ge. You believe yourself to
be of the lowest rank; you are of the highest. You believe yourself a
player; you are a senator. You believe yourself poor; you are wealthy.
You believe yourself to be of no account; you are important. Awake, my
lord!"

Gwynplaine, in a low voice, in which a tremor of fear was to be
distinguished, murmured,--

"What does it all mean?"

"It means, my lord," said the fat man, "that I am called Barkilphedro;
that I am an officer of the Admiralty; that this waif, the flask of
Hardquanonne, was found on the beach, and was brought to be unsealed by
me, according to the duty and prerogative of my office; that I opened it
in the presence of two sworn jurors of the Jetsam Office, both members
of Parliament, William Brathwait, for the city of Bath, and Thomas
Jervois, for Southampton; that the two jurors deciphered and attested
the contents of the flask, and signed the necessary affidavit conjointly
with me; that I made my report to her Majesty, and by order of the queen
all necessary and legal formalities were carried out with the discretion
necessary in a matter so delicate; that the last form, the
confrontation, has just been carried out; that you have L40,000 a year;
that you are a peer of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, a legislator
and a judge, a supreme judge, a sovereign legislator, dressed in purple
and ermine, equal to princes, like unto emperors; that you have on your
brow the coronet of a peer, and that you are about to wed a duchess, the
daughter of a king."

Under this transfiguration, overwhelming him like a series of
thunderbolts, Gwynplaine fainted.

CHAPTER II.

THE WAIF KNOWS ITS OWN COURSE.

All this had occurred owing to the circumstance of a soldier having
found a bottle on the beach. We will relate the facts. In all facts
there are wheels within wheels.

One day one of the four gunners composing the garrison of Castle Calshor
picked up on the sand at low water a flask covered with wicker, which
had been cast up by the tide. This flask, covered with mould, was corked
by a tarred bung. The soldier carried the waif to the colonel of the
castle, and the colonel sent it to the High Admiral of England. The
Admiral meant the Admiralty; with waifs, the Admiralty meant
Barkilphedro.

Barkilphedro, having uncorked and emptied the bottle, carried it to the
queen. The queen immediately took the matter into consideration.

Two weighty counsellors were instructed and