Mr. Wirt observed that five or six gentlemen of great professional experience were united in the defense. He suggested that the motion might be regarded as a mere _ruse de guerre_ which they have sprung on counsel for the United States as from an ambuscade. More vital still, he reminded that if the motion were to succeed there would be an end of the case. Judge Marshall, impressed by the arguments of counsel for the prosecution, removed any possible charge of favoritism to the defense on such an important issue by granting Mr. Hay’s request. Argument was forthwith postponed until the following Monday. Nevertheless the Court did meet briefly on Saturday. It was for the purpose of arraigning Mr. Blennerhassett, who up until now had been present at the sessions in a somewhat anomalous capacity. So he was asked to stand while the indictment for treason was read to him. Here Mr. Botts interrupted the proceedings to call attention to the fact that there was a misnomer in the indictment and he had not had a chance to consult with his associates on the subject. He asked that the arraignment therefore be postponed. The request was granted by the ever obliging Chief Justice. The two attorneys for the defense had made it emphatic in their arguments that the fundamental issue was whether treason as strictly defined in the Constitution was to prevail, or whether the broader and vaguer principle of constructive treason was to be admitted. If the definition of treason as laid down in the Constitution were followed to the letter the chances were good that Aaron Burr would go free. But had not the President of the United States openly declared him guilty? Did not half the people in the United States believe him so, condemning him on the sensational evidence that had been spread by the public press? Was the evidence of General Eaton and Commodore Truxtun and of the lesser witnesses to be dismissed? Mr. Hay had alluded to common sense. Mr. Randolph had sneered. But the prosecution had not yet been heard. _Chapter_ XVI On the day following the postponement of his arraignment Harman Blennerhassett received an important visitor in his quarters in the penitentiary. He was William Duane, formerly a partner of Benjamin Franklin and Edward Bache in the publication of the _Aurora_. Duane was now the fiery editor of that newspaper which he had made into an organ of the Jeffersonian administration. Duane expressed great sympathy for Blennerhassett. He told him his friends were making a scapegoat of him. Then, according to Blennerhassett, Duane tried to lure him into a confession of having written certain papers then in the hands of the prosecution. But the chief purpose of his visit was to try to persuade Blennerhassett to betray Burr.