iley."

"Well," said Mr. Bumpkin, rather testily; "I be bound over to proserkit,
and that be all I knows about un. I got to give seam evidence as I guv
afore the Lord Mayor, and the Lord Mayor said as the case wur clear, and
away it went for trial."

"Indeed! dear me!"

"And I got to tak no trouble at all about un, but to keep my mouth shut
till the case comes on, that's what the pleeceman told I. I bean't to
talk about un, or to tak any money not to proserkit."

"O dear, no," said Mr. Prigg. "O dear, dear, no; you would be
compounding a felony." (Here Mr. Prigg made a note in his diary to this
effect:--"Attending you at 'The Goose' at Westminster, when you informed
me that you were the prosecutor in a case at the Old Bailey, and in which
I advised you not, under any circumstances, to accept a compromise or
money for the purpose of withdrawing from the prosecution, and strongly
impressed upon you that such conduct would amount in law to a
misdemeanor. Long conference with you thereon, when you promised to
abide by my advice, 1 pound 6_s._ 0_d._").

"Now," said Bumpkin, "it seem to me that turn which way I wool, there be
too much law, too many pitfalls; I be gettin' sick on't."

"Well," said Mr. Prigg, "we have only to do our duty in that station of
life in which we are called, and we have no cause to fear. Now you know
you would _not_ have liked that unprincipled man, Snooks, to have the
laugh of you, would you now?"

Mr. Bumpkin clenched his fist as he said, "Noa, I'd sooner lose every
penny I got than thic there feller should ha' the grin o' me."

"Quite so," said the straightforward moralist. "Quite so! dear me!
Well, well, I must wish you good morning, for really I am so overwhelmed
with work that I hardly know which way to turn--bye, bye. I will take
care to keep you posted up in--." Here Mr. Prigg's cab drove off, and I
could not ascertain whether the posting up was to be in the state of the
list or in the lawyer's ledger.

"What a nice man!" said the landlady.

Yes, that was Mr. Prigg's character, go where he would: "A nice man!"

CHAPTER XXIX.

The trial at the Old Bailey of Mr. Simple Simonman for highway robbery
with violence--Mr. Alibi introduces himself to Mr. Bumpkin.

I next saw Mr. Bumpkin wandering about the precincts of that Grand
Institution, the Old Bailey, on a drizzly morning about the middle of
February, 187--, waiting to go before the Grand Jury. As the famous
pri