I was sitting in court one afternoon when a country sporting attorney of the name of Morris quietly sidled up to me.  I ought to mention that at these Assizes Lord Chief Justice Erie was sitting, and it was well known that he also detested the Prize Ring, and had therefore, no sympathy with any of its members.  He was consequently a dangerous Judge to have anything to do with in a case of this kind.  His punishment would be sure to be one of severity, and a conviction a dead certainty.  There was a sparkle in the sporting solicitor’s eye, as he glanced at me over his shoulder, which plainly intimated that he had something good to communicate.

As he came in front of the seat where I was, he said, in a subdued whisper, that he had been instructed by Lord ——­ to defend the accused prize-fighter; that the man was at that moment in the town, and would like to have my opinion as to whether it would be prudent to surrender at these Assizes—­surrender, that is to say, to the constables who were on the lookout for him; or whether it would be better, as they were ignorant of his whereabouts, to delay his trial until the next Assizes, when he would be better prepared to face the tribunal, as by that time he would have recovered from the punishment he had received.

It is certain the jury would have taken his battered appearance as evidence of the damage he had inflicted on his adversary, whom he had unfortunately killed; and even more likely that Erle should have regarded his injuries in the same light, and punished him more severely for having received them.  I had a perfect right to answer the question put to me, and felt that it was my duty to the accused to answer frankly.  So I said there was little doubt, as the man was dead, and the accused still bore unmistakable signs of the contest, there would be pretty clear evidence of identity; that as Erle was not a fool, he would most certainly convict him; while, being opposed to everything connected with the “noble art of self-defence,” he might send him to penal servitude for a number of years.

I had no need to say more.  The solicitor, who was a ready-witted and voluble man, was anxious to amalgamate his opinion with mine.  He was shrewd, and caught an idea before you could be sure you had one yourself.

“The most prudent thing, sir,” he said, “would be to surrender at the next Assizes, and not at these.  That is just what I thought, sir, and so I told him, advising in the meantime that he should carefully avoid putting himself in the way of the police.”

I have no doubt he acted on this opinion, for I heard that he left the town immediately, and was neither seen nor heard of again till the eve of the Spring Assizes, which were to be held at Kingston, and at which Baron Parke was to preside.  The Baron was one of the shrewdest of men, as any one would discover who attempted to deceive him.

On the Commission day the attorney for the accused presented himself to me again, and once more sought my opinion with regard to the trial and the surrender of the accused.