despatch box had obliged us with a comic song, I can only say that the performances at the Divorce Court would have been nearer to the entertainments provided by Baron Nicholson for his friends on Field-Nights than anything else of which I am aware.
There must be an end of all things, and at last there was happily an end of Thoper v. Thoper and Boggs. There was next a call for Barber v. Barber, and the moment for the struggle had arrived. But where was Lamb?—and where Mrs. Barber? As I whispered my anxiety to the clerk, he told me not to make myself uncomfortable, because the Governor upon such occasions was in the habit of introducing his client to this Court, not without a certain solemnity,—besides, he pointed out to me that Mr. Battledove, Q.C., was in his place, and panting for the combat; and, as the young gentleman informed me behind his hand, “he was a regular good ’un, and never went off at score.” There, too, was my friend of the previous day. Dr. Dodge, in the row behind the Q.C.s, ready to support his chief. He was supposed at the Commons to be ‘up to trap’—but he was nothing here, only it “was always good to have a civilian to speak to the old state of the law.” Then there was a lively, pleasant young gentleman with curly hair—I could see the ends of it from beneath his wig—who was our third combatant, and I confess I was greatly gratified at his personal appearance, but my gratification was sadly dashed by a whisper “that he knew the rigs of town better than most men.” So young!—he wasn’t above two or three and forty,—and so ingenuous!—but so he did good service in unmasking Barber, and displaying him in his true colours, I cared not.
On the other side, the leading champion was not forthcoming,—he was no doubt a monster,—but in the first row of barristers there sate side by side two gentlemen, with a superabundance of whisker—one of whom was Dr. Lobb, from the Commons; the other a Mr. Cobb, from the Welsh Circuit—who had undertaken the thankless task of defending Barber; but of course even the worst criminals have a right to be heard, as it is essential to preserve the forms of justice inviolate. The leading counsel on this wretch’s behalf was Mr. Shuttlecock, Q.C., but it was not probable that he would come into Court until such time as it was necessary to open Mr. Barber’s case, unless indeed he could make time to look in during Mrs. Barber’s cross-examination. He was just then in the Exchequer, busily engaged in proving to the satisfaction of a British jury that a certain Mr. Aaron Levi, of London Wall, was the innocent holder for value of a bill of exchange which had been obtained for discount from the acceptor by a set of bill-sharpers, but of which, or of the money, he had never heard anything until the bill was presented for payment.
Whilst a profound silence reigned in the court, I saw Mr. Lamb coming in with Mrs. Barber on his arm. I am bound to say that the evidence of deep feeling on my friend’s face, whilst he was conducting the lady to her seat, was very creditable to him as a man. He was quite overcome with ill-suppressed emotion. Mrs. Barber’s veil—it was a very thick one—was down, but it was easy to see by the agitation of her manner that she was deeply impressed with the painful nature of the ordeal to which she was about to be submitted.