such rashness. I therefore closed with him for the purpose of disarming him; and just as I had nearly effected my purpose, the piece went off accidentally, and, to my regret then and since, inflicted upon the young gentleman a severer chastisement than I desired, though I am glad to understand it is like to prove no more than his unprovoked folly deserved."

"And so, Sir," said the Baronet, every feature swoln with offended dignity, "You, Sir, admit, Sir, that it was your purpose, Sir, and your intention, Sir, and the real jet and object of your assault, Sir, to disarm young Hazlewood of Hazlewood of his gun, Sir, or his fowling-piece, or his fuzee, or whatever you please to call it, Sir, upon the king's highway, Sir? - I think this will do, my worthy neighbour! I think he should stand committed?"

"You are by far the best judge, Sir Robert," said Glossin, in his most insinuating tone; "but if I might presume to hint, there was something about these smugglers."

"Very true, good Sir. And besides, Sir, you, Vanbeest Brown, who call yourself a captain in his majesty's service, are no better or worse than a rascally mate of a smuggler!"

"Really, Sir," said Bertram, "you are an old gentleman, and acting under some strange delusion, otherwise I should be very angry with you."

"Old gentleman, Sir! strange delusion, Sir!" said Sir Robert, colouring with indignation. "I protest and declare Why, Sir, have you any papers or letters that can establish your pretended rank, and estate, and commission?"

"None at present, Sir," answered Bertram; "but in the return of a post or two"

"And how do you, Sir," continued the Baronet, "if you are a captain in his majesty's service, how do you chance to be travelling in Scotland without letters of introduction, credentials, baggage, or any thing belonging to your pretended rank, estate, and condition as I said before!"

"Sir," replied the prisoner, "I had the misfortune to be robbed of my clothes and baggage."

"Oho! then you are the gentleman who took a post-chaise

from-to Kippletringan, gave the boy the slip on the road, and sent two of your accomplices to beat the boy and bring away the baggage?"

"I was, Sir, in a carriage as you describe, was obliged to alight in the snow, and lost my way endeavouring to find the road to Kippletringan. The landlady of the inn will inform you that on my arrival there the next day, my first inquiries were after the boy."

"Then give me leave to ask where you spent the night - not in the snow, I presume? you do not suppose that will pass, or be taken, credited, and received?"'

"I beg leave," said Bertram, his recollection turning to the gipsy female, and to the promise he had given her, “I beg leave to decline answering that question."

"I thought as much," said Sir Robert. during that night in the ruins of Derncleugh? Derncleugh, Sir?"

"I have told you that I do not intend answering that question," replied Bertram.

"Well, Sir, then you will stand committed, Sir," said Sir Robert, "and be sent to prison, Sir, that's all, Sir. Have the goodness to look at these papers; are you the Vanbeest Brown who is there mentioned?"

It must be remarked that Glossin had shuffled among the papers some writings which really did belong to Bertram, and which had been found by the officers in the old vault where his portmanteau was ransacked.

"Some of these papers," said Bertram, looking over them, "are mine, and were in my portfolio when it was stolen from the post-chaise. They are memoranda of little value, and, I see, have been carefully selected as affording no evidence of my rank or character, which many of the other papers would have established fully. They are mingled with ship-accounts and other papers, belonging apparently to a person of the same name."

"And wilt thou attempt to persuade me, friend," demanded Sir Robert, "that there are two persons in this country, at the

same time, of thy very uncommon and awkwardly sounding name?"

"I really do not see, Sir, as there is an old Hazlewood and a young Hazlewood, why there should not be an old and a young Vanbeest Brown. And, to speak seriously, I was educated in Holland, and I know that this name, however uncouth it may sound in British ears"

Glossin, conscious that the prisoner was now about to enter upon dangerous ground, interfered, though the interruption was unnecessary, for the purpose of diverting the attention of Sir Robert Hazlewood, who was speechless and motionless with indignation at the presumptuous comparison implied in Bertram's last speech. In fact, the veins of his throat and of his temples swelled almost to bursting, and he sat with the indignant and disconcerted air of one who has received a mortal insult from a quarter, to which he holds it unmeet and indecorous to make any reply. While with a bent brow and an angry eye he was drawing in his breath slowly and majestically, and puffing it forth again with deep and solemn exertion, Glossin stepped in to his assist"I should think now, Sir Robert, with great submission, that this matter may be closed. One of the constables, besides the pregnant proof already produced, offers to make oath, that the sword of which the prisoner was this morning deprived (while using it, by the way, in resistance to a legal warrant) was a cutlass taken from him in a fray between the officers and smugglers, just previous to their attack upon Woodbourne. And yet," he added, "I would not have you form any rash construction upon that subject; perhaps the young man can explain how he came by that weapon."

ance.

"That question, Sir," said Bertram, "I shall also leave unanswered."

"There is yet another circumstance to be inquired into, always under Sir Robert's leave," insinuated Glossin. "This prisoner put into the hands of Mrs. Mac-Candlish of Kippletringan, a parcel containing a variety of gold coins and valuable articles of different kinds. Perhaps, Sir Robert, you might think

it right to ask, how he came by property of a description which seldom occurs?"

"You, Sir, Mr. Vanbeest Brown, Sir, you hear the question, Sir, which the gentleman asks you?"

"I have particular reasons for declining to answer that question," answered Bertram.

"Then I am afraid, Sir," said Glossin, who had brought matters to the point he desired to reach, "our duty must lay us under the necessity to sign a warrant of committal.”

"As you please, Sir," answered Bertram; "take care, however, what you do. Observe that I inform you that I am a captain in his majesty's regiment, and that I am just returned from India, and therefore cannot possibly be connected with any of those contraband traders you talk of; that my Lieutenant-Colonel is now at Nottingham, the Major, with the officers of my corps, at Kingston-upon-Thames. I offer before you both to submit to any degree of ignominy, if, within the return of the Kingston and Nottingham posts, I am not able to establish these points. Or you may write to the agent for the regiment, if you please, and".

"This is all very well, Sir," said Glossin, beginning to fear lest the firm expostulation of Bertram should make some impression on Sir Robert, who would almost have died of shame at committing such a solecism as sending a captain of horse to jail — "This is all very well, Sir; but is there no person nearer whom you could refer to?"

"There are only two persons in this country who know any thing of me," replied the prisoner. "One is a plain Liddesdale sheep-farmer, called Dinmont of Charlies-hope; but he knows nothing more of me than what I told him, and what I now tell you."

"Why, this is well enough, Sir Robert!" said Glossin. "I suppose he would bring forward this thick-skulled fellow to give his oath of credulity, Sir Robert, ha, ha, ha!"

"And what is your other witness, friend?" said the Baronet. "A gentleman whom I have some reluctance to mention, because of certain private reasons; but under whose command I

served some time in India, but who is too much a man of honour to refuse his testimony to my character as a soldier and gentleman."

"And who is this doughty witness, pray, Sir?" said Sir some half-pay quarter-master or sergeant, I sup

Robert,

pose?"

66

"Colonel Guy Mannering, late of the

as I told you, I have a troop."

Colonel Guy Mannering! thought Glossin, could have guessed this?

"Colonel Guy Mannering?" echoed the Baronet, considerably shaken in his opinion,-"My good Sir," - apart to Glossin, "the young man with a dreadfully plebeian name, and a good deal of modest assurance, has nevertheless something of the tone, and manners, and feeling of a gentleman, of one at least who has lived in good society they do give commissions very loosely, and 'carelessly, and inaccurately, in India - I think we had better pause till Colonel Mannering shall return; he is now, I believe, at Edinburgh."

"You are in every respect the best judge, Sir Robert," answered Glossin, "in every possible respect. I would only submit to you, that we are certainly hardly entitled to dismiss this man upon an assertion which cannot be satisfied by proof, and that we shall incur a heavy responsibility by detaining him in private custody, without committing him to a public jail. Undoubtedly, however, you are the best judge, Sir Robert; and I would only say, for my own part, that I very lately incurred severe censure by detaining a person in a place which I thought perfectly secure, and under the custody of the proper officers. The man made his escape, and I have no doubt my own character for attention and circumspection as a magistrate has in some degree suffered - I only hint this I will join in any step you, Sir Robert, think most advisable." But Mr. Glossin was well aware that such a hint was of power sufficient to decide the motions of his self-important, but not self-relying colleague. So that Sir Robert Hazlewood summed up the business in the following speech, which proceeded partly upon the supposition of the