that Harry Bertram carried that round his neck which would
ascertain his birth. It was a spell, she said, that an Oxford
scholar had made for him, and she possessed the smugglers with an
opinion that to deprive him of it would occasion the loss of the
vessel.

Bertram here produced a small velvet bag, which he said he had
worn round his neck from his earliest infancy, and which he had
preserved, first from superstitious reverence, and latterly from
the hope that it might serve one day to aid in the discovery of
his birth. The bag, being opened, was found to contain a blue silk
case, from which was drawn a scheme of nativity. Upon inspecting
this paper, Colonel Mannering instantly admitted it was his own
composition; and afforded the strongest and most satisfactory
evidence that the possessor of it must necessarily be the young
heir of Ellangowan, by avowing his having first appeared in that
country in the character of an astrologer.

'And now,' said Pleydell, 'make out warrants of commitment for
Hatteraick and Glossin until liberated in due course of law. Yet,'
he said, 'I am sorry for Glossin.'

'Now, I think,' said Mannering, 'he's incomparably the least
deserving of pity of the two. The other's a bold fellow, though as
hard as flint.'

'Very natural, Colonel,' said the Advocate, 'that you should be
interested in the ruffian and I in the knave, that's all
professional taste; but I can tell you Glossin would have been a
pretty lawyer had he not had such a turn for the roguish part of