ill tongue disturbed her husband's peace of
mind by day, and broke his rest at night. Earning a larger income than
any other barrister of his time, he had little leisure for domestic
society; but the few hours which he could have spent with his wife and
children, he usually preferred to spend in a tavern, beyond the reach of
his lady's sharp querulousness. "All his misfortune," says Roger North,
"lay at home, in perverse consort, who always, after his day-labor done,
entertained him with all the chagrin and peevishness imaginable; so that
he went home as to his prison, or worse; and when the time came, rather
than go home, he chose commonly to get a friend to go and sit in a free
chat at the tavern, over a single bottle, till twelve or one at night,
and then to work again at five in the morning. His fatigue in business,
which, as I said, was more than ordinary to him, and his no comfort, or
rather, discomfort at home, and taking his refreshment by excising his
sleep, soon pulled him down; so that, after a short illness, he died."
On his death-bed, however, he forgave the weeping woman, who, more
through physical irritability than wicked design, had caused him so much
undeserved discomfort; and by his last will and testament he made
liberal provision for her wants. Having made his will, "he said, I am
glad it is done," runs the memoir of Sir John King, written by his
father, "and after took leave of his wife, who was full of tears; seeing
it is the will of God, let us part quietly in friendship, with
submissiveness to his will, as we came together in friendship by His
will."

CHAPTER IX.

"CICERO" UPON HIS TRIAL.

A complete history of the loves of lawyers would notice many scandalous
intrigues and disreputable alliances, and would comprise a good deal of
literature for which the student would vainly look in the works of our
best authors. From the days of Wolsey, whose amours were notorious, and
whose illegitimate son became Dean of Wells, down to the present time of
brighter though not unimpeachable morality, the domestic lives of our
eminent judges and advocates have too frequently invited satire and
justified regret. In the eighteenth century judges, without any loss of
_caste_ or popular regard, openly maintained establishments that in
these more decorous and actually better days would cover their keepers
with obloquy. Attention could be directed to more than one legal family
in which the descent must be t