Having "bent the quiet of a loving eye" upon the river and its delightful valley, the Englishman turned his ruddy face toward the chief building on the island, a frame structure of odd appearance, painted in dazzling white save the window shutters, which were vivid green. The mansion consisted of a main edifice fifty feet square and two stories high, with a peculiar portico in front, projected not in straight lines, but forming a semicircle, embracing within the curvature of its outstretching arms a favored area of dooryard. The proprietor of the estate had chosen the site and designed the plan of his residence with the double purpose of indulging a fancy for architectural novelty and of providing protection against disaster by lightning and earthquake. Never did it occur to him that fire and flood were the elements he had most reason to fear: each of these ruinous agents was destined, in turn, to devastate the island.

The novel centers on Aaron Burr and his attempt--with the aid of Harman Blennerhassett--to raise an expedition against Mexico and allegedly form a new republic in the Southwest with himself at the head, a scheme for which he was arrested and stood trial for treason in 1807.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

"A Dream of Empire" by Dr. W. H. Venable is a fascinating portrayal of the Burr-Blennerhassett episode and a faithful delineation of character as well. It is destined to give added luster to the author's reputation and to win for him the admiration and gratitude of all students of the history of Ohio. If teachers will read these four books they will find themselves better equipped for their work, and will more fully realize the possibilities of awakening an interest in the history of our state through such agencies. Furthermore they will come to attach more importance to the materials of history that lie all about them, and will be stimulated to inaugurate investigations with a view of preserving these materials for the honor of their schools and communities and for the benefit of posterity. --Ohio Educational Monthly, Volume 50