ound 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 assistance. '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.'

'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,' insinuate