“Three years had elapsed, when a gentleman alighted from a private carriage at the door of a London attorney, then well known as a man of no great nicety in his professional dealings; and requested a private interview on business of importance. Although evidently not past the prime of life, his face was pale, haggard, and dejected; and it did not require the acute perception of the man of business, to discern at a glance that disease or suffering had done more to work a change in his appearance than the mere hand of time could have accomplished in twice the period of his whole life. `“I wish you to undertake some legal business for me,` said the stranger. “The attorney bowed obsequiously, and glanced at a larger packet which the gentleman carried in his hand. His visitor observed the look, and proceeded: “ `It is no common business,` said he, `nor have these papers reached my hands without long trouble and great expense.` “The attorney cast a still more anxious look at the packet: and his visitor, untying the string that bound it, disclosed a quantity of promissory note, with copies, of deeds and other documents.
Obligations accumulating
“`Upon these papers,` said the client, `the man whose name they bear, has raised, as you will see, large sums of money, for some years past. There was a tacit understanding between him and the men into whose hands they originally went-—and from whom I have by degrees purchased the whole, for treble and quadruple their nominal value— that these loans should be from time to time renewed, until a given period had elapsed. Such an understanding is nowhere expressed. He has sustained many losses of late; and these obligations accumulating upon him at once would crush him to the earth.` “`The whole amount is many thousands of pounds,` said the attorney, looking over the papers. “`It is,` said the client. “`What are we to do?` inquired the man of business. “ `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.`
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