Oh, very good,' said the judge; 'I never had the pleasure of hearing the

gentleman's name before.' Here Mr Phunky bowed and smiled, and the

judge bowed and smiled too, and then Mr Phunky, blushing into the

very whites of his eyes, tried to look as if he didn't know that

everybody was gazing at him, a thing which no man ever succeeded in

doing yet, or in all reasonable probability, ever will.

Go on,' said the judge.

The ushers again called silence, and Mr Skimpin proceeded to 'open

the case'; and the case appeared to have very little inside it when he

had opened it, for he kept such particulars as he knew, completely to

himself, and sat down, after a lapse of three minutes, leaving the jury

in precisely the same advanced stage of wisdom as they were in

before.

Serjeant Buzfuz then rose with all the majesty and dignity which the

grave nature of the proceedings demanded, and having whispered to

Dodson, and conferred briefly with Fogg, pulled his gown over his

shoulders, settled his wig, and addressed the jury.

Serjeant Buzfuz began by saying, that never, in the whole course of

his professional experience - never, from the very first moment of his

applying himself to the study and practice of the law - had he

approached a case with feelings of such deep emotion, or with such a

heavy sense of the responsibility imposed upon him - a responsibility,

he would say, which he could never have supported, were he not

buoyed up and sustained by a conviction so strong, that it amounted

to positive certainty that the cause of truth and justice, or, in other

words, the cause of his much-injured and most oppressed client,

must prevail with the high-minded and intelligent dozen of men whom

he now saw in that box before him.

Counsel usually begin in this way, because it puts the jury on the very

best terms with themselves, and makes them think what sharp fellows

they must be. A visible effect was produced immediately, several

jurymen beginning to take voluminous notes with the utmost

eagerness.

'You have heard from my learned friend, gentlemen,' continued

Serjeant Buzfuz, well knowing that, from the learned friend alluded to,

the gentlemen of the jury had heard just nothing at all - 'you have

heard from my learned friend, gentlemen, that this is an action for a

breach of promise of marriage, in which the damages are laid at

1,500. But you have not heard from my learned friend, inasmuch as

it did not come within my learned friend's province to tell you, what

are the facts and circumstances of the case. Those facts and

circumstances, gentlemen, you shall hear detailed by me, and proved

The Pickwick Papers