will be out. O the devil take all ballads and ballad-makers and
ballad-singers! and that d--d jade too, to set up her pipe!'--'You
will have time enough for this on some other occasion,' he said
aloud; 'at present' (for now he saw his emissary with two or three
men coming up the bank)--'at present we must have some more
serious conversation together.'

'How do you mean, sir?' said Bertram, turning short upon him, and
not liking the tone which he made use of.

'Why, sir, as to that--I believe your name is Brown?' said
Glossin. 'And what of that, sir?'

Glossin looked over his shoulder to see how near his party had
approached; they were coming fast on. 'Vanbeest Brown? if I
mistake not.'

'And what of that, sir?' said Bertram, with increasing
astonishment and displeasure.

'Why, in that case,' said Glossin, observing his friends had now
got upon the level space close beside them--'in that case you are
my prisoner in the king's name!' At the same time he stretched his
hand towards Bertram's collar, while two of the men who had come
up seized upon his arms; he shook himself, however, free of their
grasp by a violent effort, in which he pitched the most
pertinacious down the bank, and, drawing his cutlass, stood on the
defensive, while those who had felt his strength recoiled from his
presence and gazed at a safe distance. 'Observe,' he called out at
the same time, 'that I have no purpose to resist legal authority;