ltation."
Curran often raised a laugh at Lord Norbury's expense. The laws, at that
period, made capital punishment so general that nearly all crimes were
punishable with death by the rope. It was remarked Lord Norbury never
hesitated to condemn the convicted prisoner to the gallows. Dining in
company with Curran, who was carving some corned beef, Lord Norbury
inquired, "Is that hung beef, Mr. Curran?"--"Not yet, my lord," was the
reply; "you have not _tried_ it."
"A doldrum, Mr. Curran! What does the witness mean by saying you put him
in a doldrum?" asked Lord Avonmore. "Oh, my lord, it is a very common
complaint with persons of this description; it's merely a confusion of
the head arising from a corruption of the heart."
Angered one day in debate, he put his hand on his heart, saying, "I am
the trusty guardian of my own honour."--"Then," replied Sir Boyle Roche,
"I congratulate my honourable friend in the snug little sinecure to
which he has appointed himself."
But on one occasion he met his match in a pert, jolly, keen-eyed son of
Erin, who was up as a witness in a case of dispute in the matter of a
horse deal. Curran was anxious to break down the credibility of this
witness, and thought to do it by making the man contradict himself--by
tangling him up in a network of adroitly framed questions--but to no
avail. The ostler's good common sense, and his equanimity and good
nature, were not to be upset. Presently, Curran, in a towering rage,
thundered forth, as no other counsel would have dared to do in the
presence of the Court: "Sir, you are incorrigible! The truth is not to
be got from you, for it is not in you. I see the villain in your
face!"--"Faith, yer honour," replied the witness, with the utmost
simplicity of truth and honesty, "my face must be moighty clane and
shinin' indade, if it can reflect like that." For once in his life the
great barrister was floored by a simple witness. He could not recover
from that repartee, and the case went against him.
When Curran heard that there was a likelihood of trouble for the part he
took in 1798, and that in all probability he would be deprived of the
rank of Q.C., he remarked: "They may take away the _silk_, but they
leave the _stuff_ behind."
* * * * *
"Bully" Egan had a great muscular figure, as may be guessed from the
story of the duel with Curran. To his bulk he added a stentorian voice,
which he freely used in Nisi Prius
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