o
purpose; he hurried his client to destruction, and I have never been
able to understand his conduct. The most that can be said for him
is that he did not suspect any danger, and took no trouble to avoid
incurring it.

It is curious enough that on the morning of the trial we had tried to
compromise the matter by offering L10,000.

The refusal of the offer shows how little they thought that any
cross-examination could injure their cause.

Hannen said he could not have believed a cross-examination could be
conducted in that manner without any knowledge of the facts, and paid
me the compliment of saying it was worth at the least L80,000.

CHAPTER XV.

TATTERSALL'S--BARON MARTIN, HARRY HILL, AND THE OLD FOX IN THE YARD.

Tattersall's in my time was one of the pleasantest Sunday afternoon
lounges in London. There was a spirit of freedom and social equality
pervading the place which only belongs to assemblies where sport is
the principal object and pleasure of all. There was also the absence
of irksome workaday drudgery; I think that was, after all, the main
cause of its being so delightful a meeting-place to me.

There was, however, another attraction, and that was dear old Baron
Martin, one of the most pleasant companions you could meet, no matter
whether in the Court of Exchequer or the "old Ring." A keen sportsman
he was, and a shrewd, common-sense lawyer--so great a lover of the
Turf that it is told of him, and I know it to be true, that once in
court a man was pointed out to him bowing with great reverence,
and repeating it over and over again until he caught the Baron's
attention. The Judge, with one pair of spectacles on his forehead
and another on his eyes, immediately cried aloud to his marshal,
"Custance, the jockey, as I'm alive!" and then the Baron bowed most
politely to the man in the crowd, the most famous jockey of his day.

Speaking of Tattersall's reminds me of many things, amongst them of
the way in which, happily, I came to the resolution never to bet on
a horse-race. It was here I learnt the lesson, at a place where
generally people learn the opposite, and never forgot it. No sermon
would ever have taught me so much as I learnt there.

Like my oldest and one of my dearest friends on the turf, Lord
Falmouth, I never made a bet after the time I speak of. No one who
lives in the world needs any description of the Tattersall's of
to-day. But the Tattersall's of my earlier days was not exac