Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1859-07-15

asked the Judge, glancing around the
bar.
The lawyers were all silent.
81 will, your HONOR" said voice from
the 'hickest part of the crowd seated be-
hind the bar.
At the tone of that voice many started
half from their seats, and perhaps there
was not heart in that immense throng
which did not beat somewhat quicker
it was so unearthly, sweet, ringing and
mournful. The first sensation, was
changed into laughter, when tall .gaunt,
spectral figure, that no person presen,
remembered to have seen before, elbowed
his way through the crowd, and placed
himself within the bar. Ills appearance
was problem to puzzle the Sphinx her.
self.
HAS your name been entered on the
rolls of the State e. demanded the Judge
suspiciously.
at is immaterial about my name be.
ing on your rolls" answered the stran.
ger, his thin, bloodless lips curling up
into liendish sneer; II may be allowed
by the courtesy Of the court ard the bar
Here is my license from the highest tri-
bunal in America ~ and he handed Judge
Mills a broad parchment. The trial
Immediately went on.
In the examination of the witnesses
the stranger eyinced very little ingenuity,
as commonly thought. He suffered them
to tell their own story without Interrupt
ton, though he generally managed to
make each one tel it over two or three
times. He put few cross questions.
which, with keen witnesses, served
only to correct mistakes, and he made
no notes, which, in mighty memories,
afwnys tend to embarrass. The exam.
inaton being ended. as counsel for the
plaintiff, he had right to the opening
as well as the closing speech; but to the
astonishnent of all present he declined
the former, and allowed the defence TO
lead off. Then a shadow might have
been seen to fit across the features 1f
Pike, and TO darken even the bright eyes
OF Pren,iss. They saw that they had
"caught Tartat;' but who it was or
how it happened. was impossible to guess
Colonel Ashley spoke first. He deal,
the jury dish Of that close, dry logic,
which. years afterwards, rendered him
famous in the Senate of the Unit,
States.
The poet, Albert Pike, followed with
rich vein Of wit, and hall torrent Of
fldiculc, in which neither the plaintiff
nor her ragged attorney were forgotten
or spared
The great Prentiss concluded for the
defendant, with glow of gorgeous
words. brilliant as shower of falling
stars, and with bursts of oratory that
brought the house down in cheers. in
which the sworn jury themselves joined,
notwithstanding the stern "ordcr' OF
the bench. Thus wonderfully suscepti-
ble are the Southern people to the charms
of impassioncd eloquence.
1t was the Strangers turn. He had
remained apparently abstracted during
all the previous speeches. Still,straight
and motionless in his seat his pale, smooth
forehead shooting high like mountuin
cone of snow. Bat for that continual
twi,ch that came and went perpetually in
his sallow face, yol would have taken him
for mere man of marble. or human
form carved in ice Even his dim ,dreary
ewes were invisible beneath those grey,
shaggy eyebrows.
But now at last he rises before the
bar, not behind it-and so near the
wondering jury that he might touch the
foreman with his long, bony tingers.-
With ewes still half shut, and standing
rigid as pillar Of iron. his thin lips cur!
as if in measureless scorn, slightly part,
and the voice comes forth. =
At first i, is slow and sweet ,insinuating
, itself into the brain, as an artless tune
, winning its way into the deepest heart,
: like the melody of a magic incantation,
{ while the speaker proceeds without Il
gesture or the least sign of excitement to
tear to pieces the arguments OF Ashley,
, which melt away at his touch as frost
, before the sLnbeams. Every one looked
| surprised. His logic was at oace SO
brief, and so luminously clear, that the
| rudcst PEASANT could comprehend it with
out effort.
, Anon he came to the dazzling wit of
the poet lawyer, Pike. Then the curl
of his lip grew sharper, his smooth face
began to kindle up, and his eyes began
, to open-dim and dreary no longer, but
/ vivid as lightning. red as tire-siobes, and
, glaring as twin meteors. The whole
soul was in the eye; the full heart
, streamed ou. OF his face. In five minutes
Pixies wit seemed the foam of folly, and
his finest satire horrible profanity, when
r contrasted with the inimitable sallies and
: exterminating sarcasm OF the stranger.
/ Then, without so much as bestowing
, an allusion upon Prentiss, he turned
short on the perured Witnesses of Hop
kins, tore their testimony into atoms,
and hurled In their faces such terrible
invectives, that all trembled as if with
an ague, and two of them actually fed in
dismay from the room.
The excitement of the crowd was be-
; coming tremendous. Their united life
and soul appeared to hang on the burn
r inc tongue of the stranger. He inspired
| them with the power of his own passions.
He saturated them with the poison Of
, his own malicious feelings He seemed
to have stolen natures long-hidden
, secret of attraction. He was the sun