"Then you will not get one. Your question involves three or four propositions, some of which may be answered in the negative, and some in the affirmative; so how can you get a reply of yes or no?"
"Come—come, sir. Remember where you are. We want no roundabout speeches here, but direct answers."
"It is impossible to give a direct answer to such a speech as you made. Nothing but ignorance or trickery could induce you to ask such a thing."
"We cannot allow such language here, sir. I call upon the court for its protection against the insolence of this witness."
"The court does not think proper to interfere," said the judge, quietly.
"Oh, very well. Then I am done."
"But I am not," said the colonel. "I can inform you, and all whom it may concern, that the proprietor of the lunatic asylum, in which the boy, Ragg, was so unjustly confined, is now in Newgate, awaiting his trial for that and other offences, and that I have succeeded in completely breaking up the establishment."
The counsel did not think proper to say anything more to the colonel, who was permitted, after firing this last shot at the enemy, to quit the witness-box.
Sir Richard Blunt was the next witness called, and as his evidence was expected to be very important indeed, all attention was paid to it.
There was that buzz of expectation throughout the court, which is always to be heard upon such occasions, when anything very important is about to take place, and every one shifted his place, in order the more correctly to hear what was going on.