n' me to
assault him, gets three witnesses here to prove it. But I'll give it
him, if I've six months for it. Come on!' and the cabman dashed his hat
upon the ground, with a reckless disregard of his own private property,
and knocked Mr. Pickwick's spectacles off, and followed up the attack
with a blow on Mr. Pickwick's nose, and another on Mr. Pickwick's chest,
and a third in Mr. Snodgrass's eye, and a fourth, by way of variety,
in Mr. Tupman's waistcoat, and then danced into the road, and then back
again to the pavement, and finally dashed the whole temporary supply of
breath out of Mr. Winkle's body; and all in half a dozen seconds.

'Where's an officer?' said Mr. Snodgrass.

'Put 'em under the pump,' suggested a hot-pieman.

'You shall smart for this,' gasped Mr. Pickwick.

'Informers!' shouted the crowd.

'Come on,' cried the cabman, who had been sparring without cessation the
whole time.

The mob hitherto had been passive spectators of the scene, but as the
intelligence of the Pickwickians being informers was spread among
them, they began to canvass with considerable vivacity the propriety of
enforcing the heated pastry-vendor's proposition: and there is no saying
what acts of personal aggression they might have committed, had not the
affray been unexpectedly terminated by the interposition of a new-comer.

'What's the fun?' said a rather tall, thin, young man, in a green coat,
emerging suddenly from the coach-yard.

'informers!' shouted the crowd again.

'We are not,' roared Mr. Pickwick, in a tone which, to any dispassionate
listener, carried conviction with it. 'Ain't you, though--ain't you?'
said the young man, appealing to Mr. Pickwick, and making his way
through the crowd by the infallible process of elbowing the countenances
of its component members.

That learned man in a few hurried words explained the real state of the
case.

'Come along, then,' said he of the green coat, lugging Mr. Pickwick
after him by main force, and talking the whole way. Here, No. 924,
take your fare, and take yourself off--respectable gentleman--know him
well--none of your nonsense--this way, sir--where's your friends?--all
a mistake, I see--never mind--accidents will happen--best regulated
families--never say die--down upon your luck--Pull him UP--Put that
in his pipe--like the flavour--damned rascals.' And with a lengthened
string of similar broken sentences, delivered with extraordinary
volubility, the stranger le