nd for all that was foreign in them, they might have been composed at
Shady Dale. It is no wonder that the common people in the Middle Ages
clothed Virgil with the gift and power of a prophet or a magician.

Something of the charm that dwelt all about the place had its origin and
centre in Meriwether Clopton himself. His years sat lightly upon him. He
had led an active and a temperate life, and a hale and hearty old age
was the fruit thereof. He had had his flings, and something more,
perhaps, for there were traditions of some very serious troubles in
which he had been engaged shortly after reaching his majority. But
Gabriel's grandmother, who knew--none better--declared that these
troubles were not of Meriwether Clopton's seeking. They were the results
of a legacy of feuds which Raleigh Clopton, through no desire of his
own, had left to his son. It was said of Raleigh Clopton that his sense
of justice was as strong as his temper, which was a stormy one. He
espoused the cause of young Eli Whitney, who had been despoiled of his
rights in the cotton-gin in Georgia, and this led him into a series of
difficulties without parallel in the history of the State. Raleigh
Clopton's attitude in this contest brought him in conflict with some of
the most powerful men and interests in the commonwealth. It was a
contest in which knavery, fraud and corruption, the courts, and
considerable private capital, were all combined against Whitney, who
appeared to be without a strong friend until Raleigh Clopton became his
champion.

The collusion of the courts with this high-handed robbery was so
ill-concealed that Raleigh Clopton soon discovered the fact, and his
indignation rose to such a white heat that it drove him to excesses. He
dragged one judge from a buggy, and plied him with a rawhide, he slapped
the face of another in a public house, and posted a dozen prominent men
as thieves and corruptionists, with the result that the State fairly
swarmed with his enemies, men who were able to keep him busy in the way
of troubles and difficulties. It was the day of private feuds, and it
was not surprising that some of these enemies should attack the father
through the son. Thus it fell out that Meriwether Clopton's experience
for half a score of years after he came of age was anything but
peaceful. But he came out of all these difficulties with head erect,
clean hands and a clear conscience. He was neither hardened nor
embittered by the violence