Pickwick Abroad; or, The Tour in France — page 385: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

372 PICKWICK ABROAD. admire the magnificent building, with its fine flights of steps, its lofty chapel, and its imposing appearance. Mr. Pickwick then managed, in very bad French, to inform the driver of the cabriolet that he should probably be detained an hour or so in the Palace of Justice,and he accompanied his maudlin suggestion with the more comprehensive argument of a franc, which he desired the cabman to disburse in liquor at the nearest public-house or wine-shop till his return. ‘¢Magnificent flight of steps,” said Mr. Pickwick, as he broke his shin in tripping against one of them. |] =| @ all vy AL ie f HU : "; THe Faallla z % gas 72 lh aa —i7 = i ’ ang ——— | gy ue . Lilli TT ial nf apes | 11) gilt ve " < i t po 2 : | eR j ty Hitt or it at —" i] | ih ! ‘heer: + ie ; | ine Wp tod fl at Dy HHL Bi | ' ; , “4 it HTD o q ! HH ’ | H { i 4 Wilt ‘ iH tT 3 . i ek Hil a i it i | * ; th pivtyieil. it k ian ‘a Lath] nk ay 4 a we \ CHO ] Rilmi en lyte m cha ' ‘¢So wide and convenient,” said Mr. Snodgrass, running against a Gendarme as he turned to make his observations to Mr. Pickwick. _ ‘**And I have understood,” continued the learned man, “‘ that it was in the square upon which this building looks that criminals were formerly guillotined.” Mr. Snodgrass shuddered as Mr. Pickwick informed him of this very important fact justas they attained the vast quadrangle from which the various Courts open in a manner somewhat similar to, though a thousand times more magnificent than, the arrangements of W estmin- ster Hall. This immense quadrangle is called the Hall of Lost Steps, or Salle des Pas Perdus, and by its title admirably illustrates the uselessness of wasting one’s time and money in law. With a con- siderable degree of difficulty, the two gentlemen discovered the iden- tical Chamber in which the cause of ‘‘ Walker versus Sift kin” was to be adjudicated. At length the case was called; and as Mr. Siffkin was not forth- coming, it lasted but a short time, no defence being made to the action. Three quarters of an hour were sufficient to decide the matter: the witnesses were severally called and cxamined—the plain- tiff’s counsel made a long and able speech, to which Mr. Pickwick listened with his eyes shut, and Mr.Snodgrass with his mouth open— and the sentence of the Courtcondemned Mr. Siffkin to two years’ Imprisonment, five hundred francs fine, and the payment of all costs. GComicbooks.com /?