After his long years on his island with no settlement closer than Marietta, Blennerhassett evidently relished the cultivated society that the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia provided. He experienced great delight in the piano performance of a talented young Frenchman. It lasted two hours and introduced Blennerhassett to the most recent compositions of Haydn who, at the age of 75 years, was still producing his melodious music. At another meeting of the Harmonic Society he enjoyed the company of Mrs. Wickham and of Mrs. Chevallié. It did not quite compensate for the separation from his wife, but the Blennerhassetts were not entirely out of touch. “I had this morning,” he exulted, “a long double letter from my adored wife. Its red seal was as welcome to my eyes as the evening star to the mariner.” However, these delightful diversions could not entirely erase the fact that the Messrs. Burr and Blennerhassett were in Richmond for other than social affairs. On September 9 the petty jury to hear the case of misdemeanor against the Colonel was sworn in and the trial of witnesses commenced. The trial was less than a week old when the same obstacle presented itself that had halted proceedings in the treason trial. Defense counsel again objected to what they regarded as quantities of irrelevant matter in the testimony. After the issue had been debated at length the Chief Justice again issued one of his long and learned opinions sustaining the defense’s objection. The testimony, he ruled, must include only that which showed the expedition to have been military in nature and designed against the dominions of Spain. He ruled further that the testimony must deal only with the acts charged in the indictment and which were alleged to have occurred within the jurisdiction of the Court. Again the District Attorney confessed he had presented all the testimony answering the description of that which the Chief Justice had ruled to be admissible. So, like the treason trial, that on the misdemeanor charge came to an abrupt conclusion. It took the jury not more than half an hour to find Aaron Burr not guilty of a high misdemeanor. Again, as in the treason trial, on hearing the verdict Mr. Hay entered a _nolle prosequi_ in the cases of Blennerhassett and the other accused men. The defeat of the Government was now well nigh complete. The gallant Wilkinson, observing the proceedings in Richmond, wrote a letter of condolence to his chief. “The disgraceful and dishonorable scenes which have been passing in review here are drawing to a close,” he lamented. “Burr has just been acquitted on the trial for misdemeanor and now a motion will be made for his transmittal to Kentucky, which will go off the same way. The chief [Marshall] has stepped in too deep to retreat, and indeed, his enterprise and hardihood almost justify the suspicion that he has been a party to the conspiracy.” Wilkinson spoke of reforming the Federal courts and getting rid of a “corrupt judge.”