th
an admiration I could not but appreciate.

"Come out of that," said I, "and take this cutlery up to my room," and
they did.

I sat down at the table and wrote a letter to Mr. Brooks.

"Sir," said I in it, "I don't know whether I am plaintiff or defendant
in the suit that's coming on, but whichever it is here's a bundle of
legal evidence for your use. You mentioned the word 'violence' to me
when I had the pleasure of calling on you. This night I was set upon
by nine ruffians, who demanded from me the papers now in your
possession. I took their knives from them, so they would not hurt
themselves or other people, and I send you these knives to be filed
for reference."

I tied up the swords in two bundles, and in the morning sent Paddy and
Jem off with them and the letter to the Temple, which caused great
commotion in that peaceable quarter of the city, and sent forth the
rumour that all the lawyers were to be at each other's throats next
day.

CHAPTER XXX

In the afternoon I went slowly to the Temple, thinking a good deal on
the way. It's truth I tell, that in spite of the victory of the night
before I walked to the Temple rather downhearted. Whether Josiah
Brooks was an attorney, or a barrister, or a solicitor, or a plain
lawyer, I don't know to this day, and I never could get my mind to
grasp the distinction that lies between those names in that trade; but
whichever it was it seemed to me he was a cold, unenthusiastic man,
and that he thought very little indeed of my game. There is small
pleasure in litigation in England as compared with the delight of the
law in the old Ark. If I had gone to see a lawyer in Dublin or Cork he
would have been wild with excitement before I had got half through my
story. He would have slapped me on the back and shook me by the hand,
and cried "Whurroo" at the prospect of a contest. My quarrel would
have been his before I had been ten minutes in his presence, and he
would have entered into the spirit of the fight as if he were the
principal in it instead of merely acting for him; but in this gloomy
country of England, where they engage upon a lawsuit, not with
delight, but as if they were preparing for a funeral; there is no
enjoyment in the courts at all at all. I wished I could transfer the
case to the old turf, where there is more joy in being defeated than
there is in winning in England; for I have seen the opposing lawyers
rise from the most gentlemanly and elegant l