proper course is to go into the witness-box at once, and give your version of the facts as simply and straightforwardly as you can. When you have given your own evidence and called any witnesses you may wish to call, you will have an opportunity of addressing the jury, and exhibiting the eloquence on which you apparently place so much reliance.
- [Here poor old Jab bundles off to the witness-box, and takes some outlandish oath or other with immense gusto, after which he starts telling the Jury a long rambling rigmarole, and is awfully riled when the old Judge pulls him up, which he does about every other minute. This is the sort of thing that goes on:—
Jab. At this. Misters of the Jury, I, being but a pusillanimous and no Leviathan of valour
The Judge. Not so fast, Sir, not so fast. Follow my pen. I've not got down half what you said before that. (Reads laboriously from his notes.) "In panicstricken apprehension of being severely assaulted à posteriori." Who do you say threatened to assault you in that manner—the plaintiff's mother?
Jab. I have already had the honour to inform your lordship that I was utterly intimidated by the savage threats of the plaintiffs mother that,
