"On the bench sat more than twenty clergymen, the most learned men in the Colony, and the most capable, as well as the severest critics before whom it was possible for him to have made his debut. The Court House was crowded with an overwhelming multitude, and surrounded with an immense and anxious throng, who, not finding room to enter, were endeavoring to listen without, in the deepest attention. But there was something still more awfully disconcerting than all this; for in the chair of the presiding magistrate, sat no other person than his own father.... "And now came on the first trial of Patrick Henry's strength. No one had ever heard him speak, and curiosity was on tiptoe. He rose very awkwardly, and faltered much in his exordium. The people hung their heads at so unpromising a commencement; the clergy were observed to exchange sly looks with each other, and the father is described as having almost sunk with confusion, from his seat. But these feelings were of short duration, and soon gave place to others, of a very different character.... The spirit of his genius awakened all his features.... His action became graceful, bold, and commanding; and in the tones of his voice, but more especially in his emphasis, there was a peculiar charm, a magic, of which any one who ever heard him will speak as soon as he is named, but of which no one can give any adequate description.... "The people, whose countenances had fallen as he arose, had heard but very few sentences before they began to look up; then to look at each other with surprise, as if doubting the evidence of their own senses.... In less than twenty minutes, they might be seen in every part of the house, on every bench, in every window, stooping forward from their stands, in deathlike silence.... The mockery of the clergy was soon turned into alarm; their triumph into confusion and despair; and at one burst of his rapid and overwhelming invective, they fled from the bench in precipitation and terror. As for the father, such was his surprise, such his amazement, such his rapture, that, forgetting where he was, and the character which he was filling, tears of ecstasy streamed down his cheeks without the power or inclination to restrain them." The case was won. As soon as the verdict was announced the people seized the orator at the bar and bore him out of the courthouse. Then, raising him on their shoulders, they carried him about the yard. [Illustration: ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND, VA. _Photo by H. P. Cook_ See page 266] LVIII ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, RICHMOND WHERE PATRICK HENRY SAID, "GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR GIVE ME DEATH"