four o'clock
Imputations were made , such as I presume were never before uttered by one lawyer against another in a court of law . An Attorney-General sent a challenge from his very seat of office ; and though that challenge was read in Court , it was passed over by four judges with hardly a reprimand . If any seditious speech was ever made by O'Connell , that which he made in his defence was especially so , and he was , without check , allowed to use his position as a traverser at the bar , as a rostrum from which to fulminate more thoroughly and publicly than ever , those doctrines for uttering which he was then being tried ; and , to crown it all , even the silent dignity of the bench was forgotten , and the lawyers pleading against the Crown were unhappily alluded to by the Chief Justice as the `` gentlemen on the _ other _ side . '' Martin and John patiently and enduringly remained standing the whole day , till four o'clock ; and then the latter had to effect his escape , in order to keep an appointment which he had made to meet Lord Ballindine . As they walked along the quays they both discussed the proceedings of the day , and both expressed themselves positively certain of the result of the trial , and of the complete triumph of O'Connell and his party . To these pleasant certainties Martin added his conviction , that Repeal must soon follow so decided a victory , and that the hopes of Ireland would be realised before the close of 1844 . John was neither so sanguine nor so enthusiastic ; it was the battle , rather than the thing battled for , that was dear to him ; the strife , rather than the result .