, who is without protection and without defence. You have before you
a poor mountebank."

"I have before me," said the sheriff, "Lord Fermain Clancharlie, Baron
Clancharlie and Hunkerville, Marquis of Corleone in Sicily, and a peer
of England."

Rising, and offering his chair to Gwynplaine, the sheriff added,--

"My lord, will your lordship deign to seat yourself?"

BOOK THE FIFTH.

_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 in
which is contained the latent intoxication.

Gwynplaine did not understand.

He looked behind him to see who it was who had been 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 let it be done, without seeking an
explanation.

When Gwynplaine was seated, the justice of the quorum and the wapentake
retired a few steps, and stood upright and motionless, behind the seat.

Then the sheriff placed his bunch of roses on the stone table, put on
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 places, which seemed to have been folded in very small folds,
and of which one side was covered with writing; standing under the light
of the lamp, he held the sheet 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.

"This present day, the twenty-ninth of January, one thousand six hundred
and ninetieth year of our Lord.

"Has been 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.

"That child was sold at the age of two years, by order of his most
gracious Majesty, King James the Second.

"That child is Lord Fermain Clancharlie, the only legitimate son of Lord
Linnaeus Clancharlie, Baron Clancharlie and Hunkerville, Marquis of
Corleone in Sicily, a peer of England, and of Ann Bradshaw, his wife,
both deceased. That child is