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.

"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 destined 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 old.

"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 essayed.

"The operation is so unique and singular that though after long years
this child should have come to be an old man instead of a child, and his
black locks should have turned white, he would be immediately recognized
by Hardquanonne.

"At the time that I am writing this, 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 as
being one of the band of Comprachicos or Cheylas. He is imprisoned in
the dungeon of Chatham.

"It was in Switzerland, near the Lake of Geneva, between Lausanne and
Vevey, in the very house in which his father and mother died, that the
child was, in obedience with the orders of the king, sold and given up
by the last servant of the deceased Lord Linnaeus, which servant died
soon after his master, so that this secr