XXV THE COMTESSE DE BALOIT SENDS FOR HER HUNTER 375
XXVI THE CONSUL'S COMMISSION 386
XXVII "GOOD-BY, SWEETHEART!" 397
XXVIII EXIT LE CHEVALIER 414
XXIX UNDER THE OLD FLAG 426
XXX THE ROSE OF ST. LOUIS 448
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"'Very well, I shall expect to hear from you'" Frontispiece
"In solitary dignity stood Black Hawk" 152
"He stopped and turned suddenly to the two ministers" 295
The Signing of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty by Marbois, Livingston, and Monroe 370
FOREWORD
My story does not claim to be history, but in every importanthistorical detail it is absolutely faithful to the records of thetimes as I have found them. Every word of the debate in Congress,every word of Marbois, Livingston, Decres, Napoleon, and his twobrothers on the subject of the Louisiana Cession is verbatim from themost authentic accounts. I am indebted for the historical part of mystory to Gayarre's "History of Louisiana," to Martin's "History ofLouisiana," to James K. Hosmer's "History of the Louisiana Purchase,"to Lucien Bonaparte's "Memoirs," to numerous lives of Napoleon,Jefferson, Talleyrand, and others, and particularly to Marboishimself, whose account of the negotiations on the subject of thecession is preserved in his own handwriting in the St. LouisMercantile Library.
As to the local color of old St. Louis, both in its topographicalsetting and in its customs, I have also tried to be exact. And here Iam very largely indebted to that simple and charming old writer, H.M. Brackenridge, in his "Recollections of the West" and in his "Viewsof Louisiana"; and also to Timothy Flint in his "Recollections"; to J.Thomas Scharf's interesting "History of St. Louis," and especially toMr. Frederic L. Billon, St. Louis's historian _par eminence_. I makealso the same claim for exactness as to the local color of Washingtonat that early day; for which I have made so many gleanings in manyfields--a little here, a little there--that it seems hardly worthwhile to give special credit to each.
In non-essential points I have occasionally taken the libertybelonging to a writer of fiction, having condensed into one severaldebates in Congress, as well as several interviews between Talleyrandand Livingston, and two interviews between Bonaparte and Marbois.
Nor have I hesitated to use the names of the early St. Louis settlers,because they are names still well known and honored in the city whichthey helped to found. I have touched upon them but lightly, and havetried to make those touches true to the characters of those estimablegentlemen and gentlewomen of the old French regime.