“And so you shall, but I am uncommonly busy.”

“He is a very quiet little boy,” interposed Angelica, who was three years his junior.  “He would not move if he sat in your room, and I will take him for a walk every day.  He will die if he has to sit in a room by himself all day.”

“I shall sleep with you, sir, I hope?” asked young Lafayette, eagerly.  “I have thought all day of the dark of to-night.  I have seen such terrible things, sir!”

“Good Heaven!” thought Hamilton, “is it not enough to be dry nurse to a nation?” But he could not refuse, and during the few hours he snatched for sleep he was half strangled.  By day the boy sat quietly in a corner of the library, and studied the text-books his guardian bought him.  Betsey did all she could to win him, but he had no faith in people who could not speak his language.  Angelica, like all of Hamilton’s children, knew something of French, and he liked her and accepted her motherly attentions; but Hamilton he adored.  The moment his absorbed friend made for the front door he was after him, and Hamilton let him run at his heels, lest he get neither air nor exercise.  He had no time at present to take him to call on his august godfather, and, in truth, he dreaded the prospect.  Washington knew nothing of children, and his diminutive namesake would probably be terrified into spasms.

XXXIII

The three long and exhaustive reports, accounting honourably for every penny entrusted to the Secretary of the Treasury, and justifying every payment, measure, and investment, had gone to the Congress.  Nine days later Giles brought forward nine resolutions of censure against the Secretary of the Treasury.  But by this time Congress had made up its mind, and many of the Republicans were disgusted and humiliated.  The Federalists were triumphant, and amused themselves with Giles, drawing him on, to confound him with ridicule and proof of the absurdity of his charges.  Madison, desperate, lost his head and the respect of many of his colleagues, by asserting hysterically that the House was impotent to change the truth of the accusations, and that in the tribunal of public opinion the Secretary would be condemned.  But Hamilton was triumphantly vindicated by Congress and the Nation at large.  His house was in a state of siege for weeks from people of all parts of the country, come to congratulate him; his desk obliterated by letters he had no time to read.  The Federals were jubilant.  Their pride in Hamilton was so great that a proclamation from above would not have disturbed their faith, and they were merciless to the discomfited enemy.  In truth, the Virginian trio and their close adherents were mortified and confounded.  In their hearts they had not believed Hamilton guilty of dishonesty, but they had been confident that his affairs were in chaos, that large sums must have escaped, not conceiving that any mortal could at the same time create gigantic schemes, and be as methodical as a department clerk in every detail of his great office.