bustled in with an air of importance, and shook hands with the
District Attorney, whose troubled, anxious eye shot piercing glances
in every direction. Daviess appeared to be seeking for somebody he
hardly hoped to find. Old Jim, standing in a corner, craned his neck
to get a better view, wheezily murmuring in the ear of his friend, the
backwoodsman, "Jo looks cross. I reckon he has lost somethin'."

"'Spect he has lost his case," remarked Buckskin Breeches, stooping to
spit tobacco juice on the floor. At this moment a cheer, seconded by
general handclapping, announced the coming of Burr and his counsel,
Clay and Allen. The judge did not check the demonstration; on the
contrary, he smiled a beaming welcome and was unjudicial enough to nod
familiarly from his high bench.

The case was called with the usual forms of procedure, when, to the
disgust of Old Jim and the auditors generally, Daviess asked a further
postponement owing to the absence of an indispensable witness, John
Adair. The judge hesitated, Burr had nothing to say, and the
spectators manifested signs of democratic protest against being
disappointed in their hopes of a forensic entertainment. Burr's
lawyers were very willing to treat the populace to a taste of oratory,
which, in the guise of legal discussion, might produce remote
political effects, for office-seeking was a fine art in the good old
days of Jackson and Clay. Colonel Allen arose to insist that the
investigation go on or else be abandoned finally and entirely, and to
this the judge seemed to assent. Daviess, fearful that the court and
the balance of public opinion were against him, felt the difficulty of
his position, but determined to summon all his power of argument and
persuasion, hoping to turn the tide in his favor. A bold man, ready in
debate, sharp at repartee, the leader of his party, the District
Attorney was considered a match for any member of the Kentucky bar.
The judge, the assembled lawyers, and the waiting audience perceived
in the very attitude of Daviess, when he rose to plead for
postponement, that he was loaded with a great speech. They were not
mistaken. For more than an hour he held the absorbed attention of
every listener. He set forth clearly and forcibly the fundamental
reasons why the accusation of treason against a prominent citizen
should be fully investigated.

"Your Honor," said he, in conclusion, "I appear before you and before
the people of this State and county,