lawyers without work; the only difference being, that they're called doctors, and in
the other place delegates, if you understand that; and they very dutifully confirmed
the decision of the old gentleman below. After that, we went into Chancery, where
we are still, and where I shall always be. My lawyers have had all my thousand pound
long ago; and what between the estate, as they call it, and the costs, I'm here for ten
thousend, and shall stop here, till I die, mending shoes. Some gentlemen have talked
of bringing it before parliament, and I dare say, would have done it, only they hadn't
time to come to me, and I hadn't power to go to them, and they got tired of my long
letters, and dropped the business. And this is God's truth, without one word of
suppression or exaggeration, as fifty people, both in this place and out of it, very well
know."
The cobbler paused to ascertain what effect his story had produced on Sam; but
finding that he dropped asleep, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, sighed, put it
down, drew the bedclothes over his head, and went to sleep too.
In hetzelfde chapter ontmoet Mr. Pickwick zijn chancery-prisoner opniew. Mr.
Roker had hem verteld, dat deze stervende was in de ziekenkamer:
The turnkey led the way in silence; and gently raising the latch of the room-door,
motioned Mr. Pickwick to enter. I was a large, bare, desolate room, wih a number of
stump bedsteads made of iron; on one of which lay stretched, the shadow of a man;
wan, pale, ghastly. His breathing was hard and thick, and he moaned painfully as it
came and went. At his bedside sat a short old man in a cobbler's apron, who, by aid
of a pair of horn spectacles, was reading from the bible aloud. It was the fortunate
legatee.
The sick man laid his hand upon his attendant's arm, and mentioned him to stop.
He closed the book and laid it on the bed.
"Open the window," said the sick man.
He did so. The noise of carriages and carts, the rattle of wheels, the cries of men
and boys, all the busy sounds of a mighty multitude instinct with life and occupation,
blended into one deep murmur, floated into the room. Above the hoarse loud hum,
arose, from time to time, a boisterous laugh; or a scrap of some jingling song, shouted
forth, by one of the giddy crowd, would strike upon the ear, for an instant, and then
be lost amidst the roar of voices and the tramp of footsteps; the breaking of the
billows of the restless sea of life, that rolled heavily on, without. Melancholy sounds to
a quiet listener at any time; how melancholy to the watcher by the bed of death I
'There is no air here," said the sick man, faintly. 'The place pollutes it. It was fresh
round about, when I walked there, years ago; but it grows hot and heavy in passing
these walls. I cannot breath it."
"We have breathed it together, for a long time," said the old man. "Come, come."
There was a short silence, during which the two spectators approached the bed.
The sick man drew a hand of his old fellow-prisoner towards him, and pressing it
affectionally between borth his own, retained it in his grip.
"I hope," he gasped after a while, so faintly that they bent their ears close over the
bed to catch the half-formed sounds his pale lips gave vent to; "I hope my merciful
Judge will bear in mind my heavy punishments on earth. Twenty years, my friend,
twenty years in this hideous grave I My heart broke when my child died, and I cold
not even kiss him in his his little coffin. My loneliness since then, in all this noise and riot,
