'A lawyer like thee, young curmudgeon! A lawyer afford to feel compassion gratis! Either thou art a very deep knave, or the greenest of all greenhorns. Well, Isuppose, I must let thee off for one guinea, and the clerk's fee. A bad business, a shocking business!'
Now, if this man had continued kind and soft, as when he heard my story, I would have pawned my clothes to pay him, rather than leave a debt behind, although contracted unwittingly. But when he used harsh language so, knowing that I did not deserve it, I began to doubt within myself whether he deserved my money.
Therefore I answered him with some readiness, such as comes sometimes to me, although I am so slow.
'Sir, I am no curmudgeon: if a young man had called me so, it would not have been well with him. This money shall be paid, if due, albeit I had no desire to incur the debt. You have advised me that the Court is liable for my expenses, so far as they be reasonable. If this be a reasonable expense, come with me now to Lord Justice Jeffreys, and receive from him the two guineas, or (it may be) five, for the counsel you have given me to deny his jurisdiction.' With these words, I took his arm to lead him, for the door was open still.
'In the name of God, boy, let me go. Worthy sir, pray let me go. My wife is sick, and my daughter dying--in the name of God, sir, let me go.'
'Nay, nay,' I said, having fast hold of him, 'I cannot let thee go unpaid, sir. Right is right; and thou shalt have it.'
'Ruin is what I shall have, boy, if you drag me before that devil. He will strike me from the bar at once, and starve me, and all my family. Here, lad, good lad, take these two guineas. Thou hast despoiled the spoiler. Never again will I trust mine eyes for knowledge of a greenhorn.'
He slipped two guineas into the hand which I had hooked through his elbow, and spoke in an urgent whisper again, for the people came crowding around us--'For God's sake let me go, boy; another moment will be too late.'
'Learned sir,' I answered him, 'twice you spoke, unless I err, of the necessity of a clerk's fee, as a thing to be lamented.'
'To be sure, to be sure, my son. You have a clerk as much as I have. There it is. Now I pray thee, take to the study of the law. Possession is nine points of it, which thou hast of me. Self-possession is the tenth, and that thou hast more than the other nine.'
Being flattered by this, and by the feeling of the two guineas and half-crown, I dropped my hold upon Counsellor Kitch (for he was no less a man than that), and he was out of sight in a second of time, wig, blue bag, and family. And before I had time to make up my mind what I should do with his money (for of course Imeant not to keep it) the crier of the Court (as they told me) came out, and wanted to know who I was. Itold him, as shortly as I could, that my business lay with His Majesty's bench, and was very confidential;upon which he took me inside with warning, and showed me to an under-clerk, who showed me to a higher one, and the higher clerk to the head one.
When this gentleman understood all about my business (which I told him without complaint) he frowned at me very heavily, as if I had done him an injury.
'John Ridd,' he asked me with a stern glance, 'is it your deliberate desire to be brought into the presence of the Lord Chief Justice?'
'Surely, sir, it has been my desire for the last two months and more.'
'Then, John, thou shalt be. But mind one thing, not a word of thy long detention, or thou mayst get into trouble.'
'How, sir? For being detained against my own wish?' Iasked him; but he turned away, as if that matter were not worth his arguing, as, indeed, I suppose it was not, and led me through a little passage to a door with a curtain across it.
'Now, if my Lord cross-question you,' the gentleman whispered to me, 'answer him straight out truth at once, for he will have it out of thee. And mind, he loves not to be contradicted, neither can he bear a hang-dog look. Take little heed of the other two; but note every word of the middle one; and never make him speak twice.'
I thanked him for his good advice, as he moved the curtain and thrust me in, but instead of entering withdrew, and left me to bear the brunt of it.
The chamber was not very large, though lofty to my eyes, and dark, with wooden panels round it. At the further end were some raised seats, such as I have seen in churches, lined with velvet, and having broad elbows, and a canopy over the middle seat. There were only three men sitting here, one in the centre, and one on each side; and all three were done up wonderfully with fur, and robes of state, and curls of thick gray horsehair, crimped and gathered, and plaited down to their shoulders. Each man had an oak desk before him, set at a little distance, and spread with pens and papers. Instead of writing, however, they seemed to be laughing and talking, or rather the one in the middle seemed to be telling some good story, which the others received with approval. By reason of their great perukes it was hard to tell how old they were; but the one who was speaking seemed the youngest, although he was the chief of them. A thick-set, burly, and bulky man, with a blotchy broad face, and great square jaws, and fierce eyes full of blazes; he was one to be dreaded by gentle souls, and to be abhorred by the noble.
Between me and the three lord judges, some few lawyers were gathering up bags and papers and pens and so forth, from a narrow table in the middle of the room, as if a case had been disposed of, and no other were called on. But before I had time to look round twice, the stout fierce man espied me, and shouted out with a flashing stare'--'How now, countryman, who art thou?'