Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/70

MR. PIPS HIS DIARY. Queſtions, and ſometimes a ſecond before the firſt could be anſwered, firking with Impatience like one ſmarting with Stinging Settles: which was great Mirth, at leaſt to all but the Witneſs. It did well-nigh cauſe me to laugh outright, and commit a Breach of Privilege, to hear him in a Fume, echo the Witneſſ's Anſwers, and cry Eh? What! How! Why? and Wherefore? and demand how he could do this, or came not to do the other, and how was that, and ſo forth, and then let his Memory right, next make a ſhort Speech, then give a little Evidence of his own, and again go back to the Examination. It feemed that the Pretender to the Peerage had been helped with Money to maintain his Suit by certain Perſons, and my Lord did ſtrive to worm out of the Lawyer their End therein: but to no Purpoſe; for he had met with his Match; ſo forced to content himſelf with a Quip on the Chances of the Witneſſ's Client. Then another Witneſs examined; a Chirurgeon, whom did make merry with for his jolly good-natured Looks, and did jeſt upon concerning his Vocation: and the other did bandy Jokes with my Lord, and gave him as good as he brought. Methinks ſuch Bantering is ſtrange of a Peer, and one that hath been Lord Chancellor and uſed to fit on the Woolſack, or anywhere elſe but the Box of an Omnibus. But ſtrange, how ſober a Speech in ſumming up the Evidence my Lord did make after all; and no Doubt he can be reaſonable and quiet when he pleaſes. Save a few Words from, not a Syllable ſpoke by any Peer but my ; wherefore methinks he muſt have been thoroughly happy, having had nigh all the Talk to himſelf. But the higheſt Court of Law in the Realm numbering ſo few, put me in mind of the Army in Bombaſtes Furioſo, and the Vagaries of did not the leſs incline me to fancy it ſomewhat of a Burleſque.