to gain
time,--they are leagued with old Time,--but I protest against their
gaining it by such means. This is not a matter of parties; it is a
matter of a man being held innocent till he is proved guilty. A hundred
men here can testify as to the verdict in this case. Mr. Mocket,
gentlemen--" He paused and regarded the sandy-haired and freckled Tom,
the brother of little Vinie, the sometime door-boy in Chancellor Wythe's
law office, with a smile so broadly humorous, humane, and tolerant, that
suddenly the courtroom smiled with him. "Tom Mocket, gentlemen, is a
scamp, but he's not a scoundrel! The election proceeds, Mr. Sheriff."

"I vote for Lewis Rand!" shouted the scamp out of the uproar. "Richmond
now, then Washington! We'll send Lewis Rand as high as he can go!"

"As high as the gallows!" growled Major Edward Churchill.

"Send him," said a voice in the doorway, "out West. Mr. Jefferson gained
Louisiana, but 'twill take a stronger man to gain Mexico. Mexico wants a
Buonaparte."

The day wore on with no lessening of heat and clamour. The Court House
becoming too full, men betook themselves to the yard or to the street,
where, mounted on chairs or on wagons from which the horses had been
taken, they harangued their fellows. Public speaking came easily to this
race. To-day good liquor and emulation pricked them on, and the spring
in the blood. Under the locusts to the right of the gate Federalists
apostrophized Washington, lauded Hamilton, the Judiciary, and the beauty
of the English Constitution, denounced the French, denounced the
Louisiana Purchase, denounced the Man of the People, and his every tool
and parasite, and lifted to the skies the name of Ludwell Cary. To the
left of the gate, under the locusts, the Republicans praised the
President of the United States and all his doings, and poured oblation
to Lewis Rand. From side to side of the path there were alarms and
incursions. Before noon there had occurred a number of hand-to-hand
fights, one, at least, accompanied by "gouging," and a couple of duels
had been arranged.

In the courtroom the parties jostled each other at the polls, and the
candidates, side by side upon the Justice's Bench, watched the day go
now this way and now that. Their partisans they must acceptably thank,
and they must be quick of wit with their adversaries. Fatigue did not
count, nor hoarseness from much speaking, nor an undercurrent of
consciousness that there were, after all, more p