have a constant spring; and I cannot spend in other courts more than I
gain in this." He had at once the meanness which would evade the law,
and the spirit which could resist it.

The genius of Audley had crept out of the purlieus of Guildhall, and
entered the Temple; and having often sauntered at "Powles" down the
great promenade which was reserved for "Duke Humphrey and his
guests,"[77] he would turn into that part called "The Usurer's Alley,"
to talk with "Thirty in the hundred," and at length was enabled to
purchase his office at that remarkable institution, the court of wards.
The entire fortunes of those whom we now call wards in chancery were in
the hands, and often submitted to the arts or the tyranny of the
officers of this court.

When Audley was asked the value of this new office, he replied, that "It
might be worth some thousands of pounds to him who after his death would
instantly go to heaven; twice as much to him who would go to purgatory:
and nobody knows what to him who would adventure to go to hell." Such
was the pious casuistry of a witty usurer. Whether he undertook this
last adventure, for the four hundred thousand pounds he left behind him,
how can a sceptical biographer decide? Audley seems ever to have been
weak when temptation was strong.

Some saving qualities, however, were mixed with the vicious ones he
liked best. Another passion divided dominion with the sovereign one:
Audley's strongest impressions of character were cast in the old
law-library of his youth, and the pride of legal reputation was not
inferior in strength to the rage for money. If in the "court of wards"
he pounced on incumbrances which lay on estates, and prowled about to
discover the craving wants of their owners, it appears that he also
received liberal fees from the relatives of young heirs, to protect them
from the rapacity of some great persons, but who could not certainly
exceed Audley in subtilty. He was an admirable lawyer, for he was not
satisfied with _hearing_, but _examining_ his clients; which he called
"pinching the cause where he perceived it was foundered." He made two
observations on clients and lawyers, which have not lost their
poignancy. "Many clients in telling their case, rather plead than relate
it, so that the advocate heareth not the true state of it, till opened
by the adverse party. Some lawyers seem to keep an assurance-office in
their chambers, and will warrant any cause brought unto them, kn