st the
equipoise of their judgment, and overruled the motion by an
unanimous vote. The verdict and judgment overruling the
motion were followed by redoubled acclamations, from within
and without the house. The people, who had with difficulty
kept their hands off their champion from the moment of
closing his harangue, no sooner saw the fate of the cause
finally sealed, than they seized him at the bar; and in
spite of his own exertions, and the continued cry of order
from the sheriffs and the court, they bore him out of the
courthouse, and raising him on their shoulders, carried him
about the yard, in a kind of electioneering triumph."[54]

At the time when Wirt wrote this rhapsody, he was unable, as he tells
us, to procure from any quarter a rational account of the line of
argument taken by Patrick Henry, or even of any other than a single
topic alluded to by him in the course of his speech,--they who heard
the speech saying "that when it was over, they felt as if they had
just awaked from some ecstatic dream, of which they were unable to
recall or connect the particulars."[55]

There was present in that assemblage, however, at least one person who
listened to the young orator without falling into an ecstatic dream,
and whose senses were so well preserved to him through it all that he
was able, a few days afterward, while the whole occasion was fresh in
his memory, to place upon record a clear and connected version of the
wonder-working speech. This version is to be found in a letter written
by the plaintiff on the 12th of December, 1763, and has been brought
to light only within recent years.

After giving, for the benefit of the learned counsel by whom the cause
was to be managed, on appeal, in the general court, a lucid and rather
critical account of the whole proceeding, Maury adds:--

"One occurrence more, though not essential to the cause, I
can't help mentioning.... Mr. Henry, mentioned above (who
had been called in by the defendants, as we suspected, to do
what I some time ago told you of), after Mr. Lyons had
opened the cause, rose and harangued the jury for near an
hour. This harangue turned upon points as much out of his
own depth, and that of the jury, as they were foreign from
the purpose,--which it would be impertinent to mention here.
However, after he had discussed those points, he labored to
pro