uch a head and such a soul had S.S. Prentiss. His whole
character was in his face, and so legible that the most illiterate
could read it. This won to him like natures, and all such who knew him
were instinctively his friends.

Judge Wilkinson was such a man, and though as ardently Democratic as
Prentiss was Whig, and as uncompromising in his principles, yet these
two were friends in the loftiest sense of the term. Judge Wilkinson had
a difficulty with a tailor in Louisville, Kentucky, who attempted an
imposition upon him to which he would not submit. A quarrel ensued, and
the knight of the needle and shears determined on revenge. Collecting
about him his ready associates, they went to the hotel where Wilkinson
lodged, and waylaid him at the door between the dining-parlor and the
reception-room, and attacked him on his coming in from supper. In the
rencontre three of the assailants were killed, and the remainder of the
gang fled. Immediately surrendering himself, he was incarcerated and
held for trial: although assaulted with murderous intent, and acting
clearly in self-defence, he was denied bail. He was a stranger, and the
prejudices of the court and the people of Louisville were so manifest
that he demanded and obtained a change of venire.

The trial came off at Harrodsburg. Prentiss, learning the facts and the
situation of his friend, volunteered immediately to defend him in
court, and to befriend him in any manner possible to him. The
celebrated Ben Hardin was employed to assist in the prosecution. The
eyes of all Mississippi and Kentucky were turned to Harrodsburg when
this trial commenced. Others volunteered--and among these was John
Rowan--to assist in the defence. But the case for Wilkinson was
conducted exclusively by Prentiss. It continued for some days. John
Rowan--so celebrated in the State for his talents and great legal
learning, as well as for his transcendent abilities as an advocate--sat
by, and trusted all to Prentiss.

There were many sparrings in the course of the trial between Hardin and
Prentiss upon points in the law of evidence, and as to the
admissibility or rejection of testimony, as also upon many points of
the criminal law of England, whether changed or not by statutory
provisions of the State.

In one of these, Rowan handed an open authority to Prentiss, and was
taunted by Hardin for the act, by saying: "Give your friend all the aid
you can: he needs it."

"I only preserved the book op