Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/436

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smiled, and the Judge bowed and smiled too, and then Mr. Phunky, | blushing- into the very whites of his eyes, tried to look as if he didn't f know that everybody was gazing at him, a thing which no man ever succeeded in doing yet, and in all reasonable probability, never will.

" Go on," said the judge. the case ; " and the case appeared to have very little inside it when he had opened it, for he kept such particulars as he knew, completely to h himself, and sat down, after a lapse of three minutes, leaving the jury | in precisely the same advanced stage of wisdom as they were in before. ■;
 * The ushers again called silence, and Mr. Skimpin proceeded to " open

Sergeant Buzfuz then rose with all the majesty and dignity which !■ the grave nature of the proceedings demanded, and having whispered to. Dodson, and conferred briefly with Fogg, pulled his gown over his }. shoulders,settled his wig, and addressed the jury. <

Sergeant Buzfuz began by saying, that never, in the whole course } of his professional experience — never, from the very first moment of ; his applying himself to the study and practice of the law — had he approached a case with feelings of such deep emotion, or with such a heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him — a responsibility, he would say, which he could never have supported, were he not buoyed up and sustained by a conviction so strong, that it amounted to posi- tive certainty that the cause of truth and justice, or, in other words, the cause of his much-injured and most oppressed client, must prevail with the high-minded and intelligent dozen of men whom he now saw in that box before him.

Counsel always begin in this way, because it puts the jury on the very best terms with themselves, and makes them think what sharp fellows they must be. A visible effect was produced immediately several jurymen beginning to take voluminous notes with the utmost eagerness.

" You have heard from my learned friend, gentlemen " — continued Sergeant Buzfuz, well knowing that, from the learned friend alluded to, the gentlemen of the jury had heard just nothing at all — ^' you have heard from my learned friend, gentlemen, that this is an action for a breach of promise of marriage, in which the damages are laid at 1500/. But you have not heard from my learned friend, inasmuch as it did not come within my learned friend's province to tell you, what are the facts and circumstances of the case. Those facts and circum- stances, gentlemen, you shall hear detailed by me, and proved by the unimpeachable female whom I will place in that box before you."

Here Mr. Sergeant Buzfuz, with a tremendous emphasis on the word "box," smote his table with a mighty sound, and glanced at Dodson and Fogg, who nodded admiration of the sergeant, and indig- nant defiance of the defendant.

" The plaintiff, gentlemen," continued Sergeant Buzfuz, in a soft and melancholy voice, " the plaintiff is a widow ; yes, gentlemen, a widow. The late Mr. Bardell, after enjoying, for many years, the esteem and confidence of his sovereign, as one of the guardians of his royal revenues, glided almost imperceptibly from the world, to seel^