t lots, he bids his man bring out from the stable the
last thorough-bred that he bought, and the very best that he ever
put his eye on. But the briskness of none of these is equal to the
briskness of the barrister who has just got into his hands for
cross-examination him whom we may call the centre witness of a great
case. He plumes himself like a bullfinch going to sing. He spreads
himself like a peacock on a lawn. He perks himself like a sparrow on
a paling. He crows amidst his attorneys and all the satellites of
the court like a cock among his hens. He puts his hands this way and
that, settling even the sunbeams as they enter, lest a moat should
disturb his intellect or dull the edge of his subtlety. There is a
modesty in his eye, a quiescence in his lips, a repose in his limbs,
under which lie half-concealed,--not at all concealed from those
who have often watched him at his work,--the glance, the tone, the
spring, which are to tear that unfortunate witness into pieces,
without infringing any one of those conventional rules which
have been laid down for the guidance of successful well-mannered
barristers.

Serjeant Burnaby, though astute, was not specially brisk by nature;
but on this Friday morning Mr. Joram was very brisk indeed. There
was a certain Mr. Cavity, who had acted as agent for Westmacott, and
who,--if anybody on the Westmacott side had been so guilty,--had been
guilty in the matter of Glump's absence. Perhaps we should not do
justice to Mr. Joram's acuteness were we to imagine him as believing
that Glump was absent under other influence than that used on behalf
of the conservative side; but there were subsidiary points on which
Mr. Cavity might be made to tell tales. Of course there had been
extensive bribery for years past in Percycross on the liberal as well
as on the conservative side, and Mr. Joram thought that he could make
Mr. Cavity tell a tale. And then, too, he could be very brisk in that
affair of Glump. He was pretty nearly sure that Mr. Glump could not
be connected by evidence with either of the sitting members or with
any of their agents. He would prove that Glump was neutral ground,
and that as such his services could not be traced to his friend, Mr.
Trigger. Mr. Joram on this occasion was very brisk indeed.

A score of men were brought up, ignorant, half-dumb, heavy-browed
men, all dressed in the amphibious garb of out-o'-door town
labourers,--of whom there exists a class of hybrids bet