said the backwoodsman, hoarsely. "Listen!"

The orator turned full upon the district attorney and thundered: "Has
it come to such a pass that a private citizen cannot make a tour of
observation through this free country without being dragged before a
court to answer trumped-up accusations as preposterous as they are
malignant? What will become of your rights and mine? Will some
prosecuting attorney arrest me on my way to Washington, because I have
somewhere, at some time, expressed private opinions from which he
dissents! I would like Mr. Daviess to tell us what the Constitution
means? Does it not insure to us all the right of habeas corpus?"

The outcome of the day's debate was a substantial victory for Burr,
though a technical one for Daviess. The court adjourned to the
following morning. Again the officers of the county, the jury, the
lawyers, and the great concourse of citizens, assembled. The district
attorney submitted his indictment and sent his evidence to the jury.
The jury heard witnesses and returned the presentment, "Not a true
bill."

On hearing the foreman announce this decision, the partisans of Burr
and his counsel broke out in tumultuous rejoicing. Hadley stood up on
a bench and shouted:

"Three cheers for Aaron Burr; Hip, hip, hurrah!"

The judge could not or did not check the enthusiasm.

"Three and a tiger for Clay!" squeaked Old Jim, and the cheers were
repeated.

Burr, escorted by his attorneys, made his way through the crowd,
shaking hands right and left. On the sidewalk, near the court-house,
the three gentlemen were accosted by the ghostly Solitarius.

"Awake from your dreams!" said the mild lunatic, in his peculiar,
hollow, monotonous voice--and he rolled his overlustrous eyes upon
Burr.

"Brethren, be not forgetful to entertain the stranger! I am that
Solitarius, to whom this new gospel was revealed, by an angel of God,
while I dwelt in a cell at the foot of the Alleghany Mountains, in the
year of our Lord 1799."

Clay drew his client forward by the arm, but not before "Solly" had
thrust into Burr's hand a copy of the "Millennial Prophecy."

"Awake from your dreams!" These repeated parting words of the crazy
prophet stuck in Burr's memory.

The ordeal of a legal investigation had been endured, apparently
without scath to the accused. The grand jury, not satisfied with
acquitting Burr, pressed upon him a written declaration, signed by
every member, exonerating him completely. A