[293] Clark's _Campaign in the Illinois_, 95-97, where Governor Henry's public and private instructions are given in full. [294] MS. [295] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 30, 36, 66; also Hening, ix. 474-476; 477-478; 530-532; 584-585. [296] MS. [297] Sparks, _Corr. Rev_. ii. 261-262. [298] MS. [299] MS. [300] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 338. [301] MS. [302] Burk, _Hist. Va._ iv. 350. [303] Wirt, 225. [304] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 29. [305] Burk, _Hist. Va._ 350. [306] _Jour. Va. House Del._ 32. [307] _Bland Papers_, ii. 11. [308] MS. [309] MS. [310] MS. CHAPTER XVI AT HOME AND IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES The high official rank which Governor Henry had borne during the first three years of American independence was so impressive to the imaginations of the French allies who were then in the country, that some of them addressed their letters to him as "Son Altesse Royale, Monsieur Patrick Henri, Gouverneur de l'Etat de Virginie."[311] From this titular royalty he descended, as we have seen, about the 1st of June, 1779; and for the subsequent five and a half years, until his recall to the governorship, he is to be viewed by us as a very retired country gentleman in delicate health, with episodes of labor and of leadership in the Virginia House of Delegates. A little more than a fortnight after his descent from the governor's chair, he was elected by the General Assembly as a delegate in Congress.[312] It is not known whether he at any time thought it possible for him to accept this appointment; but, on the 28th of the following October, the body that had elected him received from him a letter declining the service.[313] Moreover, in spite of all invitations and entreaties, Patrick Henry never afterwards served in any public capacity outside the State of Virginia. During his three years in the governorship, he had lived in the palace at Williamsburg. In the course of that time, also, he had sold his estate of Scotchtown, in Hanover County, and had purchased a large tract of land in the new county of Henry,--a county situated about two hundred miles southwest from Richmond, along the North Carolina boundary, and named, of course, in honor of himself. To his new estate there, called Leatherwood, consisting of about ten thousand acres, he removed early in the summer of 1779. This continued to be his home until he resumed the office of governor in November, 1784.[314]