you who shall dare to acquit the President," he
boldly threatened, "I hurl the everlasting curse of a Nation--an infamy
that shall rive and blast his children's children until they shrink from
their own name as from the touch of pollution!"

He gasped for breath, his restless hands fumbled at his throat, he
staggered and would have fallen had not his black guards caught him. He
revived, pushed them back on their haunches, and sat down. And then, with
his big club foot thrust straight in front of him, his gnarled hands
gripping the arms of his chair, the massive head shaking back and forth
like a wounded lion, he continued his speech, which grew in fierce
intensity with each laboured breath.

The effect was electrical. Every Senator leaned forward to catch the
lowest whisper, and so awful was the suspense in the galleries the
listeners grew faint.

When this last mad challenge was hurled into the teeth of the judges, the
dazed crowd paused for breath and the galleries burst into a storm of
applause.

In vain the Chief Justice rose, his lionlike face livid with anger,
pounded for order, and commanded the galleries to be cleared.

They laughed at him. Roar after roar was the answer. The Chief Justice in
loud angry tones ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to clear the galleries.

Men leaned over the rail and shouted in his face:

"He can't do it!"

"He hasn't got men enough!"

"Let him try if he dares!"

The doorkeepers attempted to enforce order by announcing it in the name of
the peace and dignity and sovereign power of the Senate over its sacred
chamber. The crowd had now become a howling mob which jeered them.

Senator Grimes, of Iowa, rose and demanded the reason why the Senate was
thus insulted and the order had not been enforced.

A volley of hisses greeted his question.

The Chief Justice, evidently quite nervous, declared the order would be
enforced.

Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, moved that the offenders be arrested.

In reply the crowd yelled:

"We'd like to see you do it!"

At length the mob began to slowly leave the galleries under the impression
that the High Court had adjourned.

Suddenly a man cried out:

"Hold on! They ain't going to adjourn. Let's see it out!"

Hundreds took their seats again. In the corridors a crowd began to sing in
wild chorus:

"Old Grimes is dead, that poor old man." The women joined with glee.
Between the verses the leader would curse the Iowa Senator as a trai