heart.  Tomkins nodded approbation.) “Far, far be it from me to dwell with unbecoming asperity on the conduct of anyone—­we are all mortals—­and alike liable to err; but when I see a man who has been guilty of an act which has brought him all but within the verge of the prisoners’ dock; I say, when I see a man who has been guilty of such an outrage on society as this ruffian Jorrocks, come forward with the daring effrontery that he has this day done, and claim redress where he himself is the offender, it does create a feeling in my mind divided between disgust and amazement”—­(bang).

Here Jorrock’s cauldron boiled over, and rising from his seat with an outstretched shoulder-of-mutton fist, he bawled out, “D—­n you, sir, what do you mean?”

The court was thrown into amazement, and even Bumptious quailed before the fist of the mighty Jorrocks.  “I claim the protection of the court,” he exclaimed.  Mr. Tomkins interposed, and said he should certainly order Mr. Jorrocks into custody if he repeated his conduct, adding that it was “most disrespectful to the justices of our lord the king.”

Bumptious paused a little to gather breath and a fresh volume of venom wherewith to annihilate Jorrocks, and catching his eye, he transfixed him like a rattlesnake, and again resumed.

“How stands the case?” said he.  “This cockney grocer—­for after all he is nothing else—­who I dare say scarcely knows a hawk from a hand-saw—­leaves his figs and raisins, and sets out on a marauding excursion into the county of Surrey, and regardless of property—­of boundaries—­of laws—­of liberties—­of life itself—­strides over every man’s land, letting drive at whatever comes in his way!  The hare he shot on this occasion was a pet hare!—­For three successive summers had Miss Cheatum watched and fed it with all the interest and anxiety of a parent.  I leave it to you, gentlemen, who have daughters of your own, with pets also, to picture to yourselves the agony of her mind in finding that her favourite had found its way down the throat of that great guzzling, gormandising, cockney cormorant; and then, forsooth, because he is fined for the outrageous trespass, he comes here as the injured party, and instructs his counsel to indulge in Billingsgate abuse that would disgrace the mouth of an Old Bailey practitioner!  I regret that instead of the insignificant fine imposed upon him, the law did not empower the worthy magistrate to send him to the treadmill, there to recreate himself for six or eight months, as a warning to the whole fraternity of lawless vagabonds.”  Here he nodded his head at Jorrocks as much as to say, “I’ll trounce you, my boy!” He then produced maps and plans of the different estates, and a model of the shed, to show how it had all happened, and after going through the case in such a strain as would induce one to believe it was a trial for murder or high treason, concluded as follows: