Mr. Cavendish sat through this exordium as if he sat on nettles, but wisely held his tongue, while the brazen-faced proprietor leaned carelessly over, and whispered to his counsel.  Phipps, on his distant seat, grew white around the lips, and felt that he was on the verge of the most serious danger of his life.

“The plaintiff, in this case,” Mr. Balfour went on, “brings an action for damages for the infringement of various patent rights.  I shall prove to you that these patents were issued to him, as the first and only inventor; that he has never assigned them to any one; that they have been used by the defendant for from seven to ten years, to his great profit; that he is using them still without a license, and without rendering a just consideration for them.  I shall prove to you that the defendant gained his first possession of these inventions by a series of misrepresentations, false promises, oppressions and wrongs, and has used them without license in consequence of the weakness, illness, poverty and defencelessness of their rightful owner.  I shall prove to you that their owner was driven to insanity by these perplexities and the persecutions of the defendant, and that even after he became insane, the defendant tried to secure the execution of the assignment which he had sought in vain during the sanity of the patentee.

“I will not characterize by the name belonging to it the instrument which is to be presented in answer to the bill filed in this case, further than to say that it has no legal status whatsoever.  It is the consummate fruit of a tree that was planted in fraud; and if I do not make it so to appear, before the case is finished, I will beg pardon of the court, of you, gentlemen of the jury, and especially of the defendant and his honorable counsel.  First, therefore, I offer in evidence certified copies of the patents in question.”

Mr. Balfour read these documents, and they were examined both by Mr. Cavendish and the court.

The name of Paul Benedict was then called, as the first witness.

Mr. Benedict mounted the witness stand.  He was pale and quiet, with a pink tinge on either cheek.  He had the bearing and dress of a gentleman, and contrasted strangely with the coarse, bold man to whom he had been indebted for so many wrongs and indignities.  He was at last in the place to which he had looked forward with so much dread, but there came to him a calmness and a self-possession which he had not anticipated.  He was surrounded by powerful friends.  He was menaced, too, by powerful enemies, and all his manhood was roused.

“What is your name?” asked Mr. Balfour.

“Paul Benedict.”

“Where were you born?”

“In the city of New York.”

“Are you the inventor of the machines, implements and processes named in the documents from the Patent Office which have just been read in your hearing?”

“I am, sir.”