"About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord, I was hired by the landlord--" "Answer his lordship, sir," exclaimed the counsel for the prosecution in a tone of thunder. "Never mind the landlord. Do you know the prisoner?" "Why, I was a saying, please you, my lord, about ten weeks ago I was hired by the landlord--" "Answer directly, sir," continued the animated barrister--"or take the consequences. Do you know the prisoner?" "Let him tell his story his own way, Mr Nailhim," interposed his lordship blandly. "We shall sooner get to the end of it." Mr Nailhim bowed to the opinion of the court, and sat down. "Now, my man," said his lordship, "as quickly as you can, tell me whatever you know of the prisoner." "About ten weeks ago--please you, my lord," began the journey-man _de novo_, "I was hired by the landlord of them houses as is sitiwated where Mr Warton lives--" (The bombasin looked at the witness with profound contempt, and well he might! The idea of calling a prisoner at the bar _Mr_--stupendous ignorance!) "and I see'd him day arter day, and nobody was put to it as bad as he was. He has got a wife and three children, and I know he worked as hard as he could whilst he was able; but when he got ill he couldn't, and he was druv to it. I have often taken a loaf of bread to him, and all I wish is, he had stolen one of mine behind my back instead of the baker's. I shouldn't have come agin him, poor fellow! and I am sure he wouldn't have done it if his young uns hadn't been starving. I never see'd him before that time, but I could take my affidavy he's an industrious and honest man, and as sober, please you, my lord, as a judge." At this last piece of irreverence, the man with the staff stood perfectly still, lost as it seemed, in wonder at the hardihood of him who could so speak. "Have you any thing more to say?" asked his lordship. The carpenter hesitated for a second or two, and then acknowledged that he had not; and, such being the case, it seemed hardly necessary for Mr Nailhim to prolong his examination. But that gentleman thought otherwise. He rose, adjusted his gown, and looked not only _at_ the witness, but through and through him. "Now, young man," said he, "what is your name?" "John Mallett, sir," replied the carpenter. "John Mallett. Very well. Now, John Mallett, who advised you to come here to-day? Take care what you are about, John Mallett." The carpenter, without a moment's hesitation, answered that his "old woman had advised him; and very good advice it was, he thought." "Never mind your thoughts, sir. You don't come here to think. Where do you live?" The witness answered. "You have not lived long there, I believe?" "Not quite a fortnight, sir." "You left your last lodging in a hurry too, I think, John Mallett?" "Rather so, sir," answered Innocence itself, little dreaming of effects and consequences. "A little trouble, eh, John Mallett?"