Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1851-06-20

III Inc OdI. lid dIYcdIduCe was ptoui0n
to puzzle even the pink herself. His high
pale brow, and small, nervOusly twitching
face, seemed alive with the concentrated es-
senee and cream of genius, but then his in
finite blue eyes, hardly visible beneath their
massive arches, looked dim, dreamy, almost
unconscious and his clothing was so exceed
ingly shabby, that the court hesitated to let
the case proceed under his management.
Has your name been entered on the rolls
of the State 2 demanded the Judge suspic-
iously.
1t is immaterial about my names being
on your rolls answered the stranger, his
thin, bloodless lips curling up into fiendish
sneer. 1 may be allowed to appear once,
by the courtesy of the Court and Bar
Here is my license from the hi CHEST tribunal
in America ? and be handed Judge Mills
broad parchment.
The trial Immediately went on.
In the examination ofwitnesses, the stran-
ger evinced but little ingenuity, as was COM
monty thought He suffered each one to
tell his own story withoA interruption,
though be contrived to make each one tell it
over two or three times He put few cross
questions, which with keen witnesses, only
serve to correct mistakes and he made no
notes, which in mighty memories, always
tend to embarrass. The examination being
ended, as counsel for the plaintiff he had a
right to the opening speech, as well as at the
] close but to the astonishment of every one,
he declined the former, and allowed the de-
fence to lead off. Then shadow might
have been observedto fit across the fine fea-
lures Of Pike, and to darken even the bright
E eyes of Prentiss. They saw that they had
e caught Tartar :: but who it was; or how it
: happened, it was impossible to guess.
Colonel Ashley spoke first. He dealt the
: jury dish of that close, dry logic, which,
!, years afterwards rendered him famousin the
+ Senate of the United States.
|; The poet, Albert Pike, followed with a
+ rich vein of wit, and hailtorrent of caustiC
E ridicule, in which you may be sure neither
the plaintiff nor the plaintiff ragged attor
}, ney was either forgotten or spared.
Is The great Prentiss concluded for the de-
Y fendant, with glow of gorgeous words bril-
d liant as showers of falling stars. and with
e final burst Of oratory that brought the house
d down in cheers, in which the sworn jury them
d selves joined, notwithstanding the stern or
e der of the bench. Thus wonderfully sus
ceptible are the Southwestern people of tn,
, charms of impassioned eloquence
d 1t was then the strangers turn. He hat
f remained apparently distracted during al
le the previous speeches. Still and straight
r and motionless, in his seat, his pale, smootl
se forehead shooting up high like mountain
Is cone of snow; but for that eternal twitch
ID that came and went perpetually in the shal
sr low cheeks, you would have taken him for
e. mere man of marble, or human form car
1t we'd in ice Even his dim, dreamy eyes wer
of invisible beneath those gray, shaggy eye
n brows.
st But now at last he rises-before the ba
&C. railing, not behind it-and so near to tn
ID wondering jury that he might touch the fore
lis man with his long, bony finger. With eye
= still half shut, and stending rigid as pilla
he of iron, his thin lips curl as if in measureles
e. scorn, slightly part, and voice comes forth
rt, At first, it was low and sweet, insinuatin
itself through the brain, as an artless tune
u winding its way into the deepest hearts, ik
sr, the melody of magic ineantation-whil
,e, the speaker proceeds, without gesture
m the least sign of excitement, to tear in pi
us ces the argument of Ashley, which mel
he away at his touch as frost before the sui
beam. Every one looked surprised. II
er, logic was at once SO brief, and SO luminou
tai ly clear, that the rudest peasant could cor
we prehend it without effort.
of Anon, he came to the dazzling wit of Il
an poet-lawyer, Pike Then the curl of his Iii
he grew sharper-his sallow face kindled up
It's. and his eyes began to open, dim and dream
z no longer, but vivid as lightning, red as fir
nd globes, and glaring ike twin meteors. tt
as whole soul was in the eye-the full hea
em streamed out on the face. In FIVE minut
ow Pixies wit seemed the foam of folly and
lad finest satire horrible profanity, when col
ost pared with the inimitable salies and extt
ed, minating sarcasms of the stranger, interspt
the sed with Jest and anecdote, that filed t
vas forum with roars Of laughter.
at Then without SO much as bestowing an
1ig- lusion on Prentiss, he turned short on t
the perlured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their t.
un- timony into atoms, and hurled in their faC
such terrible invective that all trembled
lge with an ague, and two Of them actually fl
dismayed from the Court House.
and The excitement of the crowd was beco
lied ing tremendous. Their united life and 81
appeared to hang on the burning tongue
Gus the stranger. He inspired them with
lsk- powers # his own passions. He saturat
them with the poison of his own mahcic
b. feelings,--seemed to have stolen natul
the long hidden secret of attraction. He was
ind sun to the sea of all thought and emoti
which rose and fell and boiled in pillows
rted he arose. But his greatest triumph was
not come. n