The Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869)/Chapter 75
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, green, torn, and jagged in many places, which seemed to have been folded in very small folds. One side of the sheet was covered with writing; and standing under the light of the lamp, the sheriff held the paper close to his eyes, and in his most solemn tone read as follows:
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
"On this, the twenty-ninth of January, one thousand six hundred and ninetieth year of our Lord, there was wickedly deserted on the desert coast of Portland, with the intention of allowing him to perish of hunger, of cold, and of solitude, a child ten years old. This child was sold at the age of two years, by order of his most gracious Majesty, King James the Second.
"This child was Lord Fermain Clancharlie, the only legitimate son of Lord Linnæus Clancharlie, Baron Clancharlie and Hunkerville, Marquis of Corleone in Sicily, a Peer of England, and of Ann Bradshaw, his wife, both deceased. This child was the inheritor of the estates and titles of his father. For this reason he was sold, mutilated, disfigured, and put out of the way by desire of his most gracious Majesty.
"That child was brought up, and trained to be a mountebank at markets and fairs. He was sold at the age of two, after the death of the peer, his father, and ten pounds sterling were given to the king as his purchase-money, as well as for divers concessions, tolerations, and immunities, etc.
"Lord Fermain Clancharlie, at the age of two years, was bought by me, the undersigned, who write these lines, and mutilated and disfigured by a Fleming of Flanders, called Hardquanonne, who alone is acquainted with the secrets and modes of treatment of Doctor Conquest. The child was intended by us to be a laughing mask,—masca ridens.
"With this intention Hardquanonne performed on him the operation, Bucca fissa usque ad aures, which stamps an everlasting laugh upon the face. The child, by means known only to Hardquanonne, was put to sleep and made insensible during its performance, knowing nothing of the operation which he underwent. He does not know that he is Lord Clancharlie. He answers to the name of Gwynplaine. This fact is the result of his youth, and the slight powers of memory he could have had when he was bought and sold, being then barely two years of age.
"Hardquanonne is the only person who knows how to perform the operation Bucca fissa, and the said child is the only living subject upon which it has been attempted. The operation is so unique and singular that though after long years this child will be an old man instead of a child, and his black locks will have turned white, he would be immediately recognized by Hardquanonne.
"At the time of this writing, Hardquanonne, who has perfect knowledge of all the facts, and participated as principal therein, is detained in the prisons of his Highness the Prince of Orange, commonly called King William III. Hardquanonne was apprehended and seized on the charge of being one of a band of Comprachicos or Cheylas. He is imprisoned in the jail at Chatham.
"It was in Switzerland, near the Lake of Geneva, between Lausanne and Vevay, in the very house in which his father and mother died, that this child was, in compliance with the orders of the king, sold and given up by the last servant of the deceased Lord Linnæus, which servant died soon after his master, so this secret is now unknown to any one on earth, excepting Hardquanonne, who is in the dungeon of Chatham, and ourselves, now about to perish.
"We, the undersigned, brought up and kept, for eight years, for professional purposes, the little lord purchased by us of the king. Now, fleeing from England to escape Hardquanonne's fate, our fear of the penal indictments, prohibitions, and fulminations of Parliament induced us to desert, at night-fall, on the coast of Portland, the said child Gwynplaine, who is really Lord Fermain Clancharlie.
"Now, we have sworn secrecy to the king, but not to God. To-night, at sea, overtaken by a violent tempest by the will of Providence, full of despair and distress, kneeling before Him who could save our lives, and may, perhaps, be willing to save our souls, having nothing more to hope from men, but everything to fear from God, having for our only anchor and resource repentance of our bad actions, resigned to death, and content, if divine justice be satisfied, humble, penitent, and beating our breasts, we make this confession, and confide and deliver it to the furious ocean to use as it may, according to the will of God. And may the Holy Virgin aid us. Amen. We herewith append our signatures,"
The sheriff here paused in his reading, to remark, "Here are the signatures. All in different handwritings." Then resumed:—
"Doctor Gerhadus Geestemunde. Asuncion. [A cross, and at the side of it] Barbara Fermoy, from Tyrrif Island, in the Hebrides. Gaizdorra, Captal. Giangirate. Jacques Quartourze, alias the Narbonnais. Luc-Pierre Capgaroupe, from the galleys of Mahon."
The sheriff, after a short pause, continued: "Here is a note written in the same hand as the text and the first signature." And he read:—
"Of the three men comprising the crew, the skipper having been swept off by a wave, there remain but two, who sign here. Galdeazun. Ave Maria, thief."
The sheriff, interspersing his reading with his own remarks continued: "At the bottom of the sheet is written,—
"'At sea, on board of the "Matutina," Biscay hooker, from the Gulf de Pasages.'
"This sheet," added the sheriff, "is a legal document, bearing the mark of King James the Second. On the margin of the document and in the same handwriting, there is this note:—
"'The present declaration is written by us on the back of the royal order, which was given us as our receipt when we bought the child. Turn the leaf and the order will be seen.'"
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