-an aulic dignitary. It was an ancient
Carlovingian office--the _auricularius_ of the old palatine deeds. He
who whispers to the emperor.

William, Baron Cowper, Chancellor of England, whom the queen believed in
because he was short-sighted like herself, or even more so, had
committed to writing a memorandum commencing thus: "Two birds were
subject to Solomon--a lapwing, the hudbud, who could speak all
languages; and an eagle, the simourganka, who covered with the shadow of
his wings a caravan of twenty thousand men. Thus, under another form,
Providence," etc. The Lord Chancellor proved the fact that the heir to a
peerage had been carried off, mutilated, and then restored. He did not
blame James II., who was, after all, the queen's father. He even went so
far as to justify him. First, there are ancient monarchical maxims. _E
senioratu eripimus. In roturagio cadat_. Secondly, there is a royal
right of mutilation. Chamberlayne asserts the fact.[19] _Corpora et bona
nostrorum subjectorum nostra sunt_, said James I., of glorious and
learned memory. The eyes of dukes of the blood royal have been plucked
out for the good of the kingdom. Certain princes, too near to the
throne, have been conveniently stifled between mattresses, the cause of
death being given out as apoplexy. Now to stifle is worse than to
mutilate. The King of Tunis tore out the eyes of his father, Muley
Assem, and his ambassadors have not been the less favourably received by
the emperor. Hence the king may order the suppression of a limb like the
suppression of a state, etc. It is legal. But one law does not destroy
another. "If a drowned man is cast up by the water, and is not dead, it
is an act of God readjusting one of the king. If the heir be found, let
the coronet be given back to him. Thus was it done for Lord Alla, King
of Northumberland, who was also a mountebank. Thus should be done to
Gwynplaine, who is also a king, seeing that he is a peer. The lowness of
the occupation which he has been obliged to follow, under constraint of
superior power, does not tarnish the blazon: as in the case of
Abdolmumen, who was a king, although he had been a gardener; that of
Joseph, who was a saint, although he had been a carpenter; that of
Apollo, who was a god, although he had been a shepherd."

In short, the learned chancellor concluded by advising the
reinstatement, in all his estates and dignities, of Lord Fermain
Clancharlie, miscalled Gwynplaine, on the sole c