she was actuated by friendship toward us, is to be ignorant of the springs of action which invariably regulate the cabinets of princes.  A despotic court aid a popular revolution through sympathy with its principles!  For the matter of that, if you insist upon American statesmen being sentimental fools, the class that assisted us has been murdered by the rabble, which I refuse to recognize as France.  And if it be your object to reduce this country to a similar position that you may climb over maddened brains to power—­”

“Hear!” roared Jefferson, justly indignant.  “I?  Never a man loved peace as I do.  My life has been hell since you have forced me into daily conflict, when, God knows, I perish with desire for the peace of my homely life in Virginia.  Power!  I scorn it, sir.  I leave that to restless upstarts like yourself—­”

He stopped, choking.  Hamilton laughed contemptuously.  “You are at work with your pen day and night, strengthening your misnamed party, and preparing the way by which you can lift yourself to a position where you can undo all that the party you hate, because it is composed of gentlemen, has accomplished for the honour and prosperity of your country.  You are perfectly well aware that Genet was sent here to stir up a civil war, and embroil us with Europe at the same time, and you have secretly sympathized with and encouraged him.  I cannot make up my mind whether you are a villain, or merely the victim of a sublimated and paradoxical imagination.  But in either case, I wish to be placed on record as asserting that you are the worst enemy the United States is cursed with to-day.”

This was too much for Jefferson, who had convinced himself that he was a high-minded and self-sacrificing statesman, stooping to devious ways for the common good.  He forgot his physical fear, and shouted, pounding the table with his fist:—­

“How dare you, sir?  How dare you?  It is you who are ruining, corrupting, and dishonouring this unhappy country, with your Banks, your devilish methods to cement the aristocracy, your abominable Excise Law—­”

“Oh, but you have counteracted that so effectively!  I was coming to that point.  I conceived a measure by which to meet an imperative financial demand, and you, by your agents, by your secret machinations, have been the author of insurrection after insurrection, of the most flagrant breaches of the laws of your country.  You have cost innumerable men, engaged in the pursuit of plain duty, their self-respect, and in several cases their lives.  Another hideous problem is approaching—­one, I am persuaded, that can be solved by arms and bloodshed alone; and to your pen, to your deliberate unsettling of men’s minds, to the hatred you have inspired for the lawful government of this country, to you, and to you alone—­”

“It’s a lie! a lie!” shouted Jefferson.  “You are speaking to an honourable man, sir! one who occupies a position in this country both by birth and breeding that you would give your soul—­you adventurer!—­to possess.  Go back to your Islands!  You have no place here among men of honourable birth.  It’s monstrous that this country should be ruled by a foreign bastard—!”