Thus ended Wirt’s classic accusation of Burr. The time remaining to the speaker was devoted to a prosaic discussion of _bellum levatum_ as distinguished from _bellum percussum_. Gentlemen on the other side, said Mr. Wirt, asked for battles, bloody battles, hard knocks, the noise of cannon. But there was none. There did not have to be. The Constitution said “levying war,” not “making war.” He had recourse to his dictionary to show that the word “levy” means “to raise.” So there needed to be no force. The word force was used figuratively merely to signify the assembled body and not any deed of violence. Nevertheless, if the defense insisted upon force, did not the assemblage on Blennerhassett Island exert a species of potential force on the surrounding country? Did not Comfort Tyler and his party put that country into a state of consternation? What urged the state government of Ohio to send a body of men to take that party and seize its boats? What induced the State Legislature to deliberate with closed doors? What caused the militia of Wood County, Virginia, to be put in motion and marched to the island? The speaker traced the wave of alarm as it moved from the island southward all the way to New Orleans. The day was almost spent when, with a sigh of weariness, Mr. Wirt announced that he had finished what he had to say. He begged pardon for consuming the time of the Court so long. He thanked it for its patience and polite attention. He pleaded that he was much too exhausted to recapitulate his argument. But to such a Court as that of the Chief Justice’s he was sure that was unnecessary. After his masterly effort Mr. Wirt would not have been human had he not felt a glow of satisfaction over his performance. Even those on the other side must have conceded that he had more than earned his fee. All that came after the portrayal of the relationship between Blennerhassett and Burr was anticlimax. That passage, duly recorded by Mr. Robertson, found its way into books of elocution and became one of the most popular pieces of literature to memorize and declaim. The Chief Justice was kind enough to remark that he had been greatly impressed by the speaker’s eloquence. What effect it had on the members of the jury for whose consumption it was chiefly intended only they could say, and they left behind them no record of their reactions. There was also the effect on the prisoner whose misdeeds had been so vividly described. The Colonel sat through it all calmly, but with his alert mind he took in every word of it. It is said that in later years he entertained himself and his friends by reciting the more florid passages and that his performance seldom failed to be rewarded with peals of derisive laughter. _Chapter_ XVII