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GUY MANNERING.
335

ver; he'll be set down to High-Jinks by this time—(for we and our retainers, Colonel, are exceedingly regular in our irregularities—tell him to come here instantly, and I will pay his forfeits."

"He won't appear in character, will he?"

"Ah! no more of that, Hal! an thou lovest me.—But we must have some news from the land of Egypt, if possible. O, if I had but hold of the slightest thread of this complicated skean, you should see how I should unravel it!—I would work the truth out of your Bohemian, as the French call them, better than a Monitoire, or a Plainte de Tournelle—I know how to manage a refractory witness."

While Mr Pleydell was thus vaunting his knowledge of his profession, the waiter re-entered with Mr Driver, his mouth still greasy with mutton pies, and the froth of the last draught of twopenny yet unsubsided on his upper lip, with such speed had he obeyed the commands of his prin-