of this, gentlemen. It is hard to smile with an aching
heart. My client's hopes are ruined. All is gloom in the house; the
child's sports are forgotten while his mother weeps. But Pickwick,
gentlemen, Pickwick, the pitiless destroyer--Pickwick who comes before
you to-day with his heartless tomato sauce and warming-pans--Pickwick
still rears his head, and gazes without a sigh on the ruins he has made.
Damages, gentlemen, heavy damages is the only punishment with which you
can visit him. And for these damages, my client now appeals to a
high-minded, a right-feeling, a sympathizing jury of her countrymen!"

With this Sergeant Buzfuz stopped, and began to call his witnesses. The
first was one of Mrs. Bardell's female cronies, whose testimony of
course, was all in her favor.

Then Winkle was called. Knowing that he was a friend of Mr. Pickwick's,
Mrs. Bardell's lawyers browbeat and puzzled him till poor Mr. Winkle had
the air of a disconcerted pickpocket, and was in a terrible state of
confusion. He was soon made to tell how, with Tupman and Snodgrass, he
had come into Mr. Pickwick's lodgings one day to find him holding Mrs.
Bardell in his arms. The other two Pickwickians were also compelled to
testify to this.

Nor was this all. Sergeant Buzfuz finally entrapped the agonized Winkle
into telling how Mr. Pickwick had been found at night in the wrong room
at the Ipswich Inn and how as a result a lady's marriage had been broken
off and the whole party arrested and taken before the mayor. Poor Winkle
was obliged to tell this, though he knew it would hurt the case of Mr.
Pickwick. When he was released he rushed away to the nearest inn, where
he was found some hours later by the waiter, groaning dismally with his
head under the sofa cushions.

Mr. Pickwick's case looked black. The only comfort he received was from
the testimony of Sam Weller, who tried to do Mrs. Bardell's side all
possible harm yet say as little about his master as he could, and who
kept the court room in a roar of laughter with his sallies.

"Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Weller," said Sergeant Buzfuz finally,
"that you saw nothing of Mrs. Bardell's fainting in the arms of Mr.
Pickwick? Have you a pair of eyes, Mr. Weller?"

"Yes, I _have_ a pair of eyes," replied Sam, "and that's just it. If
they was a pair o' patent-double-million-magnifyin'-gas-miscroscopes of
hextra power, p'r'aps I might be able to see through a flight o' stairs
and a deal door; but be