'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.