āBut,ā continued the cobbler, āfinding that they couldnāt agree among themselves, and consequently couldnāt get up a case against the will, they withdrew the caveat, and I paid all the legacies. Iād hardly done it, when one nevy brings an action to set the will aside. The case comes on, some months afterwards, afore a deaf old gentleman, in a back room somewhere down by Paulās Churchyard; and arter four counsels had taken a day apiece to bother him regularly, he takes a week or two to consider, and read the evidence in six volumes, and then gives his judgment that how the testator was not quite right in his head, and I must pay all the money back again, and all the costs. I appealed; the case come on before three or four very sleepy gentlemen, who had heard it all before in the other court, where theyāre lawyers without work; the only difference being, that, there, theyāre 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, Iām here for ten thousand, and shall stop here, till I die, mending shoes.
2310