“I do not come here, sir,” interrupted Lord Colambre, “to listen to any explanations of your conduct, which I perfectly understand;--I come to witness a bond for my friend Mr. Berryl, if you think proper to extort from him such a bond.” “I extort nothing, my lord. Mr. Berryl, it is quite a voluntary act, take notice, on your part; sign or not, witness or not, as you please, gentlemen,” said Mordicai, sticking his hands in his pockets, and recovering his look of black and fixed determination. “Witness it, witness it, my dear lord,” said Mr. Berryl, looking at his mother and weeping sisters; “witness it, quick!” “Mr. Berryl must just run over his name again in your presence, my lord, with a dry pen,” said Mordicai, putting the pen into Mr. Berryl’s hand. “No, sir,” said Lord Colambre, “my friend shall never sign it.” “As you please, my lord--the bond or the body, before I quit this house,” said Mordicai. “Neither, sir, shall you have: and you quit this house directly.” “How! how!--my lord, how’s this?” “Sir, the arrest you have made is as illegal as it is inhuman.” “Illegal, my lord!” said Mordicai, startled. “Illegal, sir. I came into this house at the moment when your bailiff asked and was refused admittance. Afterwards, in the confusion of the family above stairs, he forced open the house-door with an iron bar--I saw him--I am ready to give evidence of the fact. Now proceed at your peril.” Mordicai, without reply, snatched up his hat, and walked towards the door; but Lord Colambre held the door open--it was immediately at the head of the stairs--and Mordicai, seeing his indignant look and proud form, hesitated to pass; for he had always heard that Irishmen are “quick in the executive part of justice.” “Pass on, sir,” repeated Lord Colambre, with an air of ineffable contempt: “I am a gentleman--you have nothing to fear!” Mordicai ran down stairs; Lord Colambre, before he went back into the room, waited to see him and his bailiff out of the house. When Mordicai was fairly at the bottom of the stairs, he turned, and, white with rage, looked up at Lord Colambre. “Charity begins at home, my lord,” said he. “Look at home--you shall pay for this,” added he, standing half-shielded by the house-door, for Lord Colambre moved forward as he spoke the last words; “and I give you this warning, because I know it will be of no use to you--Your most obedient, my lord.” The house-door closed after him. “Thank Heaven,” thought Lord Colambre, “that I did not horsewhip that mean wretch!--This warning shall be of use to me. But it is not time to think of that yet.”