olliers in Sanquhar had been in't thegither. But it'll no
win through my muckle coat.' So saying, he flung himself upon the frail
bed with a force that made all its timbers crack, and in a few moments
gave audible signal that he was fast asleep. Bertram slipped off his coat
and boots and occupied the other dormitory. The strangeness of his
destiny, and the mysteries which appeared to thicken around him, while he
seemed alike to be persecuted and protected by secret enemies and
friends, arising out of a class of people with whom he had no previous
connexion, for some time occupied his thoughts. Fatigue, however,
gradually composed his mind, and in a short time he was as fast asleep as
his companion. And in this comfortable state of oblivion we must leave
them until we acquaint the reader with some other circumstances which
occurred about the same period.

CHAPTER XVII
Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting?
Speak, I charge you.

Macbeth.

Upon the evening of the day when Bertram's examination had taken place,
Colonel Mannering arrived at Woodbourne from Edinburgh. He found his
family in their usual state, which probably, so far as Julia was
concerned, would not have been the case had she learned the news of
Bertram's arrest. But as, during the Colonel's absence, the two young
ladies lived much retired, this circumstance fortunately had not reached
Woodbourne. A letter had already made Miss Bertram acquainted with the
downfall of the expectations which had been formed upon the bequest of
her kinswoman. Whatever hopes that news might have dispelled, the
disappointment did not prevent her from joining her friend in affording a
cheerful reception to the Colonel, to whom she thus endeavoured to
express the deep sense she entertained of his paternal kindness. She
touched on her regret that at such a season of the year he should have
made, upon her account, a journey so fruitless.

'That it was fruitless to you, my dear,' said the Colonel, 'I do most
deeply lament; but for my own share, I have made some valuable
acquaintances, and have spent the time I have been absent in Edinburgh
with peculiar satisfaction; so that on that score there is nothing to be
regretted. Even our friend the Dominie is returned thrice the man he was,
from having sharpened his wits in controversy with the geniuses