“Margaret Moncrief was the daughter of an officer of the British army, and had been left with that old veteran, Putnam, after this officer was a prisoner of war.  Hamilton formed an attachment for her, and Burr, more from vanity than any other feeling, determined to win her away from him.  She was, for her sex, as remarkable as Burr for his; her education was very superior, her reading as extensive as most professional men, and entirely out of the line of ordinary female reading; she was familiar with the entire range of science—­her person in form was perfect, in features exquisitely beautiful.  She, too, possessed the art to steal away the affections of any one around whom she threw her spell.  Apparently unconscious of her natural gifts, she displayed them without reserve, and so artlessly, as to lure and beguile almost to frenzy such temperaments as those of Burr and Hamilton.  Never before had Burr met his equal, and his vanity and ambition were equally stimulated to triumph in her conquest, and ere he was aware of it, what had been commenced in levity, had become a passion which held him in chains.  The sequel was the ruin of both.  Here commenced the heart-hatred which terminated in the duel and the death of Hamilton.

“I know there was a romantic story, that gained credit with many, that the influence of Miss Moncrief had corrupted Burr, and that she was acting as a spy, and from Burr obtained all the information she desired of the movements of the American army.  Such was the credit attached to this story, that General Putnam was questioned rather closely on the subject of the intercourse between them.  It was his opinion that it was without foundation, and that it was simply a love affair.  It was also stated, and this Hamilton credited, that Burr was preparing to leave the country with the lady, and there were some circumstances which seemed to warrant such suspicion.  To this day, there are ladies who were at that time in communication with Miss Moncrief, who mention that every preparation had been made, that her wardrobe had been removed from her apartment, and that it was carried to those of Colonel Burr, and that they had been turned back in the harbor by a sentry-boat, when striving with a solitary oarsman to reach a British man-of-war, in the lower harbor of the bay of New York.  There was never any proof of this, however, and I imagine it was only a gossiping story of Madame Rumor.

“Of the sincerity of the attachment on the part of the lady, her subsequent confessions are the only proof; and at the time of making these confessions, such was her position that little credit could be given them.  But that Colonel Burr was ever seriously attached to her, those who knew him best scarcely believed.  Men of his character rarely, if ever, have serious and sincere attachment for any woman.  To gratify his vanity he would court the affections of any woman whose beauty and accomplishments had attracted him.  It was always for base purposes