“The jury seem to have been so completely bewildered, that, thoughtless even of the admitted right of the plaintiff, they had scarcely left the bar when they returned with a verdict of one penny damages.”—William Wirt, Life of Patrick Henry (1818).
Henry (Prince), Bernardine du Born, arraigned for treason, replies to King Henry’s questions,
“Hath reason quite forsook thy breast?”
with
“My reason failed, my gracious liege,
The year Prince Henry died.”
The king, smitten by memories of his son, whose chosen intimate Bernardine was, forgives the offender:—
“For the dear sake of the dead
Go forth—unscathed and free.”
Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Poems (1836).