BOOK V.
THE SEA AND FATE ARE MOVED BY THE SAME BREATH.
CHAPTER I.
THE DURABILITY OF FRAGILE THINGS.
DESTINY sometimes proffers us a glass of madness to drink. A hand is thrust out of the mist, and suddenly hands us the mysterious cup containing latent intoxication.
Gwynplaine did not understand. He looked behind him to see who it was that had been thus addressed. A sound may be too sharp to be perceptible to the ear; an emotion too acute conveys no meaning to the mind. There is a limit to comprehension as well as to hearing.
The wapentake and the justice of the quorum approached Gwynplaine, and took him by the arms. He felt himself placed in the chair which the sheriff had just vacated. He allowed this to be done, without demanding any explanation. When Gwynplaine was seated, the justice of the quorum and the wapentake retired a few steps, and stood upright and motionless, behind his chair. Then the sheriff placed his bunch of roses on the stone table, put on the spectacles which the secretary gave him, drew from the bundles of papers which covered the table a sheet of parchment, yellow,
