arties than two, more
principles than those they advocated, more colours than black and white,
more epithets than hero and villain. They must act in their moment, and
accept its excitement. A colour burned in their cheeks, and the hair lay
damp upon their foreheads. They must listen and answer to men saying
loudly to their faces and before other men, "I hold with you, and your
mind is brother to my mind"; or saying, "I hold not with you, and you
and your mind are abominable to me! To outer darkness with you both!"

Sometimes they consulted with their committee-men, and sometimes punch
was brought, and they drank with their friends. Occasionally they spoke
to each other; when they did this, it was with extreme courtesy. Cary
used the buttoned foil with polished ease. Rand's manner was less
assured; there was something antique and laboured in his determined
grasp at the amenities of the occasion. It was the only heaviness. To
the other contest between them he brought an amazing sureness, a
suppleness, power, and audacity beyond praise. He directed his battle,
and at his elbow Tom Mocket, sandy-haired and ferret-eyed, did him
yeoman service.

At one o'clock there was an adjournment for dinner. The principal
Federalists betook themselves to the Swan; the principal Republicans to
the Eagle. The commonalty ate from the packed baskets upon the trampled
grass of the Court House yard. An hour later, when the polls were
reopened, men returned to them flushed with drink and in the temper for
a quarrel, the Republicans boisterous over a foreseen victory, the
Federalists peppery from defeat. In the yard the constable had to part
belligerents, in the courtroom the excitement mounted. The tide was set
now for Lewis Rand. The Federalists watched it with angry eyes; the
Republicans greeted with jubilation each new wave. The defeated found
some relief in gibes. "Holoa! here's Citizen Bonhomme--red breeches,
cockade, and Brutus crop!

"Ah, ca ira, ca ira, ca ira!"

"That man ran away from Tarleton!--yes, you did, the very day that Mr.
Jefferson--a-hem!--_absented_ himself from Monticello!"

"Challenge that man--he deserted in the Indian War!

"November the fourth, in the year ninety-one,
We had a sore engagement near to Fort Jefferson!"

"Here's a traveller who has seen the mammoth and climbed the Salt
Mountain!"

"Here's a tobacco-roller! Hey, my man, don't you miss old friends on the
road?"

Under cover of the