or 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 the profession.'

'Scandal would say,' observed Mannering, 'he might not be the worse
lawyer for that.'

'Scandal would tell a lie, then,' replied Pleydell, 'as she usually does.
Law's like laudanum: it's much more easy to use it as a quack does than
to learn to apply it like a physician.'

CHAPTER XXVIII
Unfit to live or die--O marble heart!
After him, fellows, drag him to the block.

Measure for Measure.

The jail at the county town of the shire of----was one of those
old-fashioned dungeons which disgraced Scotland until of late years. When
the prisoners and their guard arrived there, Hatteraick, whose violence
and strength were well known, was secured in what was called the
condemned ward. This was a large apartment near the top of the prison. A
round bar of iron,[Footnote: See Note 9.] about the thickness of a man's
arm above the elbow, crossed the apartment horizontally at the height of
about six inches from the floor; and its extremities were strongly built
into the wall at either end. Hatteraick's ankles were secured within
s