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Rh Dinmont of Charlies-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! 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 a gentleman."

"And who is this doughty witness, pray, sir?—some half-pay quarter-master or Serjeant, I suppose?"

"Colonel Guy Mannering, late of the regiment, in which, as I told you, I have a troop."

"Colonel Guy Mannering!" thought