ld it was a sort
of guardian of the things of the sea. All the closed and sealed-up
vessels, bottles, flasks, jars, thrown upon the English coast by the
tide were brought to him. He alone had the right to open them; he was
first in the secrets of their contents; he put them in order, and
ticketed them with his signature. The expression "_loger un papier au
greffe_," still used in the Channel Islands, is thence derived. However,
one precaution was certainly taken. Not one of these bottles could be
unsealed except in the presence of two jurors of the Admiralty sworn to
secrecy, who signed, conjointly with the holder of the jetsam office,
the official report of the opening. But these jurors being held to
secrecy, there resulted for Barkilphedro a certain discretionary
latitude; it depended upon him, to a certain extent, to suppress a fact
or bring it to light.

These fragile floating messages were far from being what Barkilphedro
had told Josiana, rare and insignificant. Some times they reached land
with little delay; at others, after many years. That depended on the
winds and the currents. The fashion of casting bottles on the surface of
the sea has somewhat passed away, like that of vowing offerings, but in
those religious times, those who were about to die were glad thus to
send their last thought to God and to men, and at times these messages
from the sea were plentiful at the Admiralty. A parchment preserved in
the hall at Audlyene (ancient spelling), with notes by the Earl of
Suffolk, Grand Treasurer of England under James I., bears witness that
in the one year, 1615, fifty-two flasks, bladders, and tarred vessels,
containing mention of sinking ships, were brought and registered in the
records of the Lord High Admiral.

Court appointments are the drop of oil in the widow's cruse, they ever
increase. Thus it is that the porter has become chancellor, and the
groom, constable. The special officer charged with the appointment
desired and obtained by Barkilphedro was invariably a confidential man.
Elizabeth had wished that it should be so. At court, to speak of
confidence is to speak of intrigue, and to speak of intrigue is to speak
of advancement. This functionary had come to be a personage of some
consideration. He was a clerk, and ranked directly after the two grooms
of the almonry. He had the right of entrance into the palace, but we
must add, what was called the humble entrance--_humilis introitus_--and
even into t