Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-03-09

uAulA OiA dtly NllSii we lfetl 1LcC dIlu happy people" As she looked down at l Henry, Anne saw that he was scrib- ! bling on a scrap of paper.
 | There was a hush as he arose and q buzz of expectancy as he mounted the ro5trum. lie held in his hand the pa l per upon which he had been scribbling.
 Anne felt touch of disappointment
 at the cold, measured quality of his tone. With that fickering half smile 1 which meant dissent he moved an amendment to the Jamaica resolutions. He read without a gesture, in pronun- citation as plain as homespun. His voice moved evenly, almost carelessly, over the periods.
 But as he progressed the assembly awoke with a shock, and Anne saw a certain ripple almost of alarm surge over it. Henry had spoken the phrase. ''our inestimable rights and liberties.' At that moment the speaker raised his voice, and the last words C? xs.l challengc-like, the snap of whip. We do resolve, therefore, that this colony be put in q state of defense and that there be committee to prepare q plan for embodying, arlning ard disciplin-a ing such number of men as may be sufficient for that purpose"
 Anne looked at Henry in the black clothes and tie wig which set off his face and drew a breath. The humility. the diffidence, the 1hodesty of address were gone, ana ill their place was stern ness. Even his voice had grown harsh, as though in menace, and on the con- vention, uncertain and wavering, those lovers of the ''halcyon days" the men, ace fell. It was the plunge from hesi- tation to resolve, from expostulation to powder. The fire had fallen!
 Henry knew his men. All these years he had been learning them, drawing ths1n out, questioning, story telling, watching effects. experimenting In their emotions
 His eye held every man within those walls. He turned it upon Richard Hen- ry Lee, and he, his polished oratory for got, hurled q blunt second at the chair.
 Mr. Pendleton, Colonel Harrison, limping from the gout, and Colonel Richard Bland got upon their feet with arched frowns, barking that such ac- ton was premature" and at the word Anne saw a pale scorn burn Henry's face. These, who had so lately sat in the Continental congress, prated of "dignifed patience" 'filial respect and discretion,'s ''the relenting of the sov- ereign," the nakedness or the col onies.' .. ... ;. ..r. .+.
 Anne had afterward> no certain recol- lection of how Henry began in answer. slAI impression was swallowed ups in. that thrill which held every nearer. It has been said that he spoke as Homer wrote ...". .' Shall we shut our eyes-we wise men struggling for liberty-and listen Ito the song of the siren till she trans forms us to beasts?'' he cried. Shall we, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not the tidings of our tenn poral salvation? For my part l will know the worst, and I will provide for it. I cannot judge the future but by the past and by the past how shall you solace yourselvesA What is there in the conduct of the British ministries of the past ten years to justify hope?'
 AS he went on passion crept over his face like the wind that precedes storm; his lean neck was scarlet and corded with white lines, and his eyes glared hollowly. --s..4r. :.
 Do you regard the insidious smiles with which our petitions are received? Be not betrayed with kiss"'
 Sitting in a Quiver of feeling, with fingers clasping the gallery ledge, Anne felt the shaken pulses of the audience. Under the intrepid metaphor she saw the messenger of the colonial assembly standing before the kings attorney gen. eral entreating that Virginia had souls to be saved as we'll as England, and the brutish answer: 'D- your souls! Make tobacco" She saw the colonies supplicating on their knees, spurned, condemned, spit upon She saw the chains forging, navies building, armies gathering. She saw British minister's like harpies, with cold eyes upon the green of the Americas.
 Henry's voice had risen louder, more intense, and his colorless features and eyes of fire had become terrible to look upon. He sat upon the whirlwinG., The very walls seemed to rock with vi- bratiOnS.
 . 'Inefe IS no longer ally EOOlu LOT hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve inviolate those privi- leges for which we have been so long contending, if we mean not basely to abandon the struggle we have vowed never to abandon until it's object be ob- tained, then we must fight. We must fight! An appeal to arms, to the God of Hosts, is all that is left us."
 Anne dragged her eyes from Henry's. Amid the sea there was one face that had not moved line. It was Colonel Washington's. Ee sat stonelike, as inn movable as a bishop at his prayers his hands still upon his knees. He was as a soldier should be-cool of head and saving passion for the hand. And as a soldier he was slow to disallegiance. But cold as he seemed when Henry bent the wills of that assembly and whipped the conservatives to the wall, there was glitter in his eye that leap ed to flame behind the quiet mask. '"They tell us that we are weak