Читать книгу The Book of Duels - Michael Garriga - Страница 24

Colonel Aaron Burr, 48,

Vice President of the United States

Last night before a hardwood fire, shivering with ague beneath a mound of blankets and scarves, I wrote letters of address to my loved ones, none more so than sweet Theodosia, You are a diamond of the first water, my dear—poor half orphan these last ten years, I regret betrothing you to that planter, but we will need his votes when I ascend, though if I die first, please flee, hie away from those men who bring themselves low by pressing slaves to service—I penned my will only to realize I am broke, in debt to my waistcoat—all those books for my daughter and wine for myself and glorious Richmond Hill—I see Hamilton level his pistol and so too do I and I should have killed this Creole thirty years ago, this scamp who has cast aspersions before my Honor—alas, he has crossed me once too often and now it has appeared in print that he has called me despicable, then had gall enough to describe its nuanced meanings as if I’m not his equal in the world of ideas: he is a coward at heart and I demanded his explanation, because one way or the other I must be done with him, and so we’ve come to this jag of land where we stand in plain sight of The City and on the precipice of violating a law I’m duty-sworn to uphold or become this nation’s bona fide Bonaparte, which I, American aristocrat, was born to be—I have liver and stones enough to make this land mine, the whole damned country, and since Jefferson’s dropped me from the ticket and New York has dropped me as well, I will have to take it, one bullet at a time, and the first will come from this well-oiled .544—my hand holds steady the heavy handle while the wind whips my coat and my ears ring and the fog is burned away and my man says, Ready, and that rascal fires first—

His shot flies high, by Theodosia, and I know I’ll send him to his long home now—my sole regret that I was born a decade too late to be Father of this State and so will have to win my Fame by might to assure my place in History, to be the man whom everyone recalls by name, and leave as inheritance to my adoring Theodosia—Theodosia, my princess, oh Theodosia—the United States of Burr.