"I have no desire to know more of the complaint than you may think right to tell us; but all who have heard of Doctor Gambado's patients, know well that they are mostly afflicted with nervous depression. May I ask if such was your case?" "Yes, it was." "You were deranged, sir; were you not?" Mr. Deuce, with great vehemence, "No more deranged, sir, than you are." "Do not be angry, sir, when I used the term _deranged_. I meant that your system was a little deranged, disorganized, or so out of sorts, as to produce a kind of physical disarrangement of the organs leading to the brain, so as to create unpleasant sensations, dyspeptic habits, sleepless nights, and a little of that irritability which we have just seen, so as to render you a little impulsive, and not unlikely to be mistaken." Deuce did not like this at all, but he could not help saying "It might be so." "Oh! It might be so! Now, Mr. Deuce, I must put rather a strong question to you: "Did you ever accuse Doctor Gambado of being a horse dealer?" "Not that I am aware of." "Not that you are aware of! Now, sir, I must get you to tax your memory, and I ask you plainly, did you not go on purpose to trap Doctor Gambado into the selling you a horse, that you might bring him into a court of justice?" Mr. Deuce paused. He did not reply. He seemed nervous. "Pray, sir, take your time. You are a member of the law, you know the law, and the usages of a court of justice; and I am sure you will give us a plain, straightforward answer." "I did not go exactly with that intention. My friend, Mr. Ryecross, persuaded me to consult him about myself." "Now, sir, I shall cross-examine your friend, Mr. Ryecross. Did you or did you not, at the very time that you went to consult this eminent physician, say to your friend, that he, meaning Doctor Gambado, was a horse dealer, and not a physician?" "I might have so said." "Pray, sir, do you understand the law of libel? I shall strongly recommend my client, let the result of this action be what it may, to bring an action against you, sir, for one of the grossest acts of libellous intention this court has ever heard of; and, if I mistake not the judgement this day will decide, whether a gentleman like yourself is to utter a libel of a ruinous tendency to so high a professional man, with impunity. "Then you did say he was a horse dealer?" "Yes, I did." "Pray, sir, had you any previous acquaintance with Doctor Gambado?" "None whatever." "Then, I presume you acted in this manner entirely upon hearsay evidence?" "I certainly did." "You had no quarrel with Doctor Gambado?" "None whatever." "Was it a sense of justice to your country, that entirely induced you to try and _smell a rat_ in this gentleman's character?" "It was." "And on that account you laid this information against him?" "I did." "It was not from any morbid indulgence of any splenetic humour with which you were at that time afflicted, that induced you to bring this action?"