d Mr Evans was quite the leading man of the hour.

"So you are going to have Mr Balsam against me?" said Mr Evans to Mr
Apjohn one day. Now Mr Balsam was a very respectable barrister, who
for many years had gone the Welsh circuit, and was chiefly known for
the mildness of his behaviour and an accurate knowledge of law,--two
gifts hardly of much value to an advocate in an assize town.

"Yes, Mr Evans. Mr Balsam, I have no doubt, will do all that we
want."

"I suppose you want to get me into prison?"

"Certainly, if it shall be proved that you have deserved it. The
libels are so manifest that it will be only necessary to read them to
a jury. Unless you can justify them, I think you will have to go to
prison."

"I suppose so. You will come and see me, I am quite sure, Mr Apjohn."

"I suppose Mr Cheekey will have something to say on your behalf
before it comes to that."

Now Mr John Cheekey was a gentleman about fifty years of age, who had
lately risen to considerable eminence in our criminal courts of law.
He was generally called in the profession,--and perhaps sometimes
outside it,--"Supercilous Jack," from the manner he had of moving
his eyebrows when he was desirous of intimidating a witness. He was
a strong, young-looking, and generally good-humoured Irishman, who
had a thousand good points. Under no circumstances would he bully a
woman,--nor would he bully a man, unless, according to his own mode
of looking at such cases, the man wanted bullying. But when that time
did come,--and a reference to the Old Bailey and assize reports in
general would show that it came very often,--Supercilious Jack would
make his teeth felt worse than any terrier. He could pause in his
cross-examination, look at a man, projecting his face forward by
degrees as he did so, in a manner which would crush any false witness
who was not armed with triple courage at his breast,--and, alas! not
unfrequently a witness who was not false. For unfortunately, though
Mr Cheekey intended to confine the process to those who, as he said,
wanted bullying, sometimes he made mistakes. He was possessed also of
another precious gift,--which, if he had not invented, he had brought
to perfection,--that of bullying the judge also. He had found that by
doing so he could lower a judge in the estimation of the jury, and
thus diminish the force of a damnatory charge. Mr Cheekey's services
had been especially secured for this trial, and all the circumstances
had