ome's suit for freedom. It is a pleasing
evidence of his modesty in the domestic circle--where masculine modesty
is rarest--that his daughter had never heard him tell the story of this
case, in which, it is said, he put the first strong luster on his fame. In
the picture he is a very David--"ruddy and of a fair countenance"; a
countenance at once gentle and valiant, vigorous and pure. Lifting this
face upon the wrinkled chief-justice and associate judges, he began to set
forth the points of law, in an argument which, we are told, "was regarded
by those who heard it as one of the happiest forensic efforts ever made
before the court."

He set his reliance mainly upon two points: one, that, it being obvious
and admitted that plaintiff was not entirely of African race, the
presumption of law was in favor of liberty and with the plaintiff, and
therefore that the whole burden of proof was upon the defendants, Belmonti
and Miller; and the other point, that the presumption of freedom in such a
case could be rebutted only by proof that she was descended from a slave
mother. These points the young attorney had to maintain as best he could
without precedents fortifying them beyond attack; but "Adele _versus_
Beauregard" he insisted firmly established the first point and implied the
court's assent to the second, while as legal doctrines "Wheeler on
Slavery" upheld them both. When he was done Salome's fate was in the hands
of her judges.

Almost a month goes by before their judgment is rendered. But at length,
on the 21st of June, the gathering with which our imagination has become
familiar appears for the last time. The chief-justice is to read the
decision from which there can be no appeal. As the judges take their
places one seat is left void; it is by reason of sickness. Order is
called, silence falls, and all eyes are on the chief-justice.

He reads. To one holding the court's official copy of judgment in hand, as
I do at this moment, following down the lines as the justice's eyes once
followed them, passing from paragraph to paragraph, and turning the leaves
as his hand that day turned them, the scene lifts itself before the mind's
eye despite every effort to hold it to the cold letter of the time-stained
files of the court. In a single clear, well-compacted paragraph the court
states Salome's claim and Belmonti's denial; in another, the warrantor
Miller's denial and defense; and in two lines more, the decision of the
lower