by the unimpeachable female whom I will place in that box before

you.'

Here, Mr Serjeant Buzfuz, with a tremendous emphasis on the word

box,' smote his table with a mighty sound, and glanced at Dodson

and Fogg, who nodded admiration of the Serjeant, and indignant

defiance of the defendant.

'The plaintiff, gentlemen,' continued Serjeant Buzfuz, in a soft and

melancholy voice, 'the plaintiff is a widow; yes, gentlemen, a widow.

The late Mr Bardell, after enjoying, for many years, the esteem and

confidence of his sovereign, as one of the guardians of his royal

revenues, glided almost imperceptibly from the world, to seek

elsewhere for that repose and peace which a custom-house can never

afford.' At this pathetic description of the decease of Mr Bardell, who

had been knocked on the head with a quart-pot in a public-house

cellar, the learned serjeant's voice faltered, and he proceeded, with

emotion -

'Some time before his death, he had stamped his likeness upon a little

boy. With this little boy, the only pledge of her departed exciseman,

Mrs. Bardell shrank from the world, and courted the retirement and

tranquillity of Goswell Street; and here she placed in her front parlour

window a written placard, bearing this inscription - ’Apartments

furnished for a single gentleman. Inquire within.’' Here Serjeant

Buzfuz paused, while several gentlemen of the jury took a note of the

document.

There is no date to that, is there?' inquired a juror. 'There is no date,

gentlemen,' replied Serjeant Buzfuz; 'but I am instructed to say that it

was put in the plaintiff's parlour window just this time three years. I

entreat the attention of the jury to the wording of this document -

’

Apartments furnished for a single gentleman’! Mrs. Bardell's opinions

of the opposite sex, gentlemen, were derived from a long

contemplation of the inestimable qualities of her lost husband. She

had no fear, she had no distrust, she had no suspicion; all was

confidence and reliance. ‘Mr Bardell,’ said the widow - ’Mr Bardell was

a man of honour, Mr Bardell was a man of his word, Mr Bardell was

no deceiver, Mr Bardell was once a single gentleman himself; to single

gentlemen I look for protection, for assistance, for comfort, and for

consolation; in single gentlemen I shall perpetually see something to

remind me of what Mr Bardell was when he first won my young and

untried affections; to a single gentleman, then, shall my lodgings be

let.’ Actuated by this beautiful and touching impulse (among the best

impulses of our imperfect nature, gentlemen), the lonely and desolate

widow dried her tears, furnished her first floor, caught her innocent

boy to her maternal bosom, and put the bill up in her parlour window.

Did it remain there long? No. The serpent was on the watch, the train

The Pickwick Papers