ten
of these, I met him with it in his hand, and on looking over
it, observed to him that they were not such jurors as the
court had directed him to get,--being people of whom I had
never heard before, except one whom, I told him, he knew to
be a party in the cause.... Yet this man's name was not
erased. He was even called in court, and had he not excused
himself, would probably have been admitted. For I cannot
recollect that the court expressed either surprise or
dislike that a more proper jury had not been summoned. Nay,
though I objected against them, yet, as Patrick Henry, one
of the defendants' lawyers, insisted they were honest men,
and, therefore, unexceptionable, they were immediately
called to the book and sworn."[51]

Having thus secured a jury that must have been reasonably
satisfactory to the defendants, the hearing began. Two gentlemen,
being the largest purchasers of tobacco in the county, were then sworn
as witnesses to prove the market price of the article in 1759. By
their testimony it was established that the price was then more than
three times as much as had been estimated in the payment of paper
money actually made to the plaintiff in that year. Upon this state of
facts, "the lawyers on both sides" proceeded to display "the force and
weight of the evidence;" after which the case was given to the jury.
"In less than five minutes," they "brought in a verdict for the
plaintiff,--one penny damages."[52]

Just how the jury were induced, in the face of the previous judgment
of that very court, to render this astounding verdict, has been
described in two narratives: one by William Wirt, written about fifty
years after the event; the other by the injured plaintiff himself, the
Rev. James Maury, written exactly twelve days after the event. Few
things touching the life of Patrick Henry can be more notable or more
instructive than the contrast presented by these two narratives.

On reaching the scene of action, on the 1st of December, Patrick Henry
"found," says Wirt,--

"on the courtyard such a concourse as would have appalled
any other man in his situation. They were not people of the
county merely who were there, but visitors from all the
counties to a considerable distance around. The decision
upon the demurrer had produced a violent ferment among the
people, and equal exultation on the part of the clergy,