of his identity; and
add, what his modesty may have forgotten, that he was distinguished as a
young man of talent and spirit.'

'So much the better, my dear sir,' said Mr. Pleydell; 'but that is to
general character. Mr. Brown must tell us where he was born.'

'In Scotland, I believe, but the place uncertain.'

'Where educated?'

'In Holland, certainly.'

'Do you remember nothing of your early life before you left Scotland?'

'Very imperfectly; yet I have a strong idea, perhaps more deeply
impressed upon me by subsequent hard usage, that I was during my
childhood the object of much solicitude and affection. I have an
indistinct remembrance of a good-looking man whom I used to call papa,
and of a lady who was infirm in health, and who, I think, must have been
my mother; but it is an imperfect and confused recollection. I remember
too a tall, thin, kind-tempered man in black, who used to teach me my
letters and walk out with me; and I think the very last time--'

Here the Dominie could contain no longer. While every succeeding word
served to prove that the child of his benefactor stood before him, he had
struggled with the utmost difficulty to suppress his emotions; but when
the juvenile recollections of Bertram turned towards his tutor and his
precepts he was compelled to give way to his feelings. He rose hastily
from his chair, and with clasped hands, trembling limbs, and streaming
eyes, called out aloud, 'Harry Bertram! look at me; was I not the man?'

'Yes!' said Bertram, starting from his seat as if a sudden light had
burst in upon his mind; 'yes; that was my name! And that is the voice and
the figure of my kind old master!'

The Dominie threw himself into his arms, pressed him a thousand times to
his bosom in convulsions of transport which shook his whole frame, sobbed
hysterically, and at length, in the emphatic language of Scripture,
lifted up his voice and wept aloud. Colonel Mannering had recourse to his
handkerchief; Pleydell made wry faces, and wiped the glasses of his
spectacles; and honest Dinmont, after two loud blubbering explosions,
exclaimed, 'Deil's in the man! he's garr'd me do that I haena done since
my auld mither died.'

'Come, come,' said the Counsellor at last, 'silence in the court. We have
a clever party to contend with; we must lose no time in gathering our
information; for anything I know there may be something to be done before
daybreak.'

'I will order a horse to be saddled if