Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-02-17

not beat somewhat quicker--it was SO I'M
earthly sweet, ringing and mournful.
The first sensation, however, was chang
ed into laughter, when tall, gaunt, spec
ira figure, that no person present remeul-
bered to have seen before, elbowed his way
through the crowd, and placed himself with
in the bar.
His appearance was problem to puzzle
the phynx himself. His high, pale brow,
and his small, nerEously twitching face
seemed active with the concentrated essence
and cream of genius; but then his infantle
blue eyes, hardly visible beneath their mas
sive arches, looking dim, dreamy almost
anomalous, and his clothing was so shabby
that the court alposthesitated to let the case
proceed under his management
"Has your name been entered on the rolls
of the State 2" demanded the Judge, suSpi-
ciously
ct is immaterial about my name being
on your rolls answered the stranger, his
thin lip curling up into fiendish sheer
Il may be allowed by the courtesy of the
court and bar. Here is my license from the
highest tribunal in America" ard be hand
ed Judge Miles broad parchment.
| The trial Immediately went on. In the
examination of the witnesses the stranger
evinced very little ingenuity as commonly
thought lie suffered each one to tell their
own story, without interruption, though he
generally managed to make each one to tell
it over two or three times He put few
cross questions, which with keen witnesses
only served to correct mistakes, and he made
no notes, which in mighty memories, only
to elnbarrass.
The examination being ended, as counsel
for the plaintiff, he had a right to the open
ing as well as tie closing speech; but, to the
establishment Of every one, he declined the
former, and allowed the defence to lead off.
Then shadow might have been seen to
fit across the features of Pike, and to dar-
ken the bright eyes of Prentiss. They saw
that they had ''catight Tartar" but who
it was, or how it happened, vas impossible
to guess.
| Ashley spoke first He dealt the jury a
dish of that coarse, dry logic, which years
afterwards rendered him famous in the SEN
ate of the Union.
| The poet, Albert Pike, followed with a
vein Of wit, and half torrent ofrilicule, il
which, neither the plaintiff Or her ragged
attorney were forgotten OF spared.
| The great Prenti5s concluded for the de-
PENDANT, with q glow of gorgeour words,
brilliant as a shower Of falling stars, and
with bursts of oratory, that brought the
house down in cheers, in which even the
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| ing the stern order Of the bench Thus won
dertuly susceptible are the Southern people
! to the charms of ilapassioned eioquonce.
1t was thu strangers turn. He had re-
NAMED apparently distracted during all the
previous speeches. Still, and strait, aud
motionless in lis seat, his pale smooth fore
head shooting high like mountain cone of
snow, and bat for that continued witch that
came and went perpetually in his face, you
would have taken him for mere man of
marble, or a human form carved in ice
Even his dim, dreary eyes were invisible be-
meath those grey, shaggy eyebrows.
But now at last he rises-before the bar,
not behind it-and so near the wondering
jury tltat he might touch the foreman with
his long bony fingers. With eyes half shut
and standing rigid as pillar Of iron, his
thin lips curling as if in measureless scorn,
slightly apart, and then the sound came
forth
At first it is low and sweet, insinuating
itself into the brain, as an artless tune wind
ing its way int, the deepest recesses of the
heart, like the melody Of magic incarnation
while the speaker proceeds without gesture
or the least signal Of excitemert to tear to
pieces the argument Of Ashley, which melts
away as frost before the sunbeam. Every
Que looked surprised His logic was at once
brief, and so lomnoasly clear, that the ru
dest peasant could comprehend it without an
effort.
Anon he came to the dazzling Wit Of the
poet taWyer Pie. Then the curl Of his lips
grew sharper, his smooth face began to kin
die up, and his eyes to open; dim and drea-
Try no longer; but vivid as lightning, red as
fire globes, as glaring as twin meteors. The
whole soul was ia his eye, the full heart
steamed out of bis face. En- Eve minutes
Pixies wit seemed like foam Of folly and his
finest satire, horrible profanity, when com
pared with the inimitable sallles and exter-
minating sarcasm Of the stranger, intersp2r-
ced with jests and anecdotes that filled the
forum with laughter.
Then, without SO much as bestowing an
alluslon upon Prentiss, be turned round
short at the perjured witnesses of Hopkins,
tore their testimony into atoms, and horled
into their faces such invectlves that all trem-
bled as with ague, and tEo ofthem actually
fed in dismay from the Court-bo
The excitement of the crowd was becom-
I ing tremendous. Their united life and souls
seemed to hang upon the burning tonguesot
the stranger. He inspired them with the
poison of his own malicious feelings. He
seemed to have stolen natures long hidden
secret Of attraction, lie Was the son to the
sea of all thought and emotion, which rose
and fell. and toiled in the pillows as lie chose.
But his greatest triumph was to come.
His eyes began to glance furtively at the
assassin Fl oplins, as his lean taper fingers
assumed the same direction. lie hemmed
the wretch with decentralization of strong
evidence ardi pregnable argument, cutting
off all hope of escape.
He piled up large bastions ofinsurmount-
able facts. He dug beneath the murderer
and slanderer's feet, bitches Of difemnas,
such as no sophistry could over leap, and no
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