“Why, true,” answered he very candidly; “there may be something in that.”
“How is it all to be?” cried James. “Is the defence to go on long, and are they to have any evidence; or how?”
“We don’t know this part of the business,” said Mr. Windham, smiling a little at such an upright downright question “it is Mr. Hastings’s affair now to settle it: however, I understand he means to answer charge after charge as they were brought against him, first by speeches, then by evidence: however, this is all conjecture.”
MR. LAW’S SPEECH DISCUSSED.
We then spoke of Mr. Law, Mr. Hastings’s first counsel, and I expressed some dissatisfaction that such attackers should not have had abler and more equal opponents. “But do you not think Mr. Law spoke well?” cried he, “clear, forcible?”
“Not forcible,” cried I. I would not say not clear.
“He was frightened,” said Mr. Windham, “he might not do himself justice. I have heard him elsewhere, and been very well satisfied with him; but he looked pale and alarmed, and his voice trembled.”
“I was very well content with his materials,” quoth I, “which I thought much better than the use he made of them; and once or twice, he made an opening that, with a very little skill, might most adroitly and admirably have raised a laugh against you all.”