sed and silence fell upon
the audience, he turned and fixed his deep, glowing eyes full on the face
of his opponent for one moment, smiling haughtily; then, as Mr. Huntingdon
quailed before his withering gaze, he crossed his arms over his chest, and
addressed the meeting.

He came, he said, to discuss questions of grave import to the State, not
the pedigree or antecedents of his antagonist, with which, he supposed, the
public had no concern. Briefly he stated the issues dividing the people of
the State; warned the opposition of the probable results of their policy,
if triumphant; and, with resistless eloquence, pleaded for a firm
maintenance of the principles of his own party. He was, he averred, no
alarmist, but he proclaimed that the people slept upon the thin heaving
crust of a volcano, which would inevitably soon burst forth; and the period
was rapidly approaching when the Southern States, unless united and on the
alert, would lie bound at the feet of an insolent and rapacious Northern
faction. He demanded that, through the legislatures, the States should
appeal to Congress for certain restrictions and guarantees, which, if
denied, would justify extreme measures on the part of the people. The man's
marvellous magnetism was never more triumphantly attested; the mass, who
had listened in profound silence to every syllable which had passed his
lips, now vented their enthusiasm in prolonged and vociferous applause.

As he descended the steps and disappeared amid the shouts of the crowd,
Judge Harris turned to Mr. Huntingdon and said, with ill-concealed
annoyance--

"You have lost your election by your confounded imprudence."

The judge walked off, pondering a heavy bet which he had relative to the
result.

By sunrise on the day of the election the roads leading to town were
crowded with voters making their way to the polls. The drinking-saloons
were full to overflowing; the side-walks thronged with reeling groups as
the day advanced. Because the Huntingdon side bribed freely, the Aubrey
partisans felt that they must, from necessity, follow the disgraceful
precedent. Not a lady showed her face upon the street; drinking, wrangling,
fighting was the order of the day. Windows were smashed, buggies
overturned, and the police exercised to the utmost. Accompanied by a few
friends, Mr. Huntingdon rode from poll to poll, encouraging his supporters,
and drawing heavily upon his purse, while Russell remained quietly in his
of