Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/319

 were enemies, and by a sort of informal truce, put off their armour, and sit down amicably together to repose, as it were, in the shade of the same tree. By this agree- able intermixtiu^e of colloquial sprightliness and bril- liancy, with profound, and learned, and vigorous argu- ment — of social courtesy with heroic gallantry, the audi- ence, far from being fatigued with the discussion, look- ed with regret to the hour of adjournment.

In this great competition of talents, Mr. Henry's powers of debate still shone pre-eminent. They were now exhibiting themselves in a new aspect. Hitherto his efforts, however splendid, had been comparatively short and occasional. In the house of burgesses in 1765, in the congress of 1774, and the state convention of 1775, he had exhibited the impetuous charge of the gallant Francis the first: but now, in combination with fiery force, he was displaying all the firm and dauntless constancy of Charles the fifth. No shock of his adver- saries could move him from his ground. His resources never failed. His eloquence was poured from inexhausti- ble fountains, and assumed every variety of hue and form and motion, which could delight or persuade, in- struct or astonish. ' Sometimes it was the limpid rivulet, sparkling down the mountain's side, and winding its sil- ver course between margins of moss — then gradually swelling to a bolder stream, it roared in the headlong cataract, and spread its rainbows to the sun — now, it flowed on in tranquil majesty, like a river of the west, reflecting from its polished surface, forest, and clift', and sky — anon, it was the angry ocean, chafed by the tem- pest, hanging its billows, with deafening clamours, among the cracking shrouds, or hurling them in sublime defiance, at the storm that frowned above.

Towards the close of the session, an incident occurs

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