convinced that the law was against him that he retired from the case. It was at this stage of the case, when the defendants' cause seemed desperate, if not hopeless, that Pat rick Henry was asked to plead the people's cause against the clergy. He undertook to argue it before a jury at the next term of the court. It was a trying scene upon which the young lawyer made his first appearance as a speaker before a court of justice. On one side was arrayed a formidable body of clergy, and some of the most distinguished lawyers in Virginia; but the most trying circumstance of all was the fact that his own father was the presiding magistrate before whom the case was to be heard. The cause was on a writ of inquiry of dam ages. Mr. Lyons, of counsel for the clergy, spoke briefly, simply explaining that the law of 1748 was the only one, on the subject, in force; therefore thé plaintiffs' case was clear that the said law was the only standard of their damages. When it was Patrick Henry's turn to address the jury, he arose, confused and awkward, and, in a faltering voice, began his argument. The people hung their heads; the clergy exchanged smiles, while the father of the speaker almost sank with confusion from his seat on the bench. But soon, a sud den change came over the young orator, and his latent genius burst forth with overwhelm ing force. All his awkwardness disappeared; his body became erect; his gestures were graceful, his countenance shone with a new expression—grand and lofty, while his eyes blazed with a light never seen there before. His voice—that magical voice which was to call a nation into existence—carried away judge, jury, people and clergy. The extraor dinary scene that day in Hanover Court House was told, retold and told again, until the tradition has come down to our own time. Several of those who were present upon the occasion, who survived until the first decade of the nineteenth century, declared
that 'he made their blood run cold, and their hair to rise on end." They said that the peo ple, whose countenances had fallen as he arose, had heard but a few sentences before they began to look up; then to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the evi dence of their own senses; then, attracted by some strong gesture, struck by some ma jestic attitude, fascinated by the spell of his eye, the charm of his emphasis, and the varied and commanding expression of his countenance, they could look away no more. In less than twenty minutes, they might be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, in every window, stooping forward from their stands, in death-like silence; their features fixed in amazement and awe; all their senses listening and riveted upon the speaker, as if to catch the last strain of some heavenly visitant. The 'mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm; their triumph into confusion and despair; and at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the bench in precipitation and ter ror. As for the father, such was his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, forgetting where he was, and the character he was filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks, without the power or inclination to suppress them. The jury, as well as the people, were carried away by the young law yer's magnificent burst of eloquence, and, disregarding the admitted right of the plain tiff, brought in a nominal verdict of one penny damages. The court, carried away by the wonderful spell which the orator threw over all who heard him, overruled a motion for a new trial. When the people saw the great victory their champion had won, they could keep down their enthusiasm no longer, but rushing to the bar of the court, they seized him and bore him aloft on their shoulders through the yard, amid the joyous acclama tions of the men, women and children. In this, his first speech before a jury, Pat rick Henry showed that he was a bold, in
