The String of Pearls (1850), p. 555

Colonel" he said, "do you know a boy named Tobias Ragg?"
"I do. He is a resident in my house."
"Will you take upon your self to swear that that boy, or lad, or whatever he may be called, is in his right senses?"
"I will."
"Will you swear that he was never confined in a lunatic asylum, from which he made his escape raving mad, and that since then you have not kept him to listen to his wild conjectures and dreamy charges against the prisoner at the bar?"
"I will swear that he is not mad, and—"
"Come, sir, I want an answer, yes or no."
"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.
The Attorney-General himself arose to pursue the examination of Sir Richard Blunt.
It was evident that the appearance of this witness roused Sweeney Todd more th&n anything else had done since the commencement of the proceedings. His eye lighted up, and setting his teeth hard, he prepared himself, with his left hand up to his ear, to catch every word that should fall from the lips of the man who had been his great enemy, and who had wound around him the web in which he had been caught at last.
The appearance of Sir Richard Blunt was very attractive. There was always about him an air of great candour, and the expression of his features denoted generosity and boldness in a most astonishing degree.

CHAPTER CXXIX.
THE TRIAL OF SWEENEY TODD CONTINUED.

The peculiar circumstances under which Sir Richard Blunt had found out all the villany of Todd, and overtook him and Mrs. Lovett in the midst of their iniquities, were well-known to the people assembled in the court, and some slight manifestations of applause greeted him as he stood up in the witness-box.
This exhibition of feeling was not noticed by the court, and the Attorney-General at once began his examination in chief.