“Beside himself with anger, but realizing he was unable to cope single-handed with the situation; Governor Claiborne issued a supplementary proclamation offering five hundred dollars reward for the apprehension of either of the Lafitte brothers. Only one man, as far as known, attempted to earn the reward, and instead of the five hundred dollars he received a bullet through the lungs which promptly relieved him of all desire or necessity for money or anything else of a worldly nature. “The governor was desperate. No one would raise a finger against the so-called ‘pirates,’ they openly defied the state, and he asked the Legislature for an appropriation to raise a company of volunteers to attack the stronghold of the Lafittes. Unfortunately the increase of the smugglers’ business had so depleted the state treasury that there were no funds available; but at last the governor succeeded in obtaining an indictment for piracy against the two Lafittes and the Baratarian leaders. Armed with this, the governor managed to have Pierre arrested. “But the executive had forgotten that money talks. For a fee of $20,000 each, Jean Lafitte retained the two most prominent lawyers in the state, Edward Livingston and John R. Grymes, the latter resigning as District Attorney to defend the Lafittes. During the trial his successor taunted him with this and as a result Grymes challenged him and shot him through the hip, crippling him for life. “There was no question of how the trial would result. Pierre was freed, Jean was cleared and the indictment against him dismissed and the triumphant lawyers were invited by the brothers to visit their headquarters at Barataria and collect their fees. Livingston, a New Yorker, declined, but Grymes, who was a Virginian, accepted, and the tale is still told in New Orleans of the princely entertainment, the magnificent feast and the whole-souled hospitality accorded the attorney by the Lafittes and their outlaw friends. Finally he was sent back to New Orleans in an almost regally appointed yawl laden with boxes containing the two lawyers’ fees in Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight.