‘Do!’ replied the client, with sudden vehemence. ‘Put every engine of

the law in force, every trick that ingenuity can devise and rascality

execute; fair means and foul; the open oppression of the law, aided by

all the craft of its most ingenious practitioners. I would have him die a

harassing and lingering death. Ruin him, seize and sell his lands and

goods, drive him from house and home, and drag him forth a beggar

in his old age, to die in a common jail.’

'‘But the costs, my dear Sir, the costs of all this,’ reasoned the

attorney, when he had recovered from his momentary surprise. ‘If the

defendant be a man of straw, who is to pay the costs, Sir?’

'‘Name any sum,’ said the stranger, his hand trembling so violently

with excitement, that he could scarcely hold the pen he seized as he

spoke - ’any sum, and it is yours. Don't be afraid to name it, man. I

shall not think it dear, if you gain my object.’

The attorney named a large sum, at hazard, as the advance he should

require to secure himself against the possibility of loss; but more with

the view of ascertaining how far his client was really disposed to go,

than with any idea that he would comply with the demand. The

stranger wrote a cheque upon his banker, for the whole amount, and

left him.

'The draft was duly honoured, and the attorney, finding that his

strange client might be safely relied upon, commenced his work in

earnest. For more than two years afterwards, Mr Heyling would sit

whole days together, in the office, poring over the papers as they

accumulated, and reading again and again, his eyes gleaming with

joy, the letters of remonstrance, the prayers for a little delay, the

representations of the certain ruin in which the opposite party must

be involved, which poured in, as suit after suit, and process after

process, was commenced. To all applications for a brief indulgence,

there was but one reply - the money must be paid. Land, house,

furniture, each in its turn, was taken under some one of the

numerous executions which were issued; and the old man himself

would have been immured in prison had he not escaped the vigilance

of the officers, and fled.

The implacable animosity of Heyling, so far from being satiated by the

success of his persecution, increased a hundredfold with the ruin he

inflicted. On being informed of the old man's flight, his fury was

unbounded. He gnashed his teeth with rage, tore the hair from his

head, and assailed with horrid imprecations the men who had been

intrusted with the writ. He was only restored to comparative calmness

by repeated assurances of the certainty of discovering the fugitive.

Agents were sent in quest of him, in all directions; every stratagem

that could be invented was resorted to, for the purpose of discovering

The Pickwick Papers