of Adelaide was thrilled with raptures that she had never before imagined.

Again and again did they rush into each other's arms, till nature was exhausted, when they parted with one long-continued kiss.

"Dear Adelaide, for ever dear, we shall meet again."

"Yes, Aaron, beloved of my soul, we shall yet be happy. You will return soon?"

Thus did the lovers separate, she to return to the roof of her parents, and he to repair to New Jersey, where he took up his residence with his brother-in-law, Tappan Reeve.

There was evidently a correspondence kept up, for a short time, between Aaron Burr and Adelaide King, after the return of the former to New Jersey.

It gradually languished on the part of Burr, and Adelaide, doubtless warned by the tenor to his letters, soon gave up all hopes of seeing him again. The following appears to be her last letter:

": You say truly that the opinion of the world must be consulted in many of our most important actions. Had I consulted that, instead of my devotion to you, I should not now be in a way to become a mother, but not a wife. Should the poor little creature live, who is now bounding in my bosom, as if it knew I was writing to its father, may Heaven shield it from the disgrace which will be heaped upon its mother as soon as it is born. But you love me no more, and I need not write again. Farewell, Aaron! I shall trouble nobody long.

Her words were prophetic. The child was born, and Adelaide was turned out of the house by her parents. She did not let Burr know this fact, but took refuge with her child in the alms-house among the "town poor." There she was kindly treated by Mrs. Armstrong, who had charge of the poor at that time, but grief and anxiety for the fate of her child brought on a fever, which carried her off in a few days. Her child survived her only a week.