wn
heart. Mr. Henry, however, appeared wholly unconscious that
all this preparation was on his account, and rose with as
much simplicity and composure as if the occasion had been
one of ordinary occurrence.... It may give the reader some
idea of the amplitude of the argument, when he is told that
Mr. Henry was engaged three days successively in its
delivery; and some faint conception of the enchantment which
he threw over it, when he learns that although it turned
entirely on questions of law, yet the audience, mixed as it
was, seemed so far from being wearied, that they followed
him throughout with increased enjoyment. The room continued
full to the last; and such was 'the listening silence' with
which he was heard, that not a syllable that he uttered is
believed to have been lost. When he finally sat down, the
concourse rose, with a general murmur of admiration; the
scene resembled the breaking up and dispersion of a great
theatrical assembly, which had been enjoying, for the first
time, the exhibition of some new and splendid drama; the
speaker of the House of Delegates was at length able to
command a quorum for business; and every quarter of the
city, and at length every part of the State, was filled with
the echoes of Mr. Henry's eloquent speech."[423]

In the spring of 1793 this cause was argued a second time, before the
same district judge, and, in addition, before Mr. Chief Justice Jay,
and Mr. Justice Iredell of the Supreme Court. On this occasion,
apparently, there was the same eagerness to hear Patrick Henry as
before,--an eagerness which was shared in by the two visiting judges,
as is indicated in part by a letter from Judge Iredell, who, on the
27th of May, thus wrote to his wife: "We began on the great British
causes the second day of the court, and are now in the midst of them.
The great Patrick Henry is to speak to-day."[424] Among the throng of
people who then poured into the court-room was John Randolph of
Roanoke, then a stripling of twenty years, who, having got a position
very close to the judges, was made aware of their conversation with
one another as the case proceeded. He describes the orator as not
expecting to speak at that time; "as old, very much wrapped up, and
resting his head on the bar." Meanwhile the chief justice, who, in
earlier days, had often heard Henry in the Continental