Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/98

 74 SKETCHES OF THE

apt illustrations, of apposite images, and such a melo- dious and varied roll of the happiest words, that the hearer was never wearied by repetition, and never winced from an apprehension that the intellectual trea- sures of the speaker would be exhausted.*

The defence of criminal causes was his great profes- sional forte. It seems that the eighth day of the gene- ral court was formerly set apart for criminal business. Mr. Henry made little or no figure, during the civil days of the court; but on the eighth day, he was the mo- narch of the bar. These causes brought him into di- rect collision with Mr. John Randolph, who had now succeeded Peyton as the attorney general.

Mr. Randolph, it has been remarked, was, in person and manners, among the most elegant gentlemen in the colony, and in his profession, one of the most splendid ornaments of the bar. He was a polite scholar, as well as a profound lawyer, and his eloquence also, was of a

��* A striking example of tliis witchery of liis eloquence, even on common subjects, was related by a very respectable gentleman, the late major Joseph Scott, the marshal of this state. This gentleman had been suimnoned, at great inconvenience to his private affairs, to attend as a witness a distant court, in which Mr. Henry practised. The cause which had carried him thi- ther having been disposed of, he was setting out in great haste to return, when the sheriff summoned him to serve on a jury. This cause was repre- sented as a complicated and important one ; so important, as to have enhsted in it all the most eminent members of the bar. He was therefore alarmed at the prospect of a long detention, and made an unavailing effort with the court to get himself discharged from the jury. He was compelled to take his seat. When his patience had been nearly exliausted by the previous speakers, Mr. Henry rose to conclude the cause, and having much matter to answer, the major stated that he considered himself a prisoner for the even- ing, if not for the night. But, to his surprise, Mr. Henry appeared to have consumed not more than fifteen minutes in the reply ; and he woidd scarcely believe liis own watch, or those of the other jurymen, when they informed him that he had in reality been speaking upwards of two hours. So power- ful was the charm by which he could bind the senses of his hearers, and make even the most impatient, unconscious of the lapse of time.

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