r to meet again. Not long
after, he died at Natchez, and, in the family cemetery of the Sargents,
sleeps near the city.

But few of the speeches of Prentiss were ever reported, and though they
are like and have the ring of the true metal, yet not one of them is
correctly reported. The fragment given in a former chapter is the
report of one who heard it, and who wrote it the very hour of its
delivery, to myself, that the information of the acquittal might be
communicated to the friends of the lady Judge Wilkinson was about to be
married to, who resided in my immediate neighborhood. There is not a
word of it in the reporter's speech, which was some time after written
out from notes. These speeches, with the traditions of his fame, will
serve to perpetuate his memory as perhaps the most gifted man, as an
orator, that adorned his generation.

In stature he was below the ordinary standard, and his lameness seemed
to dwarf even this. His head was large, round, and high; his forehead
expansive, high, and rising almost perpendicularly above his eyes,
which were gray, deep set, and brilliant; his nose was straight and
beautifully chiselled, thin, and the nostrils large, and swelling and
expanding when excited. In speaking, his eyes blazed with a most
peculiar expression. His chin was broad, square, and strong. His mouth
was the most striking feature of his face--large and flexible, with a
constant twitching about the corners. The entire contour of the face
indicated humor, combined with firmness. This latter trait was also
indicated in the large, strong under jaw--no trait was more prominent
in his character than this. Yet he was slow to anger, and always
conciliatory in language and manners. He was charitable in the extreme
toward others for any laches in principle; always ready to find an
excuse for the short-comings of others. Yet no man adhered more closely
and more steadily to his principles and opinions. He never gave an
insult, unless greatly provoked, but never failed to resent one; always
loath to quarrel, but, once in, bore himself like a man, and a brave
one. The high oval crown of his head confessed high moral qualities;
here the moral organs were in wonderful development. Too generous to be
malicious, he was ever ready to forgive, and too noble to permit his
worst enemy to be slandered in his presence.

There was once a quarrel between Prentiss and that erratic man of
wonderful genius, H.S. Foote. This culminated