Burr’s first thought was for his daughter Theodosia. She must be spared anxiety and mortification. From his cell in jail he penned her a hurried letter in which he gave no inkling of his disgusting surroundings. The indictment for treason, he explained, was founded on the allegation that Col. Comfort Tyler, with 20 or 30 men, had stopped at Blennerhassett Island on the way down the Ohio and “... that though these men were not armed, and had no military array or organization, and though they did neither use force nor threaten it, yet having set out with a view of taking temporary possession of New Orleans on their way to Mexico, that such intent was treasonable, and therefore a war was levied on Blennerhassett Island by construction.” The Colonel went on to say that though he was at that time in Frankfort, Kentucky, on his way to Tennessee, nevertheless, having advised the measure, he was by construction of law present at the island and levied war there. “In fact the indictment charges that Aaron Burr was on that day present at the island, though not a man of the jury supposed this to be true.” Of the 50 witnesses who were examined by the Grand Jury, said Burr, “it may be safely alleged that 30 at least have been perjured.” He closed his letter with a characteristically stoical injunction: “I beg and expect it of you that you will conduct yourself as becomes my daughter, and that you manifest no signs of weakness or alarm.” Was he thinking of that long line of Puritan ancestors stretching back through New England to the old England? He need have no concern on the score of Theodosia’s behavior. A word from her father was the equivalent of a command. She had never failed him yet. After Burr had spent two uncomfortable nights in the city jail his counsel complained bitterly to the Chief Justice. They warned that the unsanitary conditions in the jail would break down his health. The lack of privacy, they claimed, would interfere seriously with the consultations with his lawyers and impair his defense. Moved by these appeals, Judge Marshall consented that the prisoner should occupy a room in a house which had been rented by Luther Martin across the street from the Swan Tavern. Consent was given on condition that suitable shutters and door fastenings be installed to insure the security of the prisoner and that a guard of seven men be kept constantly on duty. These terms were accepted. The installations were inspected and declared secure by none other than Benjamin H. Latrobe, the country’s leading architect and at the moment President Jefferson’s Surveyor of Public Buildings, who was then busily employed in redesigning the national Capitol. Latrobe had been approached by Burr with a proposal to take part in building a canal around the falls of the Ohio at Cincinnati and was among the many persons hauled in by the Government to give testimony.