Dinmont had deposited his bulky person, 'thy
cares are confined to the narrow round of a healthy and thriving
occupation! Thou canst lay them aside at pleasure, and enjoy the deep
repose of body and mind which wholesome labour has prepared for thee!'

At this moment his reflections were broken by little Wasp, who,
attempting to spring up against the window, began to yelp and bark most
furiously. The sounds reached Dinmont's ears, but without dissipating the
illusion which had transported him from this wretched apartment to the
free air of his own green hills. 'Hoy, Yarrow, man! far yaud, far yaud!'
he muttered between his teeth, imagining, doubtless, that he was calling
to his sheep-dog, and hounding him in shepherds' phrase against some
intruders on the grazing. The continued barking of the terrier within was
answered by the angry challenge of the mastiff in the courtyard, which
had for a long time been silent, excepting only an occasional short and
deep note, uttered when the moon shone suddenly from among the clouds.
Now his clamour was continued and furious, and seemed to be excited by
some disturbance distinct from the barking of Wasp, which had first given
him the alarm, and which, with much trouble, his master had contrived to
still into an angry note of low growling.

At last Bertram, whose attention was now fully awakened, conceived that
he saw a boat upon the sea, and heard in good earnest the sound of oars
and of human voices mingling with the dash of the billows. 'Some
benighted fishermen,' he thought, 'or perhaps some of the desperate
traders from the Isle of Man. They are very hardy, however, to approach
so near to the custom-house, where there must be sentinels. It is a large
boat, like a long-boat, and full of people; perhaps it belongs to the
revenue service.' Bertram was confirmed in this last opinion by observing
that the boat made for a little quay which ran into the sea behind the
custom-house, and, jumping ashore one after another, the crew, to the
number of twenty hands, glided secretly up a small lane which divided the
custom-house from the bridewell, and disappeared from his sight, leaving
only two persons to take care of the boat.

The dash of these men's oars at first, and latterly the suppressed sounds
of their voices, had excited the wrath of the wakeful sentinel in the
courtyard, who now exalted his deep voice into such a horrid and
continuous din that it awakened his brute master, as sava