‘Twas he
Gave heat unto the injury, which returned,
Like a petard ill lighted, into the bosom
Of him gave fire to’t. Yet I hope his hurt
Is not so dangerous but he may recover
Fair Maid of the Inn.
The prisoner was now presented before the two worshipful magistrates.
Glossin, partly from some compunctious visitings, and partly out of his
cautious resolution to suffer Sir Robert Hazlewood to be the ostensible
manager of the whole examination, looked down upon the table, and busied
himself with reading and arranging the papers respecting the business,
only now and then throwing in a skilful catchword as prompter, when he
saw the principal, and apparently most active, magistrate stand in need
of a hint. As for Sir Robert Hazlewood, he assumed on his part a happy
mixture of the austerity of the justice combined with the display of
personal dignity appertaining to the baronet of ancient family.
‘There, constables, let him stand there at the bottom of the table. Be so
good as look me in the face, sir, and raise your voice as you answer the
questions which I am going to put to you.’
‘May I beg, in the first place, to know, sir, who it is that takes the
trouble to interrogate me?’ said the prisoner; ‘for the honest gentlemen
who have brought me here have not been pleased to furnish any information
upon that point.’
‘And pray, sir,’ answered Sir Robert, ‘what has my name and quality to do
with the questions I am about to ask you?’
‘Nothing, perhaps, sir,’ replied Bertram; ‘but it may considerably
influence my disposition to answer them.’
‘Why, then, sir, you will please to be informed that you are in presence
of Sir Robert Hazlewood of Hazlewood, and another justice of peace for
this county--that’s all.’
As this intimation produced a less stunning effect upon the prisoner than
he had anticipated, Sir Robert proceeded in his investigation with an
increasing dislike to the object of it.
‘Is your name Vanbeest Brown, sir?’
‘It is,’ answered the prisoner.
‘So far well; and how are we to design you farther, sir?’ demanded the
Justice.
‘Captain in his Majesty’s---regiment of horse,’ answered Bertram.
The Baronet’s ears received this intimation with astonishment; but he was
refreshed in courage by an incredulous look from Glossin, and by hearing
him gently utter a sort of interjectional whistle, in a note of surprise
and contempt. ‘I believe, my friend,’ said Sir Robert, ‘we shall find for
you, before we part, a more humble title.’
‘If you do, sir,’ replied his prisoner, ‘I shall willingly submit to any
punishment which such an imposture shall be thought to deserve.’
‘Well, sir, we shall see,’ continued Sir Robert. ‘Do you know young
Hazlewood of Hazlewood?’
‘I never saw the gentleman who I am informed bears that name excepting
once, and I regret that it was under very unpleasant circumstances.’
‘You mean to acknowledge, then,’ said the Baronet, ‘that you inflicted
upon young Hazlewood of Hazlewood that wound which endangered his life,
considerably lacerated the clavicle of his right shoulder, and deposited,
as the family surgeon declares, several large drops or slugs in the
acromion process?’
‘Why, sir,’ replied Bertram, ‘I can only say I am equally ignorant of and
sorry for the extent of the damage which the young gentleman has
sustained. I met him in a narrow path, walking with two ladies and a
servant, and before I could either pass them or address them, this young
Hazlewood took his gun from his servant, presented it against my body,
and commanded me in the most haughty tone to stand back. I was neither
inclined to submit to his authority nor to leave him in possession of the
means to injure me, which he seemed disposed to use with such rashness. I
therefore closed with him for the purpose of disarming him; and, just as
I had nearly effected my purpose, the piece went off accidentally, and,
to my regret then and since, inflicted upon the young gentleman a severer
chastisement than I desired, though I am glad to understand it is like to
prove no more than his unprovoked folly deserved.’
‘And so, sir,’ said the Baronet, every feature swoln with offended
dignity, ‘you, sir, admit, sir, that it was your purpose, sir, and your
intention, sir, and the real jet and object of your assault, sir, to
disarm young Hazlewood of Hazlewood of his gun, sir, or his
fowling-piece, or his fuzee, or whatever you please to call it, sir, upon
the king’s highway, sir? I think this will do, my worthy neighbour! I
think he should stand committed?’
‘You are by far the best judge, Sir Robert,’ said Glossin, in his most
insinuating tone; ‘but if I might presume to hint, there was something
about these smugglers.’
‘Very true, good sir. And besides, sir, you, Vanbeest Brown, who call
yourself a captain in his Majesty’s service, are no better or worse than
a rascally mate of a smuggler!’
‘Really, sir,’ said Bertram, ‘you are an old gentleman, and acting under
some strange delusion, otherwise I should be very angry with you.’
‘Old gentleman, sir! strange delusion, sir!’ said Sir Robert, colouring
with indignation. ‘I protest and declare--Why, sir, have you any papers
or letters that can establish your pretended rank and estate and
commission?’
‘None at present, sir,’ answered Bertram; ‘but in the return of a post or
two---’
‘And how do you, sir,’ continued the Baronet, ‘if you are a captain in
his Majesty’s service--how do you chance to be travelling in Scotland
without letters of introduction, credentials, baggage, or anything
belonging to your pretended rank, estate, and condition, as I said
before?’
‘Sir,’ replied the prisoner, ‘I had the misfortune to be robbed of my
clothes and baggage.’
‘Oho! then you are the gentleman who took a post-chaise from---to
Kippletringan, gave the boy the slip on the road, and sent two of your
accomplices to beat the boy and bring away the baggage?’
‘I was, sir, in a carriage, as you describe, was obliged to alight in the
snow, and lost my way endeavouring to find the road to Kippletringan. The
landlady of the inn will inform you that on my arrival there the next
day, my first inquiries were after the boy.’
‘Then give me leave to ask where you spent the night, not in the snow, I
presume? You do not suppose that will pass, or be taken, credited, and
received?’
‘I beg leave,’ said Bertram, his recollection turning to the gipsy female
and to the promise he had given her--‘I beg leave to decline answering
that question.’
‘I thought as much,’ said Sir Robert. ‘Were you not during that night in
the ruins of Derncleugh?--in the ruins of Derncleugh, sir?’
‘I have told you that I do not intend answering that question,’ replied
Bertram.
‘Well, sir, then you will stand committed, sir,’ said Sir Robert, ‘and be
sent to prison, sir, that’s all, sir. Have the goodness to look at these
papers; are you the Vanbeest Brown who is there mentioned?’
It must be remarked that Glossin had shuffled among the papers some
writings which really did belong to Bertram, and which had been found 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,’ insinuated Glossin. ‘This prisoner put into the hands of
Mrs. MacCandlish of Kippletringan a parcel containing a variety of gold
coins and valuable articles of different kinds. Perhaps, Sir Robert, you
might think it right to ask how he came by property of a description
which seldom occurs?’
‘You, sir, Mr. Vanbeest Brown, sir, you hear the question, sir, which the
gentleman asks you?’
‘I have particular reasons for declining to answer that question,’
answered Bertram.
‘Then I am afraid, sir,’ said Glossin, who had brought matters to the
point he desired to reach, ‘our duty must lay us under the necessity to
sign a warrant of committal.’
‘As you please, sir,’ answered Bertram; ‘take care, however, what you do.
Observe that I inform you that I am a captain in his
Majesty’s---regiment, and that I am just returned from India, and
therefore cannot possibly be connected with any of those contraband
traders you talk of; that my lieutenant-colonel is now at Nottingham, the
major, with the officers of my corps, at Kingston-upon-Thames. I offer
before you both to submit to any degree of ignominy if, within the return
of the Kingston and Nottingham posts, I am not able to establish these
points. Or you may write to the agent for the regiment if you please,
and---’
‘This is all very well, sir,’ said Glossin, beginning to fear lest the
firm expostulation of Bertram should make some impression on Sir Robert,
who would almost have died of shame at committing such a solecism as
sending a captain of horse to jail--‘this is all very well, sir; but is
there no person nearer whom you could refer to?’
‘There are only two persons in this country who know anything of me,’
replied the prisoner. ‘One is a plain Liddesdale sheep-farmer, called
Dinmont of Charlie’s Hope; but he knows nothing more of me than what I
told him, and what I now tell you.’
‘Why, this is well enough, Sir Robert!’ said Glossin. ‘I suppose he would
bring forward this thick-skulled fellow to give his oath of credulity,
Sir Robert, ha, ha, ha!’
‘And what is your other witness, friend?’ said the Baronet.
‘A gentleman whom I have some reluctance to mention because of certain
private reasons, but under whose command I served some time in India, and
who is too much a man of honour to refuse his testimony to my character
as a soldier and gentleman.’
‘And who is this doughty witness, pray, sir?’ said Sir Robert,’ some
half-pay quartermaster or sergeant, I suppose?’
‘Colonel Guy Mannering, late of the---regiment, in which, as I told you,
I have a troop.’
‘Colonel Guy Mannering!’ thought Glossin, ‘who the devil could have
guessed this?’
‘Colonel Guy Mannering?’ echoed the Baronet, considerably shaken in his
opinion. ‘My good sir,’ apart to Glossin, ‘the young man with a
dreadfully plebeian name and a good deal of modest assurance has
nevertheless something of the tone and manners and feeling of a
gentleman, of one at least who has lived in good society; they do give
commissions very loosely and carelessly and inaccurately in India. I
think we had better pause till Colonel Mannering shall return; he is now,
I believe, at Edinburgh.’
‘You are in every respect the best judge, Sir Robert,’ answered
Glossin--‘in every possible respect. I would only submit to you that we
are certainly hardly entitled to dismiss this man upon an assertion which
cannot be satisfied by proof, and that we shall incur a heavy
responsibility by detaining him in private custody, without committing
him to a public jail. Undoubtedly, however, you are the best judge, Sir
Robert; and I would only say, for my own part, that I very lately
incurred severe censure by detaining a person in a place which I thought
perfectly secure, and under the custody of the proper officers. The man
made his escape, and I have no doubt my own character for attention and
circumspection as a magistrate has in some degree suffered. I only hint
this: I will join in any step you, Sir Robert, think most advisable.’ But
Mr. Glossin was well aware that such a hint was of power sufficient to
decide the motions of his self-important but not self-relying colleague.
So that Sir Robert Hazlewood summed up the business in the following
speech, which proceeded partly upon the supposition of the prisoner being
really a gentleman, and partly upon the opposite belief that he was a
villain and an assassin:--
‘Sir, Mr. Vanbeest Brown--I would call you Captain Brown if there was the
least reason or cause or grounds to suppose that you are a captain, or
had a troop in the very respectable corps you mention, or indeed in any
other corps in his Majesty’s service, as to which circumstance I beg to
be understood to give no positive, settled, or unalterable judgment,
declaration, or opinion,--I say, therefore, sir, Mr. Brown, we have
determined, considering the unpleasant predicament in which you now
stand, having been robbed, as you say, an assertion as to which I suspend
my opinion, and being possessed of much and valuable treasure, and of a
brass-handled cutlass besides, as to your obtaining which you will favour
us with no explanation,--I say, sir, we have determined and resolved and
made up our minds to commit you to jail, or rather to assign you an
apartment therein, in order that you may be forthcoming upon Colonel
Mannering’s return from Edinburgh.’
‘With humble submission, Sir Robert,’ said Glossin, ‘may I inquire if it
is your purpose to send this young gentleman to the county jail? For if
that were not your settled intention, I would take the liberty to hint
that there would be less hardship in sending him to the bridewell at
Portanferry, where he can be secured without public exposure, a
circumstance which, on the mere chance of his story being really true, is
much to be avoided.’
‘Why, there is a guard of soldiers at Portanferry, to be sure, for
protection of the goods in the custom-house; and upon the whole,
considering everything, and that the place is comfortable for such a
place, I say, all things considered, we will commit this person, I would
rather say authorise him to be detained, in the workhouse at
Portanferry.’
The warrant was made out accordingly, and Bertram was informed he was
next morning to be removed to his place of confinement, as Sir Robert had
determined he should not be taken there under cloud of night, for fear of
rescue. He was during the interval to be detained at Hazlewood House.
‘It cannot be so hard as my imprisonment by the looties in India,’ he
thought; ‘nor can it last so long. But the deuce take the old formal
dunderhead, and his more sly associate, who speaks always under his
breath; they cannot understand a plain man’s story when it is told them.’
In the meanwhile Glossin took leave of the Baronet with a thousand
respectful bows and cringing apologies for not accepting his invitation
to dinner, and venturing to hope he might be pardoned in paying his
respects to him, Lady Hazlewood, and young Mr. Hazlewood on some future
occasion.
‘Certainly, sir,’ said the Baronet, very graciously. ‘I hope our family
was never at any time deficient in civility to our neighbours; and when I
ride that way, good Mr. Glossin, I will convince you of this by calling
at your house as familiarly as is consistent--that is, as can be hoped or
expected.’
‘And now,’ said Glossin to himself, ‘to find Dirk Hatteraick and his
people, to get the guard sent off from the custom-house; and then for the
grand cast of the dice. Everything must depend upon speed. How lucky that
Mannering has betaken himself to Edinburgh! His knowledge of this young
fellow is a most perilous addition to my dangers.’ Here he suffered his
horse to slacken his pace. ‘What if I should try to compound with the
heir? It’s likely he might be brought to pay a round sum for restitution,
and I could give up Hatteraick. But no, no, no! there were too many eyes
on me--Hatteraick himself, and the gipsy sailor, and that old hag. No,
no! I must stick to my original plan.’ And with that he struck his spurs
against his horse’s flanks, and rode forward at a hard trot to put his
machines in motion.