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334 all such subjects of speculation. Upon farther interrogation he added, that his aunt had always said that Harry Bertram carried that around his neck which would ascertain his birth. It was a spell, she said, that an Oxford scholar had made for 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