rough the great forest to visit the French forts near Lake
Erie. The story of this journey is one of the most exciting and romantic
events in American history, yet it is one with which most readers of
history are familiar, so we have told the tale of his earlier adventures
instead. His forest experience on the Shenandoah had much to do with
making Governor Dinwiddie choose him as his envoy to the French forts,
so that it was, in a way, the beginning of his wonderful career.

_PATRICK HENRY, THE HERALD OF THE REVOLUTION._

There was a day in the history of the Old Dominion when a great lawsuit
was to be tried,--a great one, that is, to the people of Hanover County,
where it was heard, and to the colony of Virginia, though not to the
country at large. The Church of England was the legal church in
Virginia, whose people were expected to support it. This the members of
other churches did not like to do, and the people of Hanover County
would not pay the clergymen for their preaching. This question of paying
the preachers spread far and wide. It came to the House of Burgesses,
which body decided that the people need not pay them. It crossed the
ocean and reached the king of England, who decided that the people must
pay them. As the king's voice was stronger than that of the burgesses,
the clergy felt that they had an excellent case, and they brought a
lawsuit to recover their claims. By the old law each clergyman was to be
paid his salary in tobacco, one hundred and sixty thousand pounds weight
a year.

There seemed to be nothing to do but pay them, either in cash or
tobacco. All the old lawyers who looked into the question gave it up at
once, saying that the people had no standing against the king and the
clergy. But while men were saying that the case for the county would be
passed without a trial and a verdict rendered for the clergy, an amusing
rumor began to spread around. It was said that young Patrick Henry was
going to conduct the case for the people.

[Illustration: Copyright, 1906, by R. A. Lancaster, Jr.

HOME OF PATRICK HENRY DURING HIS LAST TWO TERMS AS GOVERNOR OF
VIRGINIA.]

We call this amusing, and so it was to those who knew Patrick Henry. He
was a lawyer, to be sure, but one who knew almost nothing about the law
and had never made a public speech in his life. He was only twenty-seven
years of age, and those years had gone over him mainly in idleness. In
his boyhood days he had spent his time