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Elisha Cuthbert Photos Books: Martin Eden The Pickwick Papers The Sea Wolf |
was an office-lad of fourteen, with a
tenor voice; near him a common-law clerk with a bass one.
A clerk hurried in with a bundle of papers, and stared about him.
Sniggle and Blink, cried the tenor.
Porkin and Snob, growled the bass.
Stumpy and Deacon, said the new-comer.
Nobody answered; the next man who came in, was bailed by
the whole three; and he in his turn shouted for another firm;
and then somebody else roared in a loud voice for another; and
so forth.
All this time, the man in the spectacles was hard at work,
swearing the clerks; the oath being invariably administered,
without any effort at punctuation, and usually in the following
terms:--
Take the book in your right hand this is your name and hand-
writing you swear that the contents of this your affidavit are true
so help you God a shilling you must get change I havent got it.
Well, Sam, said Mr. Pickwick, I suppose they are getting the
HABEAS-CORPUS ready?
Yes, said Sam, and I vish theyd bring out the have-his-
carcase. Its wery unpleasant keepin us vaitin here. Id ha got
half a dozen have-his-carcases ready, packd up and all, by this time.
What sort of cumbrous and unmanageable machine, Sam
Weller imagined a habeas-corpus to be, does not appear;
for Perker, at that moment, walked up and took Mr. Pickwick away.
The usual forms having been gone through, the body of
Samuel Pickwick was soon afterwards confided to the custody of
the tipstaff, to be by him taken to the warden of the Fleet Prison,
and there detained until the amount of the damages and costs in
the action of Bardell against Pickwick was fully paid
and satisfied.
And that, said Mr. Pickwick, laughing, will be a very long
time. Sam, call another hackney-coach. Perker, my dear friend,
good-bye.
I shall go with you, and see you safe there, said Perker.
Indeed, replied Mr. Pickwick, I would rather go without any
other attendant than Sam. As soon as I get settled, I will write
and let you know, and I shall expect you immediately. Until then,
good-bye.
As Mr. Pickwick said this, he got into the coach which had by
this time arrived, followed by the tipstaff. Sam having stationed
himself on the box, it rolled away.
A most extraordinary man that! said Perker, as he stopped to
pull on his gloves.
What a bankrupt hed make, Sir, observed Mr. Lowten, who
was standing near. How he would bother the commissioners!
Hed set em at defiance if they talked of committing him, Sir.
The attorney did not appear very much delighted with his
clerks professional estimate of Mr. Pickwicks character, for he
walked away without deigning any reply.
The hackney-coach jolted along Fleet Street, as hackney-
coaches usually do. The horses went better, the driver said,
when they had anything before them (they must have gone at
a most extraordinary pace when there was nothing), and so
the vehicle kept behind a cart; when the cart stopped, it stopped;
and when the cart went on again, it did the same. Mr. Pickwick
sat opposite the tipstaff; and the tipstaff sat with his hat between
his knees, whistling a tune, and looking out of the coach window.
Time performs wonders. By the powerful old gentlemans aid,
even a hackney-coach gets over half a mile of ground. They
stopped at length, and Mr. Pickwick alighted at the gate of the Fleet.
The tipstaff, just looking over his shoulder to see that his
charge was following close at his heels, preceded Mr. Pickwick
into the prison; turning to the left, after they had entered, they
passed through an open door into a lobby, from which a heavy
gate, opposite to that by which they had entered, and which was
guarded by a stout turnkey with the key in his hand, led at once
into the interior of the prison.
Here they stopped, while the tipstaff delivered his papers; and
here Mr. Pickwick was apprised that he would remain, until he
had undergone the ceremony, known to the initiated as sitting
for your portrait.
Sitting for my portrait? said Mr. Pickwick.
Having your likeness taken, sir, replied the stout turnkey.
Were capital hands at likenesses here. Take em in no time, and
always exact. Walk in, sir, and make yourself at home.
Mr. Pickwick complied with the invitation, and sat himself
down; when Mr. Weller, who stationed himself at the back of the
chair, whispered that the sitting was merely another term for
undergoing an inspection by the The Pickwick Papers page 278 The Pickwick Papers page 280 |