Young Hazlewood, who knew his father's foible answered, that the cause of his surprise did not lie where Sir Robert apprehended, but that he only wondered they should think of attacking a house where there were so many servants, and 'where a signal to the neighbouring tenants could call in such strong assistance; and added that he doubted much whether the reputation of the family would not in some degree suffer from calling soldiers from their duty at the Custom-house, to protect them, as if they were not sufficiently strong to defend themselves upon any ordinary occasion. He even hinted, that in case their house's enemies should observe that this precaution had been taken unnecessarily, there would be no end of their sarcasms. Sir Robert Hazlewood was rather puzzled at this intimation, for, like most dull men, he heartily hated and feared ridicule. He gathered himself up, and looked with a sort of pompous embarrassment, as if he wished to be thought to despise the opinion of the public, which in reality he dreaded. "I really should have thought," he said, "that the injury which had already been aimed at my house in your person, being the next heir and representative of the Hazlewood family, failing me--I should have thought and believed, I say, that this would have justified me sufficiently in the eyes of the most respectable and the greater part of the people, for taking such precautions as are calculated to prevent and impede a repetition of outrage.--" "Really, sir," said Charles, "I must remind you of what I have often said before, that I am positive the discharge of the piece was accidental." "Sir, it was not accidental," said his father angrily but you will be wiser than your elders." "Really, sir," replied Hazlewood, "in what so intimately concerns myself--" "Sir, it does not concern you but in a very secondary degree-- that is, it does not concern you, as a giddy young fellow, who takes pleasure in contradicting his father; but it concerns the country, sir; and the county, sir; and the public, sir; and the kingdom of Scotland, in so far as the interest of the Hazlewood family, sir, is committed, and interested, and put in peril, in, by, and through you, sir. And the fellow is in safe custody, and Mr. Glossin thinks--" "Mr. Glossin, sir?" "Yes, sir, the gentleman who has purchased Ellangowan--you know who I mean, I suppose?" "Yes, sir," answered the young man, "but I should hardly have expected to hear you quote such authority. Why, this fellow--all the world knows him to be sordid, mean, tricking; and I suspect him to be worse. And you yourself, my dear sir, when did you call such a person a gentleman in your life before?"