"Not for an instant. Ah, I see you smile! I might have known he would not. He said that nothing but word from you could induce him to hesitate for a moment."
"My dear young lady, I said to Captain Lewis that no report from any source would cause me for an instant to doubt his loyalty to me. If anything could shake him in his loyalty, it would be his regard for you yourself; but since I trust his honor and your own, I do not fear that such a conflict can ever occur!"
She did not reply. After a time the President went on gently: "My dear, would you wish him to come back--would you condemn him further to the tortures of the damned? And would you halt him while he is trying to do his duty as a man and a soldier? What benefit to you?"
She drew up proudly.
"What benefit, indeed, to me? Do you think I would ask this for myself? No, it was for him--it was for his welfare only that I dared to come to you. And you will not hear new evidence?"
But now she was speaking to Thomas Jefferson, the President of the United States, man of affairs as well, man of firm will and clear-cut decision.
"Madam," said he, coldly, "in this office we do a thing but once. Had I condemned yonder young man to his death--and perhaps I have--I would not now reconsider that decision. I would not speak so long as this over it, did I not know and love you both--yes, and grieve over you both; but what is written is written."
His giant hand fell lightly, but with firmness, on the desk at his side. The inexorableness of a great will was present in the room as an actual thing. Tears swam in her eyes.
"You would not hear what was the actual cause of my wish for him----"
"No, my dear! We have made our plans."
"There are other plans afoot these days, Mr. Jefferson."
"Tut, tut! Are you my enemy, too? Oh, yes, I know there are enemies enough in wait for me and my administration on every side. Yes, I know a plan--I know of many such. But one thing also I do know, madam, and it is this--not all the enemies on this earth can alter me one iota in this undertaking on which I have sent Captain Lewis. As against that magnificent adventure there is nothing can be offered as an offset, nothing that can halt it for an instant. No reward to him or me--nay, no reward to any other human being--shall stop his advancement in that purpose which he shares with me. If he fails, I fail with him--and all my life as well!"